this occurred at u.c. davis. davis, california is my home town. i own our family house there, i have family and dozens of friends in this college town of 50,000 or so. i attended college there for two years. it is still home to me.
this video made me ill. then it made me proud, of the conduct of the students. i wanted to cry, so proud i am of these young adults who remained peaceful and strong.
FUCKING PIGS!!!
There will be revolution in this country.
Fuck cops.
Fuck Chatham cops.
Fucken cops EAT SHIT.
I HATE COPS!! Fuckin pieces of shit.
Sprayed them like they were a line of bugs – hard to watch.
That motherfucking piece of shit cop should himself be arrested … thrown in jail … and butt fucked until he cries for his mommie, who would then come visit him and pour 5 gallons of pepper spray up his ass, to be followed up by putting a live rat up his ass to eat out his intestines.
There, I feel somewhat better now.
How can they get away with this shit?
It’s only a matter of time until the people getting pepper sprayed turn violent. I sure as hell would.
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Stuck
We’ve received your thick file from our friends at the Chatham Police. Don’t be fuckin with us. If you think this video is atrocious, you should see what we do to these dirty,commie, lefty, pinko, non-calloused hands, pinky ring wearing dirtbags when we get them back to the station.
We know you are a cop hater. If we ever see your fat ass in our town, we’ll use our large can of mace on you.
We’re watching you.
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The officer who sprayed the students was UC Davis Police Lt. John Pike
John A Pike III
4005 Cowell Blvd, Apt 616
Davis, CA 95618-6017
530-752-3989
[email protected]
newsjunkie
Awesome!!!
He just received a friendly email from me.
I urge everyone to send him a greeting worthy of his act.
Howard:
I’ve a confession.
Sometimes I see a video or image from OWS and I tear up. Sometimes with happiness, sometimes with sadness.
Either I’m getting soft with age, there’s something in the water, or I’m a human being…
Or all of the above.
I know and have known a lot of folk in Davis. That aside, these kids don’t deserve this shit. I can’t believe my eyes with this and other videos.
A fucking disgrace.
Just sent the police officer an email of my own. Thanks NewsJunkie
I sent him one too!
Perhaps a free trial at a krav gym is in order, eh NJ?
CR
the first several seconds of that video made me want to vomit. but the rest of the eight minutes was a beautiful sight.
they chanted the pigs off the quad. words. against weaponry. the looks of confusion and fear on the piggy faces was fucking priceless.
tonight, the soon to be ex chancellor held a press conference in a small building on the periphery of campus. attempting to hide from the students.
the students learned of the event. and were denied entry. including student reporters from the campus newspaper.
students passed the word. and hundreds showed up, outside the building. and peacefully protested by their presence and their chants.
the chancellor was afraid to leave the building, apparently.
after a couple of hours, apparently with some reassurance from student representatives, the students cleared a path for her to walk to her car. they sat down, and silently watched as she fearfully (apparent from her face and body language) slunk into the night.
i’ve seen a few walks of shame in that town. been on both sides of them. never saw one like this.
california is a weird place. davis has it’s own flavor of weirdness. the powers that be will not like the fact that the cops and the chancellor flinched in the face of the consumers/students, who must be compliant at all times. otoh, they are really broke; the university, the uc system, the city of davis, county of yolo and state of california. they don’t have the cash to send overwhelming numbers of police to the campus.
and there are thousands of really fucking liberal middle class folks who live in davis who will march with the students. i can name about a hundred i could round up with a few emails, and i haven’t even lived there in years. shit, the former mayor led the first vietnam war protest i ever attended, when i was 12 years old.
anyway, peaceful passive resistance worked wonders in this instance. it was really something special to watch on the live stream. i still dig that town, and i expect to end up living there again (like when the shit hits the new york city fan).
Howard…
The only answer thast seems at all worthy of consideration… to the authorities’ responses in Oakland, Berkeley, and now Davis… is that these cash-strapped places… liberal strongholds… are at the mercy of stimulous funding and therefore susceptable to a call from the hand that feeds them.
To do the bidding of the top dogs.
