Saturday, November 19, 2011

Students Pepper Sprayed at UC Davis

If you set out to take Vienna, Napoleon advised, take Vienna. At the University of California, Davis police pepper sprayed protestors who were demonstrating in solidarity with the Occupy movement.

UC Davis Chancellor Linda Katehi called the videos "chilling" which I suppose means "no comment" as calls for her resignation pour in. Getting back to Vienna and the video, the protestors were indeed peacefully blocking a road. When they did not disperse the campus police brought out the pepper spray. Then once they provoked the protestors the police retreated giving the demonstrators a moral victory.
UC Davis Police Chief Annette Spicuzza said the decision to use pepper spray was made at the scene but she also said, “There was no way out of that circle, They were cutting the officers off from their support. It’s a very volatile situation.” Which is patently false.

Chief Spicuzza was on firm legal ground and many law enforcement professionals support her decision. Charles J. Kelly, a former Baltimore Police Department lieutenant who wrote the department's use of force guidelines, said pepper spray is a "compliance tool" that can be used on subjects who do not resist, and is preferable to simply lifting protesters. Lying about the circumstance undercuts the Chief's case as badly as her retreat.

"What I'm looking at is fairly standard police procedure," Kelly said

Probably Chief Spicuzza should resign and turn the job over to someone who is competent and truthful.

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2 comments:

  1. AnonymousNovember 20, 2011 at 1:07 AM

    I worked for 12 years extensively in security, specifically in crowd control. This is completely unnecessary. I have seen much more out of control situations de-escalated by a much smaller force. Officers could easily have stepped over the protestors. Or they could easily have asked to exit. They did neither.
    Remember, the protestors are well within their rights to gather for political speech anywhere that the public is normally welcome. For students, that also means campus:
    "Congress shall make no law [...] abridging [...] the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."
    That's the US Constitution, son.

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  2. AnonymousNovember 20, 2011 at 1:14 AM

    Reasonable Force: Only that amount of force that is reasonably necessary under the circumstances may be used to effect an arrest, prevent escape, or overcome resistance. (Headwaters Forest Defense v. County of Humboldt (9th Cir. 2002) 276 F.3rd 1125.)

    This landmark case states that the use of pepper spray against an unarmed and peaceful protester is illegal and can be prosecuted.

    Lt. John Pike III will be enjoying his time in hearings and trials. Go forth and have fun big boy.

    ReplyDelete