Monday, November 21, 2011
Associated Press
SAN FRANCISCO
A California university placed two of its police officers on administrative leave Sunday because of their involvement in the pepper- spraying of passively sitting protesters, while the school’s chancellor accelerated a task force’s investigation into the incident amid calls for her resignation.
The president of the 10-campus University of California system also weighed in on the growing fallout from Friday’s incident at UC Davis, saying that he is “appalled” at images of students being doused with pepper spray and plans a far-reaching, urgent assessment of law- enforcement procedures on all campuses.
“I implore students who wish to demonstrate to do so in a peaceful and lawful fashion. I expect campus authorities to honor that right,” UC President Mark G. Yudof said. All 10 chancellors would convene soon for a discussion “about how to ensure proportional law-enforcement response to nonviolent protest,” he said.
Officials at UC Davis refused to identify the two officers who were placed on administrative leave, but one was a veteran of many years on the force and the other “fairly new” to the department, the school’s Police Chief Annette Spicuzza told The Associated Press. She would not elaborate further because of the pending probe.
Videos posted online of the incident clearly show one riot-gear-clad officer dousing the line of protesters with spray as they sit in a line with their arms intertwined. Spicuzza told the AP that the second officer was identified during an intense review of several videos.
Meanwhile, UC Davis Chancellor Linda Katehi said she has been inundated with reaction from alumni, students and faculty.
Katehi also set a 30-day deadline for her school’s task force investigating the incident to issue its report. The task force, comprising students, staff and faculty, will be chosen this week. She earlier had set a 90-day timetable.
She also plans to meet with demonstrators today at their general assembly, said her spokeswoman, Claudia Morain.
On Saturday, the UC Davis faculty association called for Katehi’s resignation, saying in a letter there had been a “gross failure of leadership.” Katehi has resisted calls for her to quit.
Meanwhile Sunday, police in San Francisco, about 80 miles south of Davis, arrested six anti-Wall Street demonstrators and cleared about 12 tents erected in front of the Federal Reserve Bank.
Across the bay in Oakland, police made no arrests after protesters peacefully left a new encampment set up in defiance of city orders.
Oakland police spokeswoman Johnna Watson said about 20 tents were erected late Saturday after several hundred protesters tore down a chain-link fence surrounding a city-owned vacant lot and set up a new encampment on Telegraph Avenue.