Something sinister must be amis with shady plans as, for no other reason, I can’t fathom why such force is inflicted on what would normally be a core voting block.
Really, I don’t give a flying fuck what anybody’s saying when they get a black boot for it.
You’d figure after at least a month of this shit, I’d be desensitized, but I’m not. Again… it’s a fucking disgrace.
anyway, peaceful passive resistance worked wonders in this instance. it was really something special to watch on the live stream. i still dig that town, and i expect to end up living there again (like when the shit hits the new york city fan).
-Howard
No shortage of grub in Davis…
hey AWD
How about a penetrating analytical piece on fat cops?
FROM NAKED CAPITALISM:
On the narrative of pepper spray at UC Davis, or “Mic Check for President!”
The congealing narrative (supported by the YouTube’s title) goes like this: Online Furor After Police Pepper-Spray Demonstrators at UC Davis (Time; Atrios). I’m not so sure. After all, the pepper spraying takes up the first twenty seconds of the video; but 8 minutes and 14 seconds remain. So what happened after the pepper spray? I thought I’d see. (Hat tip to alert readers LucyLulu, patricia, and montanamaven for helping to tease this out; I’m not really visual- let alone video-minded).
So, here’s my transcript. I invite readers to follow along, and correct me. (I’ve noticed that time codes seem to vary a little from FireFox to Opera, so have patience with them, please.)
0:00 Students are seated in the university quad, blocking a path.
0:10 – 0:20 Uniformed police officer strolls into the frame, sprays bowed heads of students with a large economy size can of pepper spray, rather as if he were spraying vermin. Remarkably, while the action takes place, there are at least 5 recording devices on the frame besides the videographer’s: Cameras, video recorders, cell phones, and iPads. In still photos, I count 11. The whole world is, indeed, watching.
0:35 Occupiers assisting one another after the spraying. Shouts of “Boo!”
0:42 Chants of “Shame on you!” begin. Coughing.
0:52 Police begin hauling Occupiers away. Coughing. “What is wrong with you?!” Face of policeman, visor raised, not proud. “You guys are supposed to protect us!” Coughing. “OK, man?”
1:02 Loud (organizer-style?) chant: “Who do you serve? Who do you protect?” Crowd does not pick up.
1:14 Camera has been swerving all around; now a full view of the path, with the police dragging unresisting Occupiers off the path onto the ground at the top of the frame. Many bystanders still recording. (See image at left for a characteristic, collective gesture at an Occupier event: The arm, raised or crooked, extended to hold a camera.)
1:20 Police continue to drag Occupiers off path onto grass, subdue, handcuff them. “Shame on you! Shame on you!” begins anew. The path is clear. A police car has been pulled up the path to where the seated students were. Police begin to drag handcuffed Occupiers past the car, down the path, out of the frame to the left.
1:41 Brief shot of policeman with rifle raised, walking backward down the path to the left; two students in sweatshirt and black coat look on amazed. [I’ll say “rifle” because the weapon is not a handgun; it looks rather like an Imperial Storm Troopers blaster rifle: Black, bulbous, and heavy. UPDATE: In comments, readers point out that these are air guns, “technically non-lethal,” rather like tasers. I’m not sure if that diminishes the experience or not; it seems to me that the students have to assume whatever they are is a step up from pepper spray, and that’s pretty bad. From here on down, I’ll change “rifle” to “weapon”]
1:41 – 1:43 Ratio of police to dragged Occupier: 3 to 1. Continued: “Shame on you! Shame on you!”
1:50 – 2:11 Police continue to subdue occupiers. Continued “Shame on you!” Some police make pacifying gestures. Others, with nightsticks, visors lowered, are forming a line along the grass. Another stands in the center of the path, weapon partially lifted.
2:27 Occupier walked off the path by police. Only a 2:1 ratio, this time!
2:46 Crowd not inclined to disperse, but people only standing (and filming). No violent body language whatever. Continued chanting: “Shame on you!”
2:58 Looks like a management type in a windbreaker, center of the path. He waves a TV cameraman along. He also seems to be the only policeman, through the entire episode, who’s smiling. (I didn’t see any predatory smiles.)
