By now, you’ve probably seen the the footage of the UC Davis students being pepper sprayed. It’s disgusting stuff. The students are sitting down in a line, across a sidewalk, protesting recent tuition hires, and, ironically enough, episodes of police brutality elsewhere in the University of California system. They are peaceful. No one is yelling. Their arms are linked. Then a cop, decked out his Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome post-appolocyptic riot suit, pulls out a canister of pepper spray, extends his arm so that the canister is just inches from the unprotected eyes of a student sitting at the far end of the line, and begins spraying. Then, this cop casually walks down the line, as though he’s watering a line of tomato plants, spraying directly into the eyes of each student in turn. They all fall over, gasping for air. And then the billy clubs come out… It would seem the police were called on campus at the behest of the UC Davis Chancellor Linda P.B. Katehi, who is now being asked by many on campus to resign. Following is an open letter written to Katehi by UC Davis Assistant Professor Nathan Brown.
…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…
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…
And here’s footage of Chancellor Linda Katehi leaving her office much later that night, after having listened to students outside chanting “We are peaceful” and “Just walk home” for several hours without stop. It’s an incredible scene. I’ve heard the phrase “deafeningly silent” before, but I’ve never actually experienced it. Katehi’s walk to her can seems to go on forever, as she walks the gauntlet of seated, absolutely silent students. It’s really inspiring.
I don’t know about you, but I found that incredibly moving.
[Students of Penn State, I don’t want to tell you how to conduct yourselves, but, if you ever find yourselves in a situation again where a university leader is suspected of having enabled a serial pedophile to rape children on your campus, this might be better way to greet him than screaming support in his front yard, and flipping over news vans.]
And, here’s a relevant quote from Glen Greenwald:
…Pervasive police abuses and intimidation tactics applied to peaceful protesters — pepper-spray, assault rifles, tasers, tear gas and the rest — not only harm their victims but also the relationship of the citizenry to the government and the set of core political rights. Implanting fear of authorities in the heart of the citizenry is a far more effective means of tyranny than overtly denying rights. That’s exactly what incidents like this are intended to achieve. Overzealous prosecution of those who engage in peaceful political protest (which we’ve seen and more of over the last several years) as well as the sprawling Surveillance State are the close cousins of excessive police force in both intent and effect: they are all about deterring meaningful challenges to those in power through the exercise of basic rights. Rights are so much more effectively destroyed by bullying a citizenry out of wanting to exercise them than any other means…
Thankfully, as students at neither UM or EMU seem inclined to protest, I don’t suppose we’ll be seeing anything like this playing out locally.
update: I doubt they’ll face any real consequences, but two of the officers involved in the UC Davis episode were placed on administrative leave today.
update: The internets are having some fun with the sauntering Officer Pike.
22 Comments
From an AP story:
Funny, but it didn’t appear from the video that the kids on the sidewalk were encircling anyone.
The Atlantic cautions us not to blame John Pike.
http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2011/11/why-i-feel-bad-for-the-pepper-spraying-policeman-lt-john-pike/248772/
And please keep the people in Egypt in your prayers tonight.
http://twitpic.com/7h0ewk
There’s a 45 minute long version that give some more context, including the encircling thing. The students were demanding that the police release people they had already arrested.
Starting here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n3A0d9fHWag
Egyptian military defends their actions saying that they use the same methods as U.S. police against Occupy protesters.
http://100gf.wordpress.com/2011/11/20/egyptian-military-say-their-tactics-are-no-worse-than-the-methods-used-by-us-police-against-occupy-protesters/
The police were never in danger. Not a bit of violence on the part of the protesters. I can make lots of demands, that does not entitle you to engage in violence against me. The students who were pepper sprayed were not in any way threatening the police. The police could have walked off the quad at any time–as they demonstrated when they left. The purpose is exactly as Greenwald states–intimidate, brutalize and scare your opponents into submission. That is what makes the silent witness doled out to the President of the University so compelling. She is probably through as an educator, but will get a job as a lackey to some corporate lobbying operation.
I watched the video posted above–other than intimidation what other purpose did the police have in breaking up a peaceful demo in a park (the university quad). The students were dutifully standing on a very narrow side-walk. I witnessed nothing in that video–nor any other on the net–that made anything the students were doing into an “unlawful assembly”.
Mike, I haven’t watched all 45 minutes of the video you posted. I will try to. In the meantime, I was wondering if you could leave a comment, letting me know what to look for. Given the context, it sounds as though you’re saying that the video shows that the police were in fact in danger. Is that correct? Does the video show them in fear for their safety?
