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Occupy Davis Pepper Sprayed by Fascist Police

by Anti-fascist
You can watch on video at http://occupydavis.org/ and then understand that the US is now and always has been a fascist country which now employs horrifying pepper spray, tasers, police batons, police beatings to attack peaceful protesters. The City of Davis deserves the lawsuit they asked for in giving the police pepper spray, riot suits and all other garbage, and like all other cities, counties and states, claims poverty.
The answer to the student question to the police, whom do you serve, is they serve the capitalist class and should be abolished. The police cannot fight crime as the cause of crime is poverty. All that money given to the police must be transferred to education and social services. The police are the armed thugs of the capitalist class whose sole purpose is to terrorize into accepting the bankrupt social order in which we live.

Pepper spray and tasers should be illegal everywhere. If the poilce were so concerned about moving the seated students, they could have moved each one all by themselves. This is police terrorism; it is always the police who are the terrorists.

You can contact the City of Davis mayor and city council at
http://cityofdavis.org/cmo/whoswho.cfm
§fyi...
by KT
FYI: They were UC Davis PD and the City of Davis PD. Not solely Davis PD.
The illegal and totally unjustified pepper-spraying of these young people, sitting on the ground, each one of whom could easily be lifted by 1 of these huge cops and moved, and there were about 60 cops to 10-20 seated skinny young people, is more than sufficient grounds for a civil rights lawsuit on behalf of those pepper-sprayed. EVERYONE WHO WAS PEPPER SPRAYED SHOULD SEE A DOCTOR IMMEDIATELY if they were not hospitalized, and get it on the record as to what injuries you received. One young woman is in the hospital with a chemical burn. SEVERAL HAD THEIR MOUTHS OPENED BY THE POLICE AND WERE PEPPER-SPRAYED IN THE MOUTH, CAUSING HOSPITALIZATION AND COUGHING UP BLOOD.
Here is the chemical burn story:
http://www.kcra.com/news/29809851/detail.html

Here is a good description of what happened:
From: http://bicyclebarricade.wordpress.com/2011/11/19/open-letter-to-chancellor-linda-p-b-katehi/
Open Letter to Chancellor Linda P.B. Katehi
Posted on November 19, 2011 by crank
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

****
Here are more pictures:
http://www.davisenterprise.com/media-post/ucd-police-remove-occupy-uc-davis-tents/attachment/occupyucd3/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XxaLKsFdcjk&feature=share

THIS IS ALL WORTH AT LEAST $1 MILLION IN A CIVIL RIGHTS LAWSUIT. These young people have professional careers ahead of them and if the horror of pepper spray in any way makes it impossible for them to pursue their career, THAT IS A HUGE WAGE LOSS. Then there are the medical bills the fascist University of California and the City of Davis must pay.

WHO WERE THE LAWYERS AT DEMOCRATIC GOVERNOR JERRY BROWN'S STATE ATTORNEY GENERAL'S OFFICE WHO APPROVED THIS ILLEGAL PEPPER-SPRAY ACTION? Democrat Kamala Harris, the former reactionary District Attorney of San Francisco, installed by election fraud in 2003 with her fellow Democrat for mayor, Gavin Newsom, is now the State Attorney General. 2003 was the year that San Francisco Democrats committed election fraud against then Green Party member Matt Gonzalez, who easily won the mayor's race, but was prevented from being mayor by the Newsom-Harris election fraud team.

CHANCELLOR BIRGENAU AT BERKELEY AND CHANCELLOR KATEHI AT DAVIS MUST BE FIRED TODAY. These people are vicious fascist parasites. Birgenau gets $500,000 plus benefits from us taxpayers. See
http://californiawatch.org/dailyreport/chancellor-uc-berkeley-morphing-federal-university-8816,
Comment by Moravecglobal
Katehi gets $400,000 a year plus benefits from us taxpayers. See
http://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/news/article/21123
Add Your Comments

Comments (Hide Comments)
by UCD
j3ae5.jpg
UC Davis Campus Police Lieutenant John Pike (530-752-3989 japikeiii [at] ucdavis.edu) pepper-sprays 30 peacefully sitting demonstrators at point blank range
by vomit
Chancellor Katehi officeofthechancellor [at] ucdavis.edu
9:00 PM
to UC

November 18, 2011

To UC Davis Campus Community,

I am writing to tell you about events that occurred Friday afternoon at UC Davis relating to a group of protestors who chose to set up an encampment on the quad Thursday as part of a week of peaceful demonstrations on our campus that coincided with many other occupy movements at universities throughout the country.

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.

While we have appreciated the peaceful and respectful tone of the demonstrations during the week, the encampment raised serious health and safety concerns, and the resources required to supervise this encampment could not be sustained, especially in these very tight economic times when our resources must support our core academic mission.

We deeply regret that many of the protestors today chose not to work with our campus staff and police to remove the encampment as requested. We are even more saddened by the events that subsequently transpired to facilitate their removal.

We appreciate the substantive dialogue the students have begun here on campus as part of this week.s activities, and we want to offer appropriate opportunities to express opinions, advance the discussion and suggest solutions as part of the time-honored university tradition. We invite our entire campus community to consider the topics related to the occupy movement you would like to discuss and we pledge to work with you to develop a series of discussion forums throughout our campus.

I ask all members of the campus community for their support in ensuring a safe environment for all members of our campus community. We hope you will actively support us in accomplishing this objective.