3:16 Continued chanting “Shame on you!” Students milling about, intermingling with uniformed police carrying weapons. It’s surreal.
3:20 Policemen seem to group themselves, start walking down the path to the left of the frame in a loose formation. Continued “Shame on you!” Policemen’s faces behind the visors. Again, not proud. Not at all proud (see also James Fallows on this point.)
3:43 At first the police were walking forwards, down the path to the left, with their backs to the Occupiers, but at this point they slowly turn and start walking backwards, so that they face the Occupiers. There’s no visual or auditory stimulus for this change that I can detect. They also begin to bunch up. For the first time, the police look like a military formation — and one in retreat. The management type is not visible. I can’t see leadership or orders given, though perhaps the police have ear buds.
4:00 Policeman in center of screen with weapon partly raised.
4:20 Police still bunched in loose formation. “Shame on you!” continues, with addition of “you shit” something-or-other from one bystander.
4:36 Crowd has now concentrated on the videographer’s side of the path. Chanting is growing much louder. The crowd on the other side of the path is thin. (In other words, the police are not surrounded.)
5:07 More of the same. The police, for whatever reason, are no longer retreating. Nothing blocks them from moving left down the path, but they continue to stay right where they are.
5:30 New chant begins suddenly: “Who’s university? Our university!” Police seem to react uneasily, move around, exchange words. Lots of “Our university!”
6:05 Policeman: “Back off!” to the crowd (Patricia thinks to another police.)
6:09 [Kent State “13 seconds of shooting” timer starts [UPDATE Here I think I do exagerrate] Camera is focused on the front of the police formation. At least two of the police raise their weapons to a 45-degree angle, pointing front, to the right, down at the ground. What is in front of them, to the right of the frame, is not in the shot.
6:12 “Mic check! Mic check!” (hoarse, urgent) “Shame on you!” Shouting. (Frightening and amazing)
6:15 Three weapons raised horizontal.
6:20 [Kent State timer ends] “Mic check! Mic check! We are willing…”
Occupiers: “WE ARE WILLING…”
MC: “to give you a brief moment…”
Occupiers: “TO GIVE YOU A BRIEF MOMENT…”
MC: “of peace…”
Occupiers; “OF PEACE…”
MC: “so you may take your weapons…”
Occupiers: “SO YOU MAY TAKE YOUR WEAPONS…”
MC: “and your friends…”
Occupiers: “AND YOUR FRIENDS…”
MC: “and go.”
Occupiers: “AND GO.”
6:35 Policeman in front of line of weapons, now, holding two red cans, presumably pepper spray. Police faces behind visors puzzled.
MC: “Please do not return!”
Occupiers: “PLEASE DO NOT RETURN!”
MC: “We are giving you a moment of peace.”
Occupiers: “WE ARE GIVING YOU A MOMENT OF PEACE.”
MC: “You can go! We will not follow you!”
Occupiers: “WE WILL NOT FOLLOW YOU!” “You can go!” [confused shouting]
7:04 Occupiers: Chants, shouts, “You can go!”, “You can go!”, “You can go!”
7:11 And the police begin to back down the path. “You can go!”, “You can go!” “None of you is getting a pension!”
7:14 Now for the first time, the camera pans left to show who the police were facing: A loose crowd of students in hoodies and student gear, many of them holding cameras, chanting and shouting. No violent body language, no visible weapons.
7:20 Police still in a block formation, backing away.
7:45 Finally the police turn their backs on the Occupiers and walk down the path. Cheers. “Yeah!” (Somewhere military historian John Keegan says that in a rout, the first troops to flee are not at the front, but at the back of the column, instancing the collapse of the Old Guard at Waterloo. Notice that here, the first police to turn their backs and walk away are indeed those at the back of the column, and not those, weapons still partially raised, at the front.)
“Shame on you!” “Shame on you!” “Our university!” “Whose university?” “Our university!”
“Whose quad?” “Our quad!” “Whose quad?” “Our quad!”
8:13 and following: Can’t get this part clear, sounds like a call for a general assembly, the people’s mic still led by MC.
