Words fail.
From Linda P.B. Katehi Chancellor of UC Davis
The group did not respond to requests from administration and campus police to comply with campus rules that exist to protect the health and safety of our campus community. The group was informed in writing this morning that the encampment violated regulations designed to protect the health and safety of students, staff and faculty. The group was further informed that if they did not dismantle the encampment, it would have to be removed.
Following our requests, several of the group chose to dismantle their tents this afternoon and we are grateful for their actions. However a number of protestors refused our warning, offering us no option but to ask the police to assist in their removal. We are saddened to report that during this activity, 10 protestors were arrested and pepper spray was used. We will be reviewing the details of the incident.
We appreciate and strongly defend the rights of all our students, faculty and staff to robust and respectful dialogue as a fundamental tenet of our great academic institution. At the same time, we have a responsibility to our entire campus community, including the parents who have entrusted their students to us, to ensure that all can live, learn and work in a safe and secure environment. We were aware that some of those involved in the recent demonstrations on campus were not members of the UC Davis community and this required us to be even more vigilant about the safety of our students, faculty and staff. We take this responsibility very seriously.
Read The Full Statement Here:
http://chancellor.ucdavis.edu/...
Petition for the Chancellor to resign:
http://www.change.org/...
(More images and videos below the fold)
From RogerFox: The Face of Lt John Pike:
If you have been attacked and need to file a formal complaint against a UC Davis Police officer then head here:
http://police.ucdavis.edu/...
From the comments of mahakali overdrive:
Prof. Nathan Brown. He details the brutality and calls for the Chancellor's resignation.
A short excerpt from one of the most powerful letters that I've ever read.
http://bicyclebarricade.wordpress.com/
Police used batons to try to push the students apart. Those they could separate, they arrested, kneeling on their bodies and pushing their heads into the ground. Those they could not separate, they pepper-sprayed directly in the face, holding these students as they did so. When students covered their eyes with their clothing, police forced open their mouths and pepper-sprayed down their throats. Several of these students were hospitalized. Others are seriously injured. One of them, forty-five minutes after being pepper-sprayed down his throat, was still coughing up blood.
The horror. The police officer in the video holds up the pepper spray in an act of victory before he maliciously attacks a group of students sitting peacefully. In what world is it ok to pepper spray students and then arrest them.
From the Sacramento Bee
DAVIS, Calif. -- Police at the University of California, Davis have dismantled an Occupy encampment on campus and arrested 10 protesters.
UC Davis officials say eight men and two women were taken into custody Friday afternoon. Nine of them were students.
Student activists pitched more than a dozen tents on the UC Davis Quad on Thursday in defiance of a campus ban on camping.
Read more: http://www.sacbee.com/...
In what country do we live in? I hope that officer feels the shame of his actions and the actions of the police on this day.
TheOther99 Coverage by OllieGarkey
They were pepper sprayed because they were in defiance of a campus ban on camping? Are you kidding me? This is the police procedure they have in place to deal with students using their first amendment right to peacefully assemble??
KCRA article
Police came and brutalized them and tore their tents down and all that stuff. It was really scary. It felt like there was anarchy everywhere," said student Hisham Alihbob.
Read more: http://www.kcra.com/...
From
Eileen B
California Penal Code Section 12403.7 (a) (8)
(g) Any person who uses tear gas or tear gas weapons except in self-defense is guilty of a public offense and is punishable byimprisonment in a state prison for 16 months, or two or three years or in a county jail not to exceed one year or by a fine not to exceed one thousand dollars ($1,000), or by both the fine and imprisonment, except that, if the use is against a peace officer, as defined in Chapter 4.5 (commencing with Section 830) of Title 3 of Part 2, engaged in the performance of his or her official duties and the person committing the offense knows or reasonably should know that the victim is a peace officer, the offense is punishable by imprisonment in a state prison for 16 months or two or three years or by a fine of one thousand dollars ($1,000), or by both the fine and imprisonment.
From Calvin Jones and the 13th Apostle
Joshua Holland(of Alternet) ...the direct contact information for that thug cop is as follows:
Lt. John Pike.
530-752-3989
japikeiii@ucdavis.edu
Apparently the local paper out there(The Davis Enterprise) has already outed the cop. Sadly, I'd get a link to that but it appears we crashed their site.
Please be respectful in your condemnation of this act of brutality.
MoT just tweeted a little while ago http://twitter.com/...
You can follow @OccupyDavis on twitter - it is active now.