Senator Lowenthal Calls Treatment of UC Protestors "Outrageous and Disturbing," Calls for Hearing
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- By Greggory Moore Follow @greggory_moore
- | Wednesday, 23 November 2011 07:50
Video capture of a UC Davis police officer pepper spraying protesting students.
8:05am | State Senator Alan Lowenthal, chair of the Senate Education Committee, has "called for a joint hearing into the UC system policies and procedures regarding non-violent protests," according to a press release.
“The pepper spraying and bludgeoning of students by UC campus police is outrageous and disturbing," Lowenthal said. "It is clear from these shameful actions that the UC system needs a single unified policy on the appropriate response to peaceful campus protests and on the use of force by campus police.”
Lowenthal's statement comes in the wake of widely disseminated video showing, among other acts, UC Davis police blasting a line of seated protestors in the face with heavy amounts of orange pepper spray.
“The constitutional right to peacefully protest is part of our American character," said Lowenthal in his statement. "It is critical that the public be assured that the rights of our students are not being abused or infringed."
The press release announces that the hearing, to be held by the state Senate and Assembly on December 14, "will focus on UC system rules, regulations and policies regarding student protests on UC campuses and facilities; the UC campus police use-of-force-policies; and the training procedures of UC campus police in crowd control techniques. In addition, the committee will receive updates on the ongoing investigations into the UC Davis incident."
There was no call for this. The casualness of the assault tells you all you need to know about the officer's perception of danger to himself and his fellow officers. The photo speaks for itself.
No one in authority will be punished.
THIS IS WHY THE PROTESTS CONTINUE
I'm with John---should Rosa Parks and the people before her have just sat at the back of the bus when they were told to? How else would you hamstring the effectiveness of peaceful protest?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K8Uj1cV97XQ&feature=player_embedded
....where the pepper spray took place after 5 minutes.
What bludgeoning took place was unseen even in the entire 15 minutes.
(Unless the term, "bludgeoning," has taken on a new definition since I last looked it up.)
During the 1st minute a campus police officer asked the protestors to leave and they refused.
During the 2nd minute a campus police officer was on his walkie-talkie to someone getting instructions.
After 3 minutes two campus police officers are conferring also with someone else via walkie-talkies.
After conferring in the 4th minute of the video the campus police officer gives the sitters another opportunity to get up (they will be moved).
Only after 5 minutes does a campus police officer ready himself to spray the non-leathal (not tear gas, just pepper spray) spray at the students.
More than a full minute passes then the campus police order the protestors to MOVE!
Before spraying begins the protestors get yet another chance to get up and avoid being sprayed.
Less than a minute later protestors are being helped up and away from the walkway.
When protestors lock arms to prevent this they are pulled apart. (7:30)
Within a minute of that, with only two or three still seated where they are not permitted, others from on the sidelines try to force their way onto the walkway to sit.
Police line up with batons across their fronts to block this illegal act.(7:50)
By the 8:15 mark the walkway is clear.
But the protestors won the territory back before the end of the video.
Maybe next time Alan's dog gets stolen from his own backyard he will call one of these protestors rather than police, right?
I think the choice to resort to pepper spray was unwise. I think it has created a PR nightmare for UC Davis and inflammatory propaganda images that the protesters must only consider to be priceless and they will no doubt be able to benefit from for a long time to come.
Appropriate pain-compliance techniques could have allowed the campus cops to complete their mission with no injuries and wihout losing the PR battle.
Misrepresenting the stated position of people with whom one disagrees, however, and then offering personal insults is a common tactic among those who lack the ability to think critically or to remain civil.
UCDPD had every right to remove the protesters. If you have viewed the entire video available (not just the piece that everyone is so rightly concerned about) you would surely agree with me that this is so.
The true concern, then, is in the tactics UCDPD employed to remove them. There were better tactics available that could have allowed the officers to do their lawful duty and complete their mission, without resorting to pepper spray.
Despite the sensationalistic footage, no protester suffered any permanent illness or injury as a result of the pepper spray. Thus all UCDPD really accomplished was to look like a bunch of malicious uniformed thugs on camera.
Perhaps that is what they are and perhaps not. I tend to think that whomever was making the decisions out there just showed extremely poor judgment, both in terms of tactics and in terms of public relations.
Given that the protesters were determined to commit their civil disobedience, the officers could have been avoided the current PR fallout by using better tactics.
Does that clarify my position for you?
Just think about the cop that did this, he goes home and tell his wife guess what i did today i got to pepper spray a bunch of non violent people today. He must feel good about himself.
Man i am steamed up just look at his face it's almost like he is enjoying it.
'Those who lack the ability to think critically or to remain civil': I apologize -- are you referring to the police officers (whom you claim were 'not properly prepared' to handle the situation and whose actions were 'unwise') or the students?
'[The police officers were hindered] from completing their mission': WHAT MISSION? This is not combat; you do not have attacks nor violence. A military officer -- including the Iraq vet I just spoke to -- would have a hayday with you word choice of 'mission.'
'[N]o protester suffered any permanent illness or injury as a result of the pepper spray': So, if no injury causes 'permanent' injury, it's suddenly okay? Then the basic ideas or assault and injury should be legally voided if they are inflicted, ethically or otherwise, by someone of the law? Law supersedes law is basically what you're saying? You support totalitarianism?
You clearly have conundrums between what you say and what you believe. Think critically and get back to me.