* * *
From the Barcalounger:
I don’t think the story is the pepper spray at all. Here are some other stories:
1. The Occupiers displayed remarkable courage. They had already been pepper-sprayed, yet they faced down armored, paramilitary policeman whose weapons were raised and aimed at them. Does anybody remember Kent State? In thirteen seconds of shooting, four died. [Revise] The weapons used here mean that the stakes were not as high as they were at Kent State. However, to me, the police, though paramilitary and armed, looked stressed, unhappy, confused, and ill-led, if led at all. For example, at 5:07, having dragged the arrestees away, what were they hanging about for? At 6:35, why wasn’t pepper spray used again? At some point not visible in the video, the police car was driven away. Who was in it, and why did they leave? Above all, why such a massive presence for grand total of six (I count six) pup tents? The whole situation, to someone with a nasty twist of thought, could have the feel of a set up: Putting Cossacks into a position where the odds are good enough that they’ll end up opening fire on a few peasants out of panic, giving plausible deniability to some anonymous security thug seeking preferment (“bad apples,” “mistakes were made”). Not that I’m paranoid. UPDATE The eternal question: Stupid and/or evil? I gave a tentative nod to evil, but there’s stupid too!
(Both LucyLulu and Patricia take a somewhat different view, and we can discuss in comments. I think it’s important to get this incident right, in case the tactics can be scale out horizontally.)
2. The Occupiers displayed remarkable ingenuity. The tactic of taking an internal, General Assembly deliberative technique and externalizing it for use in a confrontation with police was brilliant. The tactic (as commenter LucyLulu pointed out) both defused tensions with the police, and refocused the crowd on non-violence. And empowering the police with “You can go” was also brilliant. So, who had the power here?
3. The Occupiers won. They held their space. They seized and held the initiative. Further, I think that a reputation for non-violence is a strategic asset; it puts “good will” on the Occupation’s balance sheet, and that’s important if “all walks of life” are to participate. (That is not a moral position, but a pragmatic one.)
Of course, there may be other narratives to be constructed. Readers?
Oh, and “Mike Check for President!” As a write-in, I suppose, if your state permits that.
NOTE Time‘s headline also gets the story wrong a second way. The “online furor” is meta: It’s far less important than what is going to happen on the ground at UC Davis. It sounded to me, at the end of the video, like the General Assembly was going to call for a strike on Monday.
UPDATE OK, OK, I changed the headline. I’m so old, I remember when “step up to the mic” was spelled “step up to the mike.” But I defer to readers, who prefer “mic.” That said, I envision a fake presidential campaign for Michael “Mike” Check, rather as an antidote Michael “Mike” Bloomberg’s impending third party run… Maybe somebody should set up a facebook page and start a campaign…
UPDATE Thanks so much to the commenters who straightened me out on the type of weaponry used. If we knew the exact model, we could find out where it was used….
18 November 2011
Open Letter to Chancellor Linda P.B. Katehi
Linda P.B. Katehi,
I am a junior faculty member at UC Davis. I am an Assistant Professor in the Department of English, and I teach in the Program in Critical Theory and in Science & Technology Studies. I have a strong record of research, teaching, and service. I am currently a Board Member of the Davis Faculty Association. I have also taken an active role in supporting the student movement to defend public education on our campus and throughout the UC system. In a word: I am the sort of young faculty member, like many of my colleagues, this campus needs. I am an asset to the University of California at Davis.
You are not.
I write to you and to my colleagues for three reasons:
1) to express my outrage at the police brutality which occurred against students engaged in peaceful protest on the UC Davis campus today
2) to hold you accountable for this police brutality
3) to demand your immediate resignation
Today you ordered police onto our campus to clear student protesters from the quad. These were protesters who participated in a rally speaking out against tuition increases and police brutality on UC campuses on Tuesday—a rally that I organized, and which was endorsed by the Davis Faculty Association. These students attended that rally in response to a call for solidarity from students and faculty who were bludgeoned with batons, hospitalized, and arrested at UC Berkeley last week. In the highest tradition of non-violent civil disobedience, those protesters had linked arms and held their ground in defense of tents they set up beside Sproul Hall. In a gesture of solidarity with those students and faculty, and in solidarity with the national Occupy movement, students at UC Davis set up tents on the main quad. When you ordered police outfitted with riot helmets, brandishing batons and teargas guns to remove their tents today, those students sat down on the ground in a circle and linked arms to protect them.
