by Robb Davis – The Reuters news item was startling:
The WHO [World Health Organization] has convened a special meeting on Wednesday [March 21, 2012] to discuss whether the emergence of TB strains that seem to be resistant to all known medicines merits a new class definition of “totally drug-resistant TB”, or TDR-TB.
In a sweeping irony on a number of fronts, the administrator who emerges from the pepper-spray debacle looking the best is Assistant Vice Chancellor Griselda Castro. The would-be hero was ultimately unable to prevail upon the Leadership Team, in terms of determining the actual make-up of the Occupiers, composed almost entirely of students, and ultimately her pleas for patience were disregarded.
This is greatly ironic because a year ago at this time, Griselda Castro was having to explain to the public the function of the Activism Response Team, the very team that students and civil rights were decrying in fear of infiltration.
On Tuesday we had an opportunity to watch the council continue to struggle with a site-by-site assessment for how to deal with Crown Castle. Not only do we have the views of the three incumbents, but both Lucas Frerichs and Brett Lee made public comments laying out their views.
David Buscho was not hopeful that the investigation would yield the kinds of findings he saw as needed, but he said, “I think now that a reputable organization like the ACLU is here [and] is involved in representing the interests of the students, I think that now we can actually say that [the university will move in the right direction to rectify the situation].”
Is this the right time to give the Davis City Council a raise for the first time in twelve years? In the next four months we will hear buzzwords like shared sacrifice coming from the council, as they ask city employees to take pay cuts and pay more of their retirement pensions, but three members of the council still believed this was the correct time in which to vote a raise that will take effect after the next council is seated.
The council also voted 4-1 to make changes in their health care plans that they will believe will ultimately save the city a modest amount of money, allowing the councilmembers to exercise a deferred cash-out plan of $500 per month rather than taking the more expensive full health care plan. (Details of both proposals can be read in this article from last week.)
As the Kroll investigators note, “Without the legal authority to demand that the tents be removed, the police lose the legal authority for much of what subsequently transpired on November 18, including the issuance of an order to disperse and the declaration of an unlawful assembly.”
Chancellor Linda Katehi perhaps has a brief window of time to act in order to save her job and in order to take advantage of the consensus for change, despite the vote of confidence she received from Cruz Reynoso on Thursday.
On Friday, Chancellor Katehi acknowledged the problems that the campus faces in a statement, “The Reynoso task force report illuminated clearly and sharply the need for major reform of campus police operations and better coordination, collaboration and communication within the UC Davis administration and with the broader university community.”
Davis Police Chief Annette Spicuzza was played on paid administrative leave shortly after the pepper spray incident went down on November 18, 2011. The question now is what will happen to her.
Every Friday between now and the election, the candidates for Davis City Council will be asked to respond to one hard-hitting Vanguard question on the issues that matter to Davis, or at least to the Vanguard.
Last week the council candidates were given a question on Monday and asked to respond by midnight this morning. For next week, they were given the question this morning, by request of one of the candidates who preferred to have the weekend to work on the answer.
Six of the 12 students facing charges for bank blocking in the Memorial Union were either pepper sprayed or arrested on November 18, according to one protester involved in both incidents. By itself, this could simply mean that the same people involved in the bank-blocking incident were heavily involved in the November 18 protests.
The students, however, believe otherwise, that the bank-blocking prosecution is simply an extension of the pepper-spray incident and is the university’s retribution for their involvement on the Quad.
By Michael RisherStaff Attorney
ACLU of Northern California
The long-awaited report on the infamous incident of UC Davis police pepper-spraying non-violent, seated student protesters has been released. It concludes what we all know from watching the shocking videos: “The pepperspraying incident that took place on November 18, 2011 should and could have been prevented.” That’s the opening to the report, which outlines the various ways that Chancellor Katehi, other Administration officials, and the UC Davis Police Department completely mismanaged the situation at every level.
While legislators such as Speaker John Perez and the always-outspoken Senator Leland Yee, along with Lt. Governor Gavin Newsom, immediately responded to the report, Davis’ own legislators took a more reflective and reserved approach.
Finally, on Thursday afternoon, both Assemblymember Mariko Yamada and Senator Lois Wolk issued statements on their reaction to the reports from Cruz Reynoso and his Task Force and from the Kroll Team.
Task Force and Kroll Find Pepper Spray Not a Reasonable Use of Force; Hammers Chancellor and Lt. Pike –
The findings of the long-awaited Pepper-Spray Report are basic and succinctly summarized in the introduction: “The pepper-spraying incident that took place on November 18, 2011 should and could have been prevented.” They find that “the decision to use pepper spray was not supported by objective evidence and was not authorized by policy.”
The report paints a damning picture of the university’s response to the protests from the top to the bottom, including indecisiveness by Chancellor Katehi and an unreasonable use of force by Lt. John Pike.
Despite the pepper-spray incident and ensuing media frenzy, largely staying out of the limelight was Vice Chancellor John Meyer. This despite the fact that the vice chancellor is the direct line supervisor to the police chief in the UC Davis organizational chart.
Earlier this week, the police union’s attorney, John Bakhit, threw a curveball to those eagerly awaiting the release of the pepper-spray report when he told the local newspaper that Reynoso’s report was “going to surprise a lot of people.”
The Vanguard this week launches the Davis Vanguard Youtube Channel. We have two clips from last night’s presentation from Cruz Reynoso covering 33 of the approximately 90 minutes presentation.
Please click on these to view portions of the presentation by Justice Reynoso. In addition, there are other video clips available as well.
Former Supreme Court Justice Cruz Reynoso was stark, critical and to the point on Wednesday afternoon during the long-awaited release of the pepper-spray report – and the Justice did not hold back when describing his frustration with the problems of portions of the Penal Code known commonly as the Police Officer’s Bill of Rights.
While there was no shortage of opinions on the pepper-spray report that, in the words of Cruz Reynoso on Wednesday afternoon was “finally” released, there was a remarkable lack of comment by local public officials. Whether it was the volume of the material or the nature of that material, it is difficult to say.
UC President Mark Yudof on Wednesday indicated that, like many others, that he had not read the full report.
Task Force and Kroll Find Pepper Spray Not a Reasonable Use of Force; Hammers Chancellor and Lt. Pike –
The findings of the long-awaited Pepper-Spray Report are basic and succinctly summarized in the introduction: “The pepper-spraying incident that took place on November 18, 2011 should and could have been prevented.” They find that “the decision to use pepper spray was not supported by objective evidence and was not authorized by policy.”
The report paints a damning picture of the university’s response to the protests from the top to the bottom, including indecisiveness by Chancellor Katehi and an unreasonable use of force by Lt. John Pike.
UC Davis has released the 190-page pepper-spray report, click here to read it
The Vanguard will have news and commentary shortly.
