On Friday, Lt. John Pike [and a number of other officers — see UPDATE below] of the UC Davis police force lead a group of lawless cops in lining up demonstrators who had been peaceably assembled on the University of California, Davis quad and then covered them with with pepper spray. His fellow cops did nothing to stop him, and actually stood by in support. [Complete appalling video posted at the end of this article.]
We’re at a loss to describe this type of outrageous, unprovoked and unnecessary behavior as anything less than torture, to be frank.
Yesterday, we shared the photo of a cop at OccupyPortland similarly pepper spraying a young demonstrator directly in the face. And the day before, we detailed the story of 84-year old Dorli Rainey who met a similar fate at OccupySeattle.
Our report yesterday detailed a rapidly growing partial list of other atrocious incidents of blatant, lawless, unprovoked violence carried out by “law enforcement” officials across the nation since the Occupy Wall Street movement began two months ago. The incidents, almost all documented on video by citizen journalists, demonstrate the unrestrained, and almost always illegal, use of brutal force, aggression, violence and often torture by Big Government against peaceful American citizens exercising what were once known as their Constitutional rights — the very behavior which supporters of the Tea Party once pretended to be concerned about.
As we averred in that article — as supported by the included linked incidents — and as we feel even more certain of today after viewing the video of the casually brutal and tortuous behavior of Pike and his band of UC Davis stormtrooper thugs who stood by in support (see full video below), the U.S. has not become merely a Police State in the ten years following 9/11, but a fully weaponized Military State.
Though video evidence of what happened was widely available on Friday, rather than condemning the outrageous violence by a member of her own Police force — as she almost certainly would have had the situation been reversed and a student used pepper spray against peaceful cops — UC Davis Chancellor Linda P.B. Katehi chose to issue a statement yesterday which seemed to excuse the police brutality as necessary “to protect the health and safety of our campus community”…
“We deeply regret that many of the protesters today chose not to work with our campus staff and police to remove the encampment as requested,” she wrote. “We are even more saddened by the events that subsequently transpired to facilitate their removal.”
“Saddened by”?! Not “outraged by”? Not “infuriated by”? Not “appalled by”?
An Internet petition was subsequently launched calling for her immediate resignation.
This morning, Katehi tried again, with another statement — which, once again, failed to condemn the actions of Pike and the UC Davis police who stood by — announcing only the creation of a task force “to review the events and provide to me a thorough report within 90 days.”
“While the university is trying to ensure the safety and health of all members of our community,” she wrote in her still-inadequate mulligan, “we must ensure our strategies to gain compliance are fair and reasonable and do not lead to mistreatment.”
She went on to call on the task force to “review our policies in relation to encampments of this nature and consider whether our existing policies reflect the needs of the students at this point in time. If our policies do not allow our students enough flexibility to express themselves, then we need to find a way to improve these policies and make them more effective and appropriate.”
Still no condemnation of Pike’s or the other officers’ behavior was included by Katehi, though another expression of her “sadness for the events” was used in closing.
Once again, had a student walked up to a group of peaceful, compliant cops and sprayed them in the face with pepper spray, do you suppose both of Katehi’s statements in response would have included, appropriately, the strongest and most unreserved condemnation of that student, and calls for full accountability for their actions?
Katehi’s reaction to the blatant and obviously outrageous and lawless use of force by militarized police thugs is, unfortunately, not unusual anymore. We’ve seen similar all across the country over the last several months from public officials overseeing lawless and militarized police forces on steroids as they abuse peaceful American citizens exercising First Amendment rights. But her reaction does underscore exactly why demonstrators need to fight to continue the Occupations — for as long as it takes to affect real change in this once-great, now-shameful nation.
