Here are two related, remarkable videos. On the left, UC Davis campus police fire pepper spray into the faces of protesters who are sitting peacefully on the ground. On the right, after facing a barrage of criticism over the incident, the university chancellor walks out of a building to her car at night while hundreds of protesters look on in total silence.
[University of California-Davis] officials found themselves under a barrage of Internet-driven outrage Saturday, after campus police officers pepper-sprayed protesters at an Occupy UC Davis encampment Friday.
Saturday evening, after holding a news conference to address intense nationwide media interest, UC Davis Chancellor Linda P.B. Katehi walked through a blocks-long gantlet of students, who stood silently as she passed to a waiting SUV. Katehi had stayed inside the building for more than two hours after the conference.
Earlier, the crowd of protesters, which grew to 300 or more, had waved signs and chanted “Resignation, Resignation” and “Take Responsibility.” There were no police officers in sight and protesters dispersed shortly after the chancellor departed.
The board of the Davis Faculty Association, among others, has called for her resignation.
Katehi found herself in the line of fire after numerous videos of Friday’s pepper-spraying went viral on the Internet.
The videos show police spraying a red mist along a line of passively resisting students who had linked arms as they sat on the ground. The police had ordered them to take down tents they had set up on the campus quad as part of a protest in sympathy with Occupy Wall Street and against UC fee hikes, among other things.
Ten protesters were arrested, including nine students, while about 200 people watched, many shooting video on cameras or cellphones that ended up on various websites. The crowd chanted “Shame on you” and other phrases as those arrested were carried off.
As public and media interest in the pepper-spraying grew Saturday, Katehi, who was supportive of the officers in a statement Friday, issued a statement expressing her “sadness for the events this past Friday” and vowing to have a task force review police actions in the protest.
Protesters and campus officials said they took calls from CNN News and “Good Morning America,” as well as a host of local news outlets, leading campus officials to call a Saturday afternoon teleconference to brief the media.
At the conference, Katehi said the review would be by an outside body and that she refused to resign in the face of criticism.
“I don’t think it’s appropriate for me to resign at this moment,” she said.
This is unbelievable. They should be marched in front of the public and forced to do community service for their deplorable behavior. This is just another instance where the people are abused by those who are supposed to protect them. Some real “tough guys”. They should be fired and arrested. Sickening.