It was not a friendly crowd that faced Chancellor Linda Katehi on Monday afternoon, but they clearly wanted to hear what the chancellor had to say, even as many chanted for her to resign. The crowd listened politely, quickly shouting down those who wished to catcall or heckle the chancellor.
One of the points that defenders of the police here have failed to address is whether or not the actions of the police here are legal, or if they have clearly violated community standards. In so doing, regardless of legality, it means that the community is not willing to accept this type of response from their police and therefore political pressure will force the agency to have to change policies and even dismiss officials.
UC officials, who hoped the matter of pepper spraying students on the Quad of the MU last Friday would simply go away, were treated to a rude awakening as more than 5,000 people – students, staff, faculty and members of the community alike – jammed into the UCD Quad Monday afternoon.
UC Davis has just announced that Police Chief Annette Spicuzza has been placed on administrative leave, pending a review of officers’ use of pepper spray against protesters. UC Davis Lt. Matt Carmichael will serve as interim police chief.
In the immediate wake of the pepper spraying, the initial response from the leadership at UC Davis was actually to defend the actions of the police.
Saturday featured a flurry of activity as UC Davis had to rapidly backtrack in the wake of national and worldwide coverage, from CNN to the New York Times to the Huffington Post to the BBC.
Just when it seemed that the Occupy movement was about to die out, a confrontation that was brewing all week exploded as police officers used pepper spray and other non-lethal means to expel protesters from an encampment on the campus Quad.
Officials report at least ten protesters arrested.
University Claims This To Be An Old Database From 2003 That They Never Used – The Vanguard, after a series of denials, eventually got the University to admit that a “small” database existed back in 2003 and 2004. It was developed to track activists in 2003 in advance of a US Department of Agriculture Conference that they claimed was likely to be protested by many out of areas activists, some of whom they claimed threatened violence and disorder.
First Picnic Day, now Whole Earth. Some in the community will be tempted to cast a broad net towards youth. Unfortunately, as is always the case, a small number of miscreants spoil it for the rest who are looking for good and clean fun.
UC Davis officials probably had little choice but to shut down the Whole Earth Festival’s DJ Stage beginning next year, in the wake of the campus Police Department’s investigations of three violent crimes, including the reported rape of a 16-year-old girl, in and around the music venue last weekend.
It hearkened back to stories about the sixties and FBI infiltration into groups. The truth however, seems to be much more mundane, according not just to the UC Vice Chancellor involved, but also a member of the SAT.
In May, as many as 150 students marched from campus to the Davis Police Station to protest what they called racial profiling and other tactics by the Davis Police Department.
According to police, the swastika may have been carved into the bulletin board earlier but covered by fliers. As part of the investigation, the police department took crime scene photos and fingerprints and removed the bulletin board as evidence.
An incident where vandalism was discovered on the campus building that houses the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Resource Center will also be investigated as a hate crime.
But No One is Asking Where the Oversight Was – Both the Davis Enterprise and the Sacramento Bee have been on this aspect of the investigation. On Thursday, the Davis Enterprise reported on a UC Davis police investigation, laid out in a three-page probable cause statement that led to a search warrant in early December.
He offers specific reference to UC Davis in his comments dated December 2009, the irony is that unlike the past, I think the UC Davis officials and administrators fared fairly well. The situation that occurred was tense, it was perhaps dragged out too long as the students occupied Mrak Hall, but unlike the past, the university comes across of sympathetic and reasonable. Had they followed Dr. Garland’s advice, the situation would likely have escalated rather than de-escalated.
In February of 2007, the Sacramento Bee ran a story on reporting of sexual assaults, lauding UC Davis which at one point in time was criticized for underreporting sexual assaults, and then was “leading the way” in the reporting of crime.
Wrote the Bee on February 16, 2007:
A UC Davis professor is suing the University for racial discrimination, harassment and retaliation in relation to charges surrounding the handling of a grade dispute. The University is taking the extraordinary measure of using anti-SLAPP legislation as a means to quash a legitimate discrimination complaint. If successful, this could set a new precedent as a legal tool used by alleged offenders to effectively gut current anti-discrimination protections in the workplace.
Professor Branner in August of 2008 filed a lawsuit at the UC Regents and Vice Provost Horwitz alleging that their actions violated his rights and protections under California law.
Last month we reported that Former UC Davis Police Officer Calvin Chang had filed suit against the university claiming breach of the settlement agreement and a variety of harassment and discrimination charges.
We also reported that this would likely be the first in a string of complaints against the departments. The Vanguard has now learned that on February 26, 2009, a second UC Davis Police officer, Officer Chithien Le has filed suited against the UC Davis Police Officer.
UC DavisOn Monday the Vanguard ran a story on the lawsuit filed by former UC Davis police Officer Calvin Chang. The story has since been covered in detail in the California Aggie and mentioned briefly on the Davis Enterprise website. At this point, one of the hang ups has been that the university has not been served and thus not officially notified with the complaint. So at this point they cannot respond.
UC DavisIn the lawsuit, Officer Chang, who is openly gay, alleges that he was subject to harassment including homophobic slurs and a death threat while serving as a police officer for the UC Davis Police Department. Officer Chang was at the time of his hire the only Asian-American officer on the campus and the first openly gay officer.
