by Lamar Heystek
The following is an open letter to the Davis City Council:
Whether you agree or disagree with the various manifestations of the “Occupy” movement throughout our community, our country and our world, one thing is indisputable: the use of violence in the face of nonviolent, peaceable assembly is unconscionable. It is the mark of dictatorship and not the face of freedom.
In light of recent events, it is your moral responsibility to reinforce this principle for the City of Davis to the world now watching us.
There is a time and place for all legal law enforcement tactics. However, the copious audiovisual evidence and meticulous eyewitness accounts made universally available show an incredibly disproportionate response to passive (silent and seated) and unmistakably nonviolent exercisers of free speech at last Friday’s Occupy UC Davis demonstration. The use of a chemical suppressant against these people is reprehensible and morally indefensible.
Those who choose to ignore an important fact – that the wellbeing of the greater Davis community is inextricably linked to the economic, social and cultural welfare of the UC Davis campus community – may say that what transpired last Friday does not pose a moral issue for the City of Davis at all. After all, the police response involved a UC Davis demonstration outside the City limits, with apparently only members of the UC Davis Police Department wielding riot gear and pepper spray at UC Davis students.
However, as you are probably aware, members of the City of Davis Police Department were in fact on the scene, playing a secondary, supporting role as a responder to UCDPD’s request for “mutual aid.” Despite this secondary role, our City peace officers were seen by millions around the world participating in the suppression of students who, while passively resisting, were actively engaged in exercising their constitutional freedoms to speak out. Secondary or not, it is our obligation as a freedom-loving community to clearly and formally articulate our values so that there be no misunderstanding.
Our City’s law enforcement resources must not be deployed in cooperation – however ancillary – at the request of another agency that is engaging in morally questionable police tactics.
In light of last Friday’s events, the Davis City Council must seriously reexamine the City’s role in mutual aid agreements with partner agencies in such cases. More importantly, the Davis City Council must formally enunciate in no uncertain terms – by resolution or otherwise – the immediately binding and legally enforceable policy that the City shall not abet, assist or support (or initiate, for that matter) inherently violent tactics – chemical or otherwise – in dealing with passive, nonviolent individuals who pose absolutely no clear, imminent public safety threat.
In short, going forward, the City must make a public commitment to deal with nonviolence nonviolently, whether it be at the Occupy Davis protest at Central Park, the Occupy UC Davis protest on campus or beyond. I ask that all concerned community members join me in this call.
What happened last Friday is not the subject of merely local news, but also of national and world news. It is a matter not just of the UC Davis community, but also of the greater Davis community and of our free, democratic society at large. While the Davis City Council cannot directly affect the decisions of UC Davis Chancellor Linda Katehi, UC Davis Police Chief Annette Spicuzza or the UC Davis Police Department, it can and must send the clear message that violence anywhere is a threat to nonviolence everywhere.
Lamar Heystek served on the Davis City Council from 2006-2010.
Lamar
I want to thank you for expressing this so eloquently. I agree that it is our responsibility of members of the Davis community to express to our leaders our unwillingness to support, either actively through deployment of our resources, or passively through our silence, the use of disproportionate force on peaceful demonstrators.
If there is not a formal statement clarifying that the Davis police force will not participate in the use of violence against non violent protestors ( regardless of political philosophy) then one should be drafted and made public.
And on a more personal note, I miss you on the city council and am glad to see you are still with us in spirit.
As far as I am aware, the Davis police just stood by, nothing more. The danger of overreacting is that the city may shoot itself in the foot if the city does not cooperate with UCD when needed and vice versa.
Elaine: That is itself a problem if that is deemed an illegal use of force (and most police I have spoken with – all off the record) seem to think it is -that puts a duty on the police to do something more than stand and watch and they did not.
[quote]Our City’s law enforcement resources must not be deployed in cooperation – however ancillary – at the request of another agency that is engaging in morally questionable police tactics.[/quote]
Which came first in time, moral decider, chicken or egg?
Elaine
The danger of overreacting is that the city may shoot itself in the foot if the city does not cooperate with UCD when needed and vice versa.
I agree completely with your point that a cooperative arrangement between UCD and the city police is necessary.
This is part of the reason that I believe that both forces need to have crystal clear instruction from their respective leadership that excessive force is unacceptable and will not be tolerated.
[quote]Elaine: That is itself a problem if that is deemed an illegal use of force (and most police I have spoken with – all off the record) seem to think it is -that puts a duty on the police to do something more than stand and watch and they did not.[/quote]
There are a lot of assumptions being made here about what the Davis police could have done/knew in regard to what was about to happen. Could the Davis police have interfered w the actions of UCD? Somehow I doubt it – it is not the jurisdiction of the Davis police. Secondly, the pepper spraying may have been over before the Davis police even knew what the UCD police had decided to do. From my view of the video footage, it looked as if even the UCD police were not in agreement – one started to get a hold of one of the protesters by the arm to carry the protester away, but was stopped from doing so by the UCD policeman who decided to do the pepper spraying.
“Secondly, the pepper spraying may have been over before the Davis police even knew what the UCD police had decided to do.” That’s correct, Elaine, City police were in fact casually chatting with bystanders when Lt Pike deployed pepper spray . It appears that Davis officers were more involved in aiding the retreat of UCDPD .
