Campus Task Force Criticizes Pepper Spraying of Protesters

Name: Cassie Chen

Posting #3

Topic: Education

Title: Campus Task Force Criticizes Pepper Spraying of Protesters

Author: Jennifer Medina

Publication: The New York Times

Publication Date: 4/11/2012

On November 18, 2011, a protest was held in Los Angeles at the University of California, Davis as part of the Occupy movement. During this (nonviolent)protest, police officers of the University used pepper spray on protesters as a way to get them to leave. The campus task force has just recently on Wednesday released a 190 page paper concluding that the pepper spray incident shouldn't have happened, and that there were miscommunications as well as inadequate campus leadership on that unfortunate day. The event evidently gained a lot of attention through social media, with images showing police including Lt. John Pike spraying seemingly peaceful protesters on the ground. The police as a result had sued in order to prevent the report's release, claiming that it amounted to an internal investigation. Court hearings then delayed the report for over a month, and the university also agreed to take out names of most police officers from the report. The report later stated that administrators said that they were concerned that the protesters would flood the campus and endanger students. The campus police chief estimated that 80% of the protesters did not even attend the university. However, this was counter-argued by student affair administrators who claimed that a vast majority of campers were in fact students. The report also blames Chancellor Katehi, for not successfully communicating her desire for a "limited operation" where police demand for tents to be taken down with "no other force". Police officers disregarded her request for them not to wear riot gear, as they said past experiences have led them to predict the use of batons and pepper spray.

The report, while delayed, essentially proves the importance of communication and obedience to orders. The University's police proved themselves as inadequate leaders with their inability to follow the Chancellor's requests, and their unnecessary use of pepper spray. The incident also shows the effects of people taking advantage of their power, over a seemingly peaceful and nonviolent gathering. Hopefully, Davis University's campus police has improved over the past few months, having learned from the unfortunate event.