Video of UC Davis Police Department’s Lt. John Pike pepper spraying peaceful demonstrators on 11/18/11 at the UC Davis campus follows below…
UPDATE: It looks like it was more than just Lt. Pike from the UC Davis Stormtrooper force who used pepper spray on the peaceful demonstrators, according to this video from a different angle…
Moreover, apparently the UC Davis Police Chief Annette Spicuzza has done exactly what Howard Jordan, Oakland PD’s Chief did after their brutal and unprovoked use of chemical agents on October 25th against peaceful demonstrators became public: blatantly lie about it.
According to the NYTimes tonight:
The videos, however, show officers freely moving about and show students behaving peacefully. The university reported no instances of violence by any protesters.
As you can see in the second video I’ve posted above, Lt. Pike easily steps right out “of that circle” without resistance from any of the students participating in the sit-in.
Seriously, don’t these cops realize this stuff is now all on video tape?! Or do they just feel the corporate media and corporatized government will protect them even if it is?
UPDATE 11/20/11: Haunting video of Chancellor Katehi’s “Walk of Shame” as she faces a silent student protest, and word that two UC Davis cops have now been placed on “Administrative Leave”. Video, details and more updates now here…
I’m gonna go out on a limb here and say this is Police Brutality. Incidents like this the past few weeks are exposing the Police State we are being subjected to. Evicting protesters is Unconstitutional and endangers the basic rights of EVERY last American. Is this the country we were raised in, were men and women are beaten, gassed, pepper-sprayed and arrested for their disapproval of the government? We have to be careful to protect our Constitutional Rights! Events like this have prompted me to raise my own voice with these posters I designed for the movement on my artist’s blog at http://dregstudiosart.blogspot.com/2011/11/propaganda-for-occupy-movement.html
Notice the look on the face of the woman journalist watching. Police brutality is long in the U.S., with much of the attack on African-Americans. The group, October 22 Coalition has a long running project, “Stolen Lives” with names and stories of those killed by police in the U.S. There is a newer list, also of police victims since Amadou Diallo.
Chancellor Katehi was quoted as saying the action was necessary “to protect the health and safety of our campus community. Although I have a degree from a UC institution, I still can’t figure out in what way the brutality at UC Davis contributed “to protect the health and safety of our campus community� Please Chancellor Katehi, I want to know the health benefits of pepper spray? Are these benefits enhanced when police force it down the throats of students?
One thing I didn’t mention in my article — but perhaps some here can help me understand — this is a university police department? Have we even militarized our university security departments at this point??
Didn’t they just used to be called “Campus Security”?!
pretty soon people will need to act in self defense from these thug cops.
Despicable tactics by the campus urban army,but as the article states, now typical abuse coordinated across the country by city officials.
I wonder, who the coordinators are? “Fatherland” security, the CIA(they’re not supposed to operate in the US), or the FBI? Whoever the ‘perps are, it’s the obvious rearing of the head of fascism.
There is a heartening result of the confrontation not mentioned in the article. The Student protestors RAN THE COPS OFF THE QUAD! That is a first since demonstrations across the country began. Cheers go out to them.
If Occupy protesters want to embarrass and humiliate the US government further, you need to get as many signatures as possible, and send a letter to the Secretary General of the United Nations (Ban Ki-moon) asking for UN peacekeepers to prevent the corrupted and oppressive government of the US from beating, maiming and arresting protesters, suppressing the media and stop jailing political prisoners.
This would be a far bigger blow to the US than anything else. The rest of the world needs to know how serious the situation is here, and that the US government is no different, than Syria, Iran, China or any other oppressive government that is trying to silence the voice and will of the people.
They are going to take good care of that piggg in prison. Was it torture or attempted murder? 10 years in prison for each protester should be about 200 years in prison. They the stupid conspiracy to cover it up by the chief, he should get at least 30 years. Then come the civil suits.
I love how the tables get turned, when the students surround the police, chant Shame Shame, and ultimately “allow” the police to take their weapons and leave, without being attacked in return.