Linda P.B. Katehi
From:
http://ucdfa.org/
CUCFA Condemns Police Violence Against Non-Violent Protesters
Posted by admin on November 19th, 2011

The Davis Faculty Association is the Davis chapter of the Council of UC Faculty Associations, which has published (cucfa.org) the following:

The Council of UC Faculty Associations Condemns Police Violence Against Non-Violent Protesters

This week, we have seen excessive force used against non-violent protesters at UC Berkeley, UCLA, CSU Long Beach, and UC Davis. Student, faculty and staff protesters have been pepper-sprayed directly in the eyes and mouth, beaten and shoved by batons, dragged by the arms while handcuffed, and submitted to other forms of excessive force. Protesters have been hospitalized because of injuries inflicted during these incidents. The violence was unprovoked, disproportional and excessive.

We are outraged by the excessive and unnecessary force used against peaceful protests.

We are outraged that the administrations of UC campuses are using police brutality to suppress dissent, free speech and peaceful assembly.

We demand that the Chancellors of the University of California cease using police violence to repress non-violent political protests. We hold them responsible for the violence and believe it can only result in an escalation of outrage that holds the potential for even more violence.

Police brutality damages the University’s public image, and, more importantly, it damages the climate for free expression at UC. We condemn the assault on the legacy of free speech at the University of California.

We call for greater attention to the substantive issues that motivate the protests regarding the privatization of education. With massive cuts in state funding and rising tuition costs across the community college system, the Cal State network, K-12, and the University of California, public education is undergoing a severe divestment. Student debt has reached unprecedented levels as bank profits swell. We decry the growing privatization and tuition increases that have been the frequent — and only — responses of the UC Board of Regents.

Signed,
The Board of the Council of UC Faculty Associations
.Filed under Uncategorized1 Comment
DFA Board Calls for Katehi’s Resignation
Posted by admin on November 19th, 2011

The DFA Board calls for the immediate resignation of Chancellor Katehi. The Chancellor’s authorization of the use of police force to suppress the protests by students and community members speaking out on behalf of our university and public higher education generally represents a gross failure of leadership.

Given the recent use of excessive force by police against “occupy” protestors at UC Berkeley and elsewhere, the Chancellor must have anticipated that, by authorizing police action, she was effectively authorizing their use of excessive force against peaceful UCD student protestors. The Chancellor’s role is to enable open and free inquiry, not to suppress it.

We also call for a policy that will end the practice of forcibly removing non-violent student, faculty, staff, and community protestors by police on the UC Davis campus. The University of California should be taking a leadership role in encouraging the exercise of free speech, not in suppressing it.
.***
Nathan Brown is a Board member of the DFA and his letter is also posted at the UCDFA website.
Apparently Katehi takes care of the rich and powerful. She appears to be corrupt so why wouldn’t she approve of outrageous police behavior. See articles on her role University of Illinois corruption scandal:

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-college-clout-ripples-19-jun19,0,487757.story

http://davisvanguard.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2883:new-chicago-tribune-report-appears-to-directly-links-katehi-to-scandal&Itemid=118

She is just another one the 1% has put in place to do whatever they tell her to do. It advances career much better than integrity.
by Anti-fascist
Please sign the petition to Chancellor Katehi to resign. You are adding your signature to Professor Nathan Brown's letter cited above, and you can add your own comment. See
http://www.change.org/petitions/police-pepper-spray-peaceful-uc-davis-students-ask-chancellor-katehi-to-resign
by Anti-Fascist
From http://www.sacbee.com/statepay/salary-details/?firstname=John&lastname=Pike&totalpay=107792.2&agency=UC+Davis
Pepper Spray cop Pike's annual salary is $110,243.12. All the other UC police receive equally outrageous salaries, while students have to pay exorbitant fees, tuition and book prices to get a basic college education. The police departments at all UC campuses must be abolished.
by oink oink
Here is the contact info for the pig wielding the pepper spray.

Lieutenant John Pike
Records Unit Manager
Phone: 530-752-3989
Cell: 530-979-0184
japikeiii [at] ucdavis.edu
Address: 4005 Cowell Blvd, Apt 616. Davis, CA 95618-6017
Skype: japike3
by repost
640_pike-pepper-spraying-line.jpg
Photo:Brian Nguyen/The Aggie.


22-year-old UC Davis student W. (name withheld by request) was one of the students pepper-sprayed at point-blank range Friday by Lt. John Pike while seated on the ground, arms linked and silent.

W. tells Boing Boing that Pike sprayed them at close range with military-grade pepper spray, in a punitive manner. Pike knew the students by name from Thursday night when they "occupied" a campus plaza. The students offered Pike food and coffee and chatted with him and other officers while setting up tents. On Friday, UC Davis chancellor Linda Katehi told students they had to remove their #OWS tents for unspecified "health and safety" reasons.

"Move or we're going to shoot you," Pike is reported to have yelled at one student right before delivering pepper spray. Then, turning to his fellow officers and brandishing the can in the air, "Don't worry, I'm going to spray these kids down."
ucpd_lieutenant_john_pike_terrorizing_innocents.jpg
UC Davis PD Lieutenant John Pike terrorizing impressionist picnicers
by here
This is definitely getting out of hand. http://pic.twitter.com/OXTJqLfw
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