Thursday, April 12, 2012

Use of pepper spray was “objectively unreasonable”

Plenty of Blame to Go Around
UC Davis pepper spray report faults administrators, police (Inside Higher Ed)

By Allie Grasgreen

     Many parties were at fault for the now-infamous November pepper spray incident at the University of California at Davis, including the chancellor and other administrators who failed to properly evaluate the protest situation or plan for its dispersal, and the police who did not follow protocol and whose use of pepper spray was “objectively unreasonable,” an independent investigative panel has found.
     Communication breakdowns and procedural neglect snowballed into a confusing and poorly planned police operation, the panel's report says, and ultimately led to one officer casually pepper-spraying students at (much too) close range during a nonviolent protest. The students, who sat across a walkway, refused to move as campus police officers attempted to clear out the Occupy encampment.
     “Our overriding conclusion can be stated briefly and explicitly,” the report states in its very first sentence. “The pepper spraying incident that took place on November 18, 2011 should and could have been prevented.”….(continued)


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