The “walk of shame” story from the perspective of Kristin Stoneking, the woman who walked with the Chancellor:
From StudtnActivism.net.
1. The protest at which UC Davis police officers used pepper spray and batons against unresisting demonstrators was an entirely nonviolent one.
None of the arrests at UC Davis in the current wave of activism have been for violent offenses. Indeed, as the New York Times reported this morning, the university’s administration has “reported no instances of violence by any protesters.” Not one.
2. The unauthorized tent encampment was dismantled before the pepper spraying began.
Students had set up tents on campus on Thursday, and the administration had allowed them to stay up overnight. When campus police ordered students to take the tents down on Friday afternoon, however, most complied. The remainder of the tents were quickly removed by police without incident before the pepper spray incident.
3. Students did not restrict the movement of police at any time during the demonstration.
After police made a handful of arrests in the course of taking down the students’ tents, some of the remaining demonstrators formed a wide seated circle around the officers and arrestees.
UC Davis police chief Annette Spicuzza has claimed that officers were unable to leave that circle: “There was no way out,” she told the Sacramento Bee. “They were cutting the officers off from their support. It’s a very volatile situation.” But multiple videos clearly show that the seated students made no effort to impede the officers’ movement. Indeed, Lt. Pike, who initiated the pepper spraying of the group, was inside the circle moments earlier. To position himself to spray, he simply stepped over the line.
4. Lt. Pike was not in fear for his safety when he sprayed the students.
Chief Spicuzza told reporters on Thursday that her officers had been concerned for their safety when they began spraying. But again, multiple videos show this claim to be groundless.
The most widely distributed video of the incident (viewed, as I write this, by nearly 700,000 people on YouTube) begins just moments before Lt. Pike begain spraying, but another video, which starts a few minutes earlier, shows Pike chatting amiably with one activist, even patting him casually on the back.
The pat on the back occurs just two minutes and nineteen seconds before Pike pepper sprayed the student he had just been chatting with and all of his friends.
5. University of California Police are not authorized to use pepper spray except in circumstances in which it is necessary to prevent physical injury to themselves or others.
From the University of California’s Universitywide Police Policies and Administrative Procedures: “Chemical agents are weapons used to minimize the potential for injury to officers, offenders, or other persons. They should only be used in situations where such force reasonably appears justified and necessary.”
6. UC police are not authorized to use physical force except to control violent offenders or keep suspects from escaping.
Another quote from the UC’s policing policy: “Arrestees and suspects shall be treated in a humane manner … they shall not be subject to physical force except as required to subdue violence or ensure detention. No officer shall strike an arrestee or suspect except in self-defense, to prevent an escape, or to prevent injury to another person.”
7. The UC Davis Police made no effort to remove the student demonstrators from the walkway peacefully before using pepper spray against them.
One video of the pepper-spray incident shows a group of officers moving in to remove the students from the walkway. Just as one of them reaches down to pick up a female student who was leaning against a friend, however, Lt. Pike waves the group back, clearing a space for him to use pepper spray without risk of accidentally spraying his colleagues.
8. Use of pepper spray and other physical force continued after the students’ minimal obstruction of the area around the police ended.
The line of seated students had begun to break up no more than eight seconds after Lt. Pike began spraying. The spraying continued, however, and officers soon began using batons and other physical force against the now-incapacitated group.
9. Even after police began using unprovoked and unlawful violence against the students, they remained peaceful.
Multiple videos show the aftermath of the initial pepper spraying and the physical violence that followed. In none of them do any of the assaulted students or any of the onlookers strike any of the officers who are attacking them and their friends.
10. The students’ commitment to nonviolence extended to their use of language.
At one point on Thursday afternoon, before the police attack on the demonstration, a few activists started a chant of “From Davis to Greece, fuck the police.” They were quickly hushed by fellow demonstrators who urged them to “keep it nonviolent! Keep it peaceful!”
Their chant was replaced by one of “you use weapons, we use our voice.”
Six and a half minutes later, the entire group was pepper sprayed.
http://studentactivism.net/2011/11/20/ten-things-you-should-know-about-fridays-uc-davis-police-violence/
An update from CNN on Egypt:
Egypt’s military rulers have accepted the resignation of members of Egypt’s Cabinet, a military spokesman says.
“I resigned because of the events in Tahrir (Square), because of the political responsibility,” Justice Minister Mohamed Abdelaziz al-Juindy said, referring to the bloody confrontations in Cairo between security forces and demonstrators.