What happened next?
Without any provocation whatsoever, other than the bodies of these students sitting where they were on the ground, with their arms linked, police pepper-sprayed students. Students remained on the ground, now writhing in pain, with their arms linked.
What happened next?
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.
This is what happened. You are responsible for it.
You are responsible for it because this is what happens when UC Chancellors order police onto our campuses to disperse peaceful protesters through the use of force: students get hurt. Faculty get hurt. One of the most inspiring things (inspiring for those of us who care about students who assert their rights to free speech and peaceful assembly) about the demonstration in Berkeley on November 9 is that UC Berkeley faculty stood together with students, their arms linked together. Associate Professor of English Celeste Langan was grabbed by her hair, thrown on the ground, and arrested. Associate Professor Geoffrey O’Brien was injured by baton blows. Professor Robert Hass, former Poet Laureate of the United States, National Book Award and Pulitzer Prize winner, was also struck with a baton. These faculty stood together with students in solidarity, and they too were beaten and arrested by the police. In writing this letter, I stand together with those faculty and with the students they supported.
One week after this happened at UC Berkeley, you ordered police to clear tents from the quad at UC Davis. When students responded in the same way—linking arms and holding their ground—police also responded in the same way: with violent force. The fact is: the administration of UC campuses systematically uses police brutality to terrorize students and faculty, to crush political dissent on our campuses, and to suppress free speech and peaceful assembly. Many people know this. Many more people are learning it very quickly.
You are responsible for the police violence directed against students on the UC Davis quad on November 18, 2011. As I said, I am writing to hold you responsible and to demand your immediate resignation on these grounds.
On Wednesday November 16, you issued a letter by email to the campus community. In this letter, you discussed a hate crime which occurred at UC Davis on Sunday November 13. In this letter, you express concern about the safety of our students. You write, “it is particularly disturbing that such an act of intolerance should occur at a time when the campus community is working to create a safe and inviting space for all our students.” You write, “while these are turbulent economic times, as a campus community, we must all be committed to a safe, welcoming environment that advances our efforts to diversity and excellence at UC Davis.”
I will leave it to my colleagues and every reader of this letter to decide what poses a greater threat to “a safe and inviting space for all our students” or “a safe, welcoming environment” at UC Davis: 1) Setting up tents on the quad in solidarity with faculty and students brutalized by police at UC Berkeley? or 2) Sending in riot police to disperse students with batons, pepper-spray, and tear-gas guns, while those students sit peacefully on the ground with their arms linked? Is this what you have in mind when you refer to creating “a safe and inviting space?” Is this what you have in mind when you express commitment to “a safe, welcoming environment?”
I am writing to tell you in no uncertain terms that there must be space for protest on our campus. There must be space for political dissent on our campus. There must be space for civil disobedience on our campus. There must be space for students to assert their right to decide on the form of their protest, their dissent, and their civil disobedience—including the simple act of setting up tents in solidarity with other students who have done so. There must be space for protest and dissent, especially, when the object of protest and dissent is police brutality itself. You may not order police to forcefully disperse student protesters peacefully protesting police brutality. You may not do so. It is not an option available to you as the Chancellor of a UC campus. That is why I am calling for your immediate resignation.
Your words express concern for the safety of our students. Your actions express no concern whatsoever for the safety of our students. I deduce from this discrepancy that you are not, in fact, concerned about the safety of our students. Your actions directly threaten the safety of our students. And I want you to know that this is clear. It is clear to anyone who reads your campus emails concerning our “Principles of Community” and who also takes the time to inform themselves about your actions. You should bear in mind that when you send emails to the UC Davis community, you address a body of faculty and students who are well trained to see through rhetoric that evinces care for students while implicitly threatening them. I see through your rhetoric very clearly. You also write to a campus community that knows how to speak truth to power. That is what I am doing.
I call for your resignation because you are unfit to do your job. You are unfit to ensure the safety of students at UC Davis. In fact: you are the primary threat to the safety of students at UC Davis. As such, I call upon you to resign immediately.