I'll try one more time to deal with you in the manner that I hope you will begin to deal with me. If you cannot alter your tone after this I'll leave you to your rudeness and your assumptions.
As I stated, the officers were clearly not prepared to deal in an effective manner with the protesters who confronted them. If that had been better prepared, this confrontation would have resolved in a more constructive and less sensational manner.
The term "mission" is not solely used in military applications. Businesses publish "mission statements" and police officers and firefighters are often given assignments which they routinely refer to as "missions." The mission of the UCDPD officers at this scene was to remove the protesters. This is self-evident in that this is precisely what they set about doing. If this was *not* their mission, then why did they do it? Believe it or not, cops are not generally in the habit of doing things they are not authorized and required or expected to do. Through their lack of cooperation and their refusal to disperse as instructed *several times*, the protesters did, indeed, hinder the officers from completing their self-evident mission. Understand?
I never said it was ok, suddenly or otherwise, that UCDPD used pepper spray to remove the protesters. In fact I said quite the opposite. Perhaps you weren't paying attention. That said, their use of pepper spray is not, to any degree, indicative of "law superseding law" (although this occurs quite regularly and properly within ourn system of justice), let alone totalitarionism.
If UCDPD was authorized to remove the protesters (and it appears that they were) then they had legal authority to use that force which proved necessary to do so. They directed the protesters to leave, several times, but the protesters refused. The next step was less-than-lethal force options. I think they selected the wrong option. You disagree. I get that, but employing illogical and sensationalistic language such as "totalitarianism" in your arguments is just not persuasive.
@ Just wondering: I think UCDPD should have used tactics similar to those we saw LAPD use in the case of the recent well-choreographed SEIU protest march downtown.
A team of three LAPD officers approached each protester individually and directed him or her to leave the area. As each person refused (as LAPD new in advance that they would), he or she was first placed under arrest and then asked to stand up on his or her own and walk under escort to the booking van to be transported to jail and processed.
If a person refused to cooperate and stand and move on his own, the officers could have used pain compliance techniques to compel the person.
The only thing I did not like about the well-televised LAPD process was that a couple of the protesters refused to stand on their own and so several LAPD officers physically lifted the person and bodily carried them away. This is not the best response in such cases. It places the officers at undue risk of injury and leaves them vulnerable to attack.
Assuming the arrestee CAN physically stand and move on his or her own but simply chooses not to, pain compliance techniques can be used that, when applied properly and with restraint, are QUITE effective and compelling a passive OR active resister to cooperate and stand and move as directed.
This is the tactic I think UCDPD would have been wiser to have employed. It would have taken longer, but there was no rush. Better to be patient and deal with each protester one after the other in a controlled professional manner, than to resort to the sort of mass-force tactic we saw instead.
Thanks for asking!
For the record, I am NOT an avid supporter of the Occupy movement, but this garbage with police bullying is out of hand! Police across the nation are nothing but a bunch of hoodlums and thugs. I am DEFINTELY anti-Police, these idiots are allowed to run amuck brandishing weapons without having to answer to anyone OTHER THAN THEMSELVES and wreck havoc on society, how is that PROTECTING AND SERVING? It seems to me the police, yes that includes Long Beach's own collection of bumbling idiots known as the Keystone Kops, are the people who need to be sat down and peppered srayed in the eyes, beat to a bloody pulp, dragged across the ground, face down, hog tied, shoved into the back of a police cruiser left to linger in pain for the better part of an hour and then driven off to wherever these jack-asses take people.
Police are legally OBLIGED to use the MINIMAL FORCE NECESSARY to get compliance. They EASILY could have simply lifted these protesters up by the arms and carried them to a squad car. I myself have been arrested several times at protests in precisely that way. It wasnt tried.
Pepper spray is NOT the first thing to try; it's for protecting police from people who are out of control. This was done out of ANGER and CONTEMPT, not to protect anybody's safety. What a bunch of unAmerican slobs on here, ordering compliance. You would have loved Nazi Germany.
Pepper spray is painful and can cause permanent damage. How about showing some respect for the willingness to risk arrest and beatings for a principled cause? This cop is SICK and so are all of you supporting him. These young adults could have been dealt with in myriad ways.
FIVE MINUTES? That's your threshold for "well we tried, not you get pain"? I would say six or seven hours would be more appropriate. Pepper spray should NEVER be used except in emergencies where safety is IMMINENTLY threatened. It wasn't. This was for the convenience and emotional venting of the police, totally unprofessional. Shame on all of you who support it, you are slaves.
Universities and colleges have always been places that people come together to protest / question the status quo.
Without students and others willing to engage and question, we would be trapped by (generally wealthy) conservatives who, once seated, see no reason to give up their primacy or control.
Thank you Alan for acting with a conscience, with compassion and with intelligence.
dismantling of the Constitution and the theft of our nation. The bailouts the greatest theft in the history of the world which they expect us, our Indentured children and their children to pay back and beyond for their theft!!! Sorry guys getting off track I don't write much I had to respond to this- so I say hell yes they have the right to sit on the sidewalk if they want too as long as they are not hurting anyone people can you just walk around or is that to much of a inconvenience or annoyance to the police deserving of pepper spray in the face? to quote (Benjamin Franklin) It is the first responsibility of every citizen to question authority and it is way past due. I know this is not the America I served in the U.S.M.C. for. take care guys. Tim