“On November 18, 2011, police arrived wearing riot gear at 3:30 pm and began removing tents and arresting demonstrators obstructing the removal of tents. A group of demonstrators staged a sit-in on the walkway in the quad, linking arms together and refusing to move. This blockade prevented the Campus police from leaving. Campus police officers asked the demonstrators to move several times, but the students refused.
While students were sitting on the ground, in a circle, around the officers, they were asked to “leave peacefully.” Sometime around 4:00 pm, two officers began spraying Defense Technology MK-9, 0.7% Orange Band pepper spray at almost “point-blank range” in the faces of the seated students. The pepper spray used, according to various websites, has a recommended minimum distance of six feet. Bystanders recorded the incident with cell-phone cameras, while members of the crowd chanted “Shame on you” and “Let them go” at the police officers. Eleven protesters received medical treatment; two were hospitalized.
According to university officials, the officers felt like they were “surrounded” by the demonstrators. One of the officers who used pepper spray on the students was subsequently identified as Lieutenant John Pike. Ten arrests were made. Arrestees were “cited and released on misdemeanor charges of unlawful assembly and failure to disperse”. Police began to leave the area around 4:10 pm as more students began to arrive.
In October 2013, a judge ruled that Lt. John Pike, the lead pepper sprayer, would be paid $38,000 in worker’s compensation benefits, to compensate for “[the] suffering he experienced after the incident”. Apart from the worker’s compensation award, he retained his retirement credits. The three dozen student demonstrators, meanwhile, were collectively awarded US$1 million by UC Davis in a settlement from a federal lawsuit, with each pepper-sprayed student receiving $30,000 individually.
After the incident, large protests against the use of pepper spray occurred on campus. UC Davis Chancellor Linda P.B. Katehi apologized to the students, saying that the police had acted against her orders for there to be no arrests and no use of force. A public debate about the militarization of the police and the appropriate use of pepper spray on peaceful protesters took place in the media, with questions raised about the freedom of speech and the right to peaceably assemble guaranteed by the First Amendment to the United States Constitution.”
so…no, I don’t believe the lieutenant was fully in his right to pepper-spray them.
areudirty
janainaart
2087
jacobvanloon
snowghoul
turnnoffyourmind