Tahrir Square — the hub of the activist movement that led to the ouster of longtime President Hosni Mubarak 10 months ago — was packed Monday with protesters calling for Egypt’s military leaders to step down.
Twenty-two protesters have died in recent clashes, and 1,700 have been wounded, a spokesman for the Ministry of Health said.
I’ve tried to write responses to this post a few times but I can’t because I’m just so angry and upset about that woman that it doesn’t make any sense.
I look forward to your future updates about what she said. at the press conference she referenced as being today (Monday). Coward. They are all cowards to do that to peaceful protesters then feel like they are afraid to walk to their own cars. So absurd.
Citizen journalists unite!
You can no longer hide when you pull this kind of stunt.
Four synchronized views of officer Pike.
http://waxy.org/2011/11/viewing_the_uc_davis_pepper_spraying_from_multiple_angles/
Katehi apologizes, but says that she won’t step down.
http://gawker.com/5861617/uc-davis-chancellor-apologizes-for-pepper-spray-incident
Good cops should be recognized too.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k9yIBOnbJjY
UC Davis students erect a new encampment.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/higher-education/uc-davis-students-erect-new-encampment-continue-protesting-police-use-of-pepper-spray/2011/11/22/gIQA9u0IkN_story.html
“Thankfully, as students at neither UM or EMU seem inclined to protest, I don’t suppose we’ll be seeing anything like this playing out locally.”
Professor Henry A. Giroux has something that on Truth Out this morning that you might find of interest.
The rest of the article-
http://www.truth-out.org/occupy-colleges-now-students-new-public-intellectuals/1321891418
Sorry, got distracted. So here’s what I saw:
In Part I, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n3A0d9fHWag, the police slowly approach the tents. At about 10:00 in the video they arrest some people who are trying to keep them from (I assume) taking apart the tents. People scream “shame on you” a lot. Students sit around (?) the tents.
Part II at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DjXk9wYWIE8: At around 3:00, there’s a chant of “come join us”, and a group of students from off to the right join the students on the left (from the camera’s perspective). At around 4:15, there’s a chant of “set them free”. At around 4:30, a cop tells the camera person that “it’s not safe to be in the middle, sir, if you want to pick a side, but stay out of the middle right here”. At 5:27 there’s a cut then a mic check: “We are going to support our friends who have been unjustly arrested for participating in their rights. Let’s march peacefully as one toward where they’re being held.” Most of the students stand up arm in arm and start moving from left to right (camera-wise). Between 6:30-7:00 in the video, the students appear (to me) to physically surround the cops and the students who had already been arrested. At this point, they’re pretty much in the places they’ll be in when the pepper spraying happens several minutes later. Around 7:30, more chants of “set them free”. Around 8:50, a mic check: “If you let them go, we will let you leave. If you let them go, we will continue to protest peacefully.” Then a chant of “let them go, let them go, let them go”. So that almost sounds like a threat: they will *continue* to protest peacefully if they let them go. Around 9:45, someone says “record it, witness”…someone says “looks like they’re taking people away one by one”. At 10:30 or so, “don’t shoot them, don’t shoot them, don’t shoot them” and you can see the students who are going to get pepper sprayed getting into their eventual positions. 11:14: “cops off campus, cops off campus, cops off campus” etc. 11:45: “weapons off campus, weapons off campus”. Everybody’s basically still sitting/standing in the same places. 12:34: “from Davis to Greece, fuck the police, from Davis to Greece, fuck the police” but very shortly “no, no, that’s too…” 12:50: “you use weapons, we use our voice, you use weapons, we use our voice” etc. Meanwhile the cops are talking to each other about what to do. 13:30: we see a student being led away by two cops. 14:00 and on: “whose university, our university” etc. Right at the end of this video, mic check, then:
Part III at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NwFa5Kq4Rfo: mic check “If someone has lost a beanie, I have it.” 0:44 mic check again, “I propose that we pass a resolution to demand the cops off the quad.” General acclamation. mic check…can’t understand everything. 2:05: “don’t shoot students, don’t shoot students” etc. 2:30-2:45 the cops kind of form up. Just after 2:50, Pike emerges from the front of the formation with the pepper spray. At this point, you’re at the part of the incident that’s generally been seen.
This is another good view of the events leading up to the pepper spraying: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IkoEbrUp0-Q
Notice in that last video that all the tents are already down by the time of the pepper spraying.
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/11/24
What we need to do is charge those kids for the pepper spray that was used on them.
http://thinkprogress.org/special/2011/12/03/381431/walker-protest-costs/