Sincerely,
Nathan Brown
Assistant Professor
Department of English
Program in Critical Theory
University of California at Davis
technology is great.
granted, back in the 70s, davis was such a small town when some controversy arose, i could get just about anyone in a position of authority on the telephone within a few hours (or my parents could). odds were, anyone like that in town or on campus had at one time been a guest in our house, or i a guest in theirs.
but now, with the internets, it is sunday morning, but i have already been in email contact with the district attorney’s office, and posted a letter to the editor of the local paper. (my boss when i wrote up little league scores is still at the paper.)
Go get ’em Howard. That this happened on the campus of my alma mater sickens and disgusts me.
Guess I won’t be too generous when the US Davis “Support the University” folks come to call.
The image of that LEO spraying pepper spray into that line of UNARMED students, who were already on their knees in a submissive pose, is my personal Kent State Moment.
This isn’t rioting and looting and defecating on police cars. This is peaceful Ghandhi type protest – which just might work if their is a shred of compassion/mercy in the power structure.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jKvf7nP1OnRlnopsb9mXt9MOb7KQ?docId=4fc70a7b680c40a0bac68efe25c00159
Officers in pepper spray incident placed on leave
By JASON DEAREN, Associated Press – 1 minute ago
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Two University of California, Davis police officers involved in the pepper spraying of seated protesters were placed on administrative leave Sunday, as the school’s chancellor accelerated an investigation of the incident and made plans to meet with protesters amid calls for her resignation.
UC Davis Chancellor Linda Katehi said she has been inundated with reaction from alumni, staff, students and faculty over the incident Friday in which a riot gear-clad officer fires pepper spray on a line of sitting demonstrators. The protesters flinch and cover their faces but remain passive with their arms interlocked as onlookers shriek and scream out for the officer to stop.
The officers placed on leave have not been identified. In a news release, the university said, “Videos taken during Friday’s arrests showed that the two officers used pepper spray on peacefully seated students.”
The faculty association on Saturday called for Katehi’s resignation after video of the incident was circulated widely on YouTube, Facebook and Twitter on Saturday, saying in a letter there had been a “gross failure of leadership.”
Katehi has resisted calls for her to quit, vowing instead to rigorously investigate the incident during which 10 protesters were arrested.
“I am deeply saddened that this happened on our campus, and as chancellor, I take full responsibility for the incident,” Katehi said in a statement Sunday. “However, I pledge to take the actions needed to ensure that this does not happen again. I feel very sorry for the harm our students were subjected to and I vow to work tirelessly to make the campus a more welcoming and safe place.”
Katehi also set a 30-day deadline for a task force investigating the incident to issue its report. The task force will be comprised of students, staff and faculty, Katehi said, and will be chosen this week.
She plans to meet with demonstrators Monday at their general assembly, said her spokeswoman, Claudia Morain.
The protest was held in support of the overall Occupy Wall Street movement and in solidarity with protesters at the University of California, Berkeley who were jabbed by police with batons on Nov. 9.
Nathan Brown for Chancellor!
I don’t think Linda has 30 days … “coughing up blood” the penultimate nail in the coffin.
“Katehi also set a 30-day deadline for a task force investigating the incident to issue its report. ”
And what will this “task force” conclude?
NOT GUILTY!! They performed their duties as proscribed under the law.
The fox guarding the hen house. Fuckin’ despicable.
Big deal, it doesn’t matter. It’s all just part of the decades long sequence that will culminate with the big show. Tough shit.
severely bad attitude tonight. Wondering where this shit for brains country has been the last thirty years. Enjoying my third bourbon too many after slugging it out in the mud and snow all day, 59 year old beat up body, sprained knee linimented up and three dead calves and do it again tomorrow. What a wreak,You all are going to miss the old dumbshit fuckers like me that’ll work 24 hours nonstop to save 700 lbs of beef that jbs is going to steal anyways. The smart money has been hunkered down for the last couple decades. The spigot starts to tighten and all hell breaks loose, It’s all after the fact. America’s been drunk and/or asleep for 30 years.