‘Whether you agree or disagree with the various manifestations of the “Occupy” movement throughout our community, our country and our world, one thing is indisputable: the use of violence in the face of nonviolent, peaceable assembly is unconscionable. It is the mark of dictatorship and not the face of freedom.’
That says it all, Lamar .
Terminating the mutual aid agreement would put the City of Davis at risk without doing anything to rectify the stunning lack of leadership we saw on Friday. That debacle was the result of a breakdown somewhere in the chain between policy-setting and implementation; where the break occurred is yet to be shown.
Based upon my limited understanding of the Incident Command System (ICS), the host agency (in this case UCD) directs the action of all responders. The latter (e.g., the City of Davis PD contingent) become subordinate to the Incident Commander (IC) upon checking in to the command post. Only under very unusual circumstances — well beyond the level of what happened Friday — would subordinate agency responders be expected to challenge the IC. Doing so would defeat the purpose of the ICS and result in chaos.
What’s needed here is a thorough review of existing policy and the training necessary to support it. Changing the mutual aid relationships shouldn’t even enter the discussion.
Thank you Lamar,
I was going to go to public comment to make the same argument. I don’t know if UC and Davis should get rid of their mutual aid agreement but raising the issue in earnest puts additional pressure on the University to get its own house in order, something that clearly needs to happen.
Jim Frame wrote: “Terminating the mutual aid agreement would put the City of Davis at risk without doing anything to rectify the stunning lack of leadership we saw on Friday.”
Lamar wrote:
“Secondary or not, it is our obligation as a freedom-loving community to clearly and formally articulate our values so that there be no misunderstanding.”
I don’t see where Lamar is calling for termination, and I don’t see how asking the council to “clearly state their values” in the form of a resolution really changes the mutual aid agreement. I think it would simply help move along the “policy review” process we all want.
Lamar – Thank you for your eloquent words which capture my feelings completely.
I wholeheartedly support your call for “the City must make a public commitment to deal with nonviolence nonviolently, whether it be at the Occupy Davis protest at Central Park, the Occupy UC Davis protest on campus or beyond. I ask that all concerned community members join me in this call.”
The Davis City Council, our city administration and police should publicly state they will protect non-violent protesters who are simply exercising their Constitutional Rights of Freedom of Speech and Assembly. The outrageous conduct this past week by the UC Davis Police and the Chancellor’s Office must be called for what it is – a misuse of police power – for purposes of brutality & intimidation. It has resulted in jeopardizing the public’s safety, not protecting it.
Just thinking about these law breaking students losing control and destroying property. I assume everyone taking a moral stand against the cops right now would be demanding they restore order and save your property.
The use of pepper spray was appropriate in my opinion. What other techniques should the cops have used to get the law-breaking students to leave?
Jeff Boone wrote:
“The use of pepper spray was appropriate in my opinion. What other techniques should the cops have used to get the law-breaking students to leave?”
How about arresting them? That is usually what happens. We’ve seen it a million times before. Protestors sit in nonviolent fashion- police lift them up and drag or walk them away to be arrested.
That didn’t happen here.
Jeff
I think you inadvertently got this just right in one way. Your statement is ” just thinking about these law breaking
students losing control and destroying property”. That is precisely all you have to go on, your thoughts about that possibility. None of these students were doing anything even close to losing control and destroying property.
Since when does someone get punished for what they have not done but only what you are thinking could happen.
This is what proportionality is all about. Should they have been arrested and removed ? I think that is a reasonable option, although I think ignoring them until they all went home for Thanksgiving would have been a better one.
Does sitting with linked arms on a sidewalk warrant the use of pepper spray ? Not in my opinion.
Lamar is right on. I don’t think the city of Davis should partner with an organization that may expose us to extra liability because they are poorly trained or poorly led. Lt. Pike did what he did because he thought it was “okay” to do. I don’t believe he got to be a “LT.” by regularly disobeying orders or being a rogue element.
Also, I have to say, if the UC Davis police are afraid of the group that I saw in the video and still photos, they shouldn’t be in police work. There’s nobody in the crowd that looks like a “tough guy”. A friend of mine used to remark: I grew up in East St. Louis around a lot of tough guys. There’s no tough guys in Davis.
I think JB is a moral wimp. We should nuke these damn whining, liberal students, and the whining, liberal professors behind them! In fact, we should nuke the whole damn liberal university, all except the parts that bring in multi-millions in research dollars for the benefit of big corporations. Keep that part. It’s only nukes, the little tactical ones–what the hell! You just know those damn whining, liberal snotty-nosed students are going to grow up to rape little children and then become homeless parasites ’cause you can’t get a job with a damn, whiny liberal arts education anyway. Then make Rush Limbaugh president, ’cause everything out of his mouth is pure genius brilliance! And don’t worry ’bout electing him–’cause the soldiers and cops got our backs! Right?
Awe come on Crilly. I’m not a wimp about anything… and I would stack my moral compass up against anyone. I just can’t get so outraged about pepper spray used in these circumstances. I think you and others are making a mountain out of a molehill.
Just watched a video clip released by the police that shows the little darlings to have been much less peaceful than had been reported.