Vanguard at UC Davis

Few areas have been more controversial than the role played by UC Davis professors in the protests, both leading up to November 18 and following it.

In the Kroll report, many have focused on the line: “Professor Joshua Clover spoke to the group, warning them about cooperating with the administration, urging them to take matters into their own hands and stating, ‘Right now, we’re the law.’ ”  Fewer have noted, “The activists ‘went back and forth’ about what to do next. At approximately 4:45 p.m., the activists used consensus-style decision-making to reach the decision to continue to occupy Mrak Hall after it closed at 5:00 p.m. and to ‘use bike locks and chains to lock the building doors open.’ “

If you believe UC Davis, the US Bank fiasco is the fault of everyone but them.  Twelve of the protesters will get their second shot at arraignment this week, on a series of misdemeanor charges stemming from their role in the bank-blocking protests that went from January 13 until February 28.

And on Friday, UC Davis filed a lawsuit against US Bank who, after they had to close the bank 27 times early and not open at all three additional times, finally gave up and closed their doors.

UC Davis kept indicating that they hoped to solve their dispute with US Bank over the closure of the bank’s Memorial Union branch following seven weeks of closure due to protests.  Last week, indications were that negotiations were still ongoing, however that has now changed.

The University of California, as expected, has released a report that examines polices and practices related to UC responses to campus protests.

We began this week with an analysis that Chancellor Linda Katehi ought to lose her job over her role in creating the conditions for the pepper-spraying incident to have occurred.

Now we have a very strongly-worded condemnation of the chancellor by the Academic Senate.  In their words, they “censure” the chancellor for “failure to perform adequately the tasks of her office and failure to provide clarity, candor and trustworthy accounts in relation to the events of Nov. 18.”

Executive Council Stops Just Short of Calling For Resignation

In the strongest move to date in response to the reports on the November 18 pepper-spraying incident, the UC Davis Academic Senate announced this morning, that they “hereby censure Chancellor Linda P. B. Katehi for failure to perform adequately the tasks of her office and failure to provide clarity, candor, and trustworthy accounts in relation to the events of November 18, 2011.”

The Executive Council stopped short of calling for her resignation. However, the Special Committee did do so.

On Wednesday January 11, 2012, a group of UC Davis students would enter the lobby of the US Bank branch in UC Davis’ Memorial Union, sit down, and conduct a teach in.  Two days later, they would conduct their first blockade of the bank, causing it to close early.

Over the next 6 and one-half weeks, the bank would close early 27 times and not open at all three times, not including holidays.  On February 28, the Bank would officially close its doors.

At this point, two dominoes have fallen:  Chief Annette Spicuzza was likely forced to retire in order to keep her pension; and Vice Chancellor Meyer, Spicuzza’s immediate supervisor, was removed administratively from the position of direct oversight over the police department and replaced by Provost Hexter in that role.

The Vanguard has now completed its individual-by-individual account of the key actors at UC Davis.  We are, of course, awaiting the official word – if we ever get it – on the plight of people such as Lt. John Pike, Lt. Barry Swartwood and Officer Alexander Lee.

One of the big mysteries in the pepper spray incident was the identity of the second pepper sprayer.  Both the police officer’s union, through the court system, and the university kept the second officer’s identity a secret, due in part to security concerns and the fear that the harassment suffered by Lt. John Pike would be visited upon the second officer.

While UC Davis and hopefully UC is looking at changes to their policing policies in the wake of controversial incidents last November on both the UC Berkeley and the UC Davis campuses, the City of Oakland has made headlines this week with announced changes to crowd-control policies, due to the Occupy Protests.

In a press release on Monday, they stated that they are “committed to becoming a national leader in crowd management by reforming and improving its policies and practices.”

In the hours and days that followed the November 18 pepper spray event, Chancellor Linda Katehi would at first deflect, then take “full responsibility” for the fiasco.  It is still not clear what it means for her to take “full responsibility.”

At the time of this press, there appears that the Chancellor will survive this, even as the reports paint a disturbing picture of miscalculation and incompetence that goes from the Chancellor’s office to the actions of Lt. Pike and his fateful decision to use pepper spray on seated protesters engaging in what was non-violent protest of university policies and perhaps the illegal tent clearing operation.

The Vanguard fundamentally disagrees with the decision to redact names in the Reynoso Task Force and Kroll Reports.  We believe that responsibility needs to be taken appropriately by those whose decisions or actions contributed to this problem.

To the surprise of probably no one, Matthew Carmichael was sworn in Thursday to succeed Annette Spicuzza who had retired just one day earlier.  Due to the quick turnaround between the resignation of Ms. Spicuzza and the announcement for the new hire, it was clear that the choice would be Mr. Carmichael, a 27-year veteran of law enforcement, with the last 10 years as a lieutenant at UC Davis. He has served as acting chief since Nov. 21.

Ms. Spicuzza had been on administrative leave while the campus conducted an internal affairs investigation into the Nov. 18 pepper-spraying of demonstrators on the Quad.

As Kroll aptly notes, Lt. John Pike of the UC Davis Police Department became the face and image of the pepper spray incident.  “The image of Lieutenant John Pike spraying the activists has gone beyond viral to the point of being iconic, with Lieutenant Pike’s image inserted into videos, cartoons, famous paintings, etc,” Kroll writes.

Ultimately, the report by both Kroll and the Reynoso Task Force put the primary culpability on Lt. Pike, at least with regard to the decision to use pepper spray on the protesters in the Quad on November 18, 2011.