Vanguard at UC Davis

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.

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.

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.”

Task Force Presentation Generates Anger and Frustration Among Students and Community Members

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.

John Bakhit, who represents Lt. John Pike and the Federated University Police Officers Association, suddenly broke his silence and indicated the Reynosos report was “going to surprise a lot of people,” in an article in the local newspaper that will be published today.

The question we are now left to ponder in the hours before the actual report is released is whether Mr. Bakhit is giving us a sneak preview of what is in the report, or his preemptive strike trying to diffuse what many believe will be a very critical assessment of what occurred on November 18.

In the end, attorneys for Lt. Pike and other officers represented by the Federated University Police Officers Association, must have felt that while they could delay the report, they were only forestalling the inevitable.

On March 28, Judge Evelio Grillo rejected arguments from the union’s attorney, ruling, “The Regents are permitted to disclose the entire Report after redacting the names of UCDPD officers as stated above. The Regents must replace the ranks and true names with the common rank of ‘Officer’ and pseudonyms.”

The decision made by the Yolo County District Attorney’s office to prosecute 12 protesters for their involvement in the demonstration and blockade of the US Bank Branch located in UC Davis’ Memorial Union has energized a movement that had previously seemed to be on the verge of exhausting itself.

A campaign has been launched to convince the Yolo County DA’s Office and the Office of the Chancellor to drop the charges against the protesters.

When the November 18 pepper-spray incident occurred, three days later there was a rally held on the Quad, the entire Quad was full with at least 5000 rallying to support those who had been pepper sprayed just three days earlier.  The message was very clear, far from nipping the situation in the bud, the overreaction by UC Davis police officers had injected energy that could never have existed without the act by police.

In February, the Vanguard interviewed Janet Li, an immigrant to this county and a high school student from Southern California who had been inspired by the Occupy Movement to get involved.