If this happened in China or somewhere alse US State dep will send nota!! I feel tomorrow police will start shoting protesting people to seed fear of “democracy”. Sham on you, Barack OBAMA (HIllary Clinton 2007). Enjoy democracy interpretation by NWO and (ex)federal reserve owners! OUTRAGED
In regard my comment above referencing the militarization of Campus Security. Bob Ostertag offers this must-read at HuffPo titled “Militarization of Campus Police”. It’s worth a read in full, some other remarkable facts, but here’s just a sample:
How about this for another option [as Katehi had said she had “no option but to ask the police to assist in their removal”]: three years ago there was a very similar occupation of the quad at Columbia University in New York City by students protesting the way the expansion of the university was displacing residents in the neighborhood. There was a core group of twenty or thirty students there around the clock. At the high points there were 200-300. The administration met with the students and held serious discussions about their concerns. And after a couple of weeks the protest had run its course and the students took the tents down. The most severe action that was even contemplated on the part of the university was to expel students who were hunger striking, under a rule that allows the school to expel students who are considered a threat to themselves. But no one was actually expelled.
Remember when universities used to expel students instead of spray them with chemical agents?
We should also note that at Columbia, a private university, the campus police carry no arms and no pepper spray. This is what Columbia University police look like when arresting students:
This is what the police at Davis, a public university, looked like yesterday:
It is worth noting that in the Columbia photo, the one without helmets, guns, or chemical assault weapons, the student is being arrested for selling cocaine. In the Davis photo the students were defending public education.
Could Chancellor Katehi please explain what “serious health and safety concerns” were posed at Davis that were absent at Columbia? The only thing that involved a “serious health and safety concern” at Davis yesterday was the pepper spray.
might want to keep in mind that the only change likely to come from this is that katehi will learn from bloomberg and start working at night and only after evicting and arresting all journalists (and media helicopters if needed).
this is some of the most blatant stuff seen. far worse examples on video elsewhere. think it was the latest female presidential tea party candidate who said something about wanting to be more like china. more to that thought than reasonable people think. this is exactly what the 0.1% have planned and executed. that is why so many of municipal militarized police forces have been trained by apartheid israeli security firms.
thank you again brad.
might be nice to see some research along the lines of maxkeiser.com and others as to who is spending so much money and what the return on their investments are for the militarized homeland security.
zeitgeistthemovie anyone?
I hope we begin to see more and more veterans taking part in these demonstrations. What were they fighting for abroad. I thought is was to protect our freedoms What freedoms?
The anger and revulsion while watching these videos is palpable. For decades the military-industrial complex has propagandized that our many military forays in the world were to protect our freedoms here at home. Bush had the audacity to state that “they” hated our freedoms.
No, it is the elite and their shills that “hate” our freedoms. It is revolting to see “campus security” acting like the thugs in any fascist or totalitarian state. Worse, to have people like the Chancellor allow and condone such actions shows a betrayal of her responsibilities. She occupies a position at taxpayer expense of trust towards the students. As the police chief in Oakland, she is a LIAR, and should be treated as one. She has betrayed the students with whom she has been intrusted. She should be fired!
These people who abuse their oath of office, their authority, and their public trust, should be fired. In the meantime, they should individually be publicly shamed every time they show their face in public. Whether on the campus, at the grocery store, or at any event they attend.
To chant “shame” only at the time of the incident is not enough. They need to be held “individually accountable” for their actions. Their children, families, and friends must know what they do while at work.
They currently hide behind their face mask, their group identity, their “gang”.
The Nuremburg trials were about “personal responsibility”. That must start now.
These thugs in uniform have family and friends, belong to churches and clubs, and must live in society. They need to know that society will not condone such actions, especially being done while serving in a public trust, paid for by the society in general.
Lt. John Pike should be followed and shamed every time he appears on campus, as well as every other member of the campus security who participated in such blatant abuse and assaultive behavior. They should be shamed out of their jobs, and sued.
Military veterans who lost friends, were maimed, families that lost their loved ones, fighting in these so-called “wars” overseas should be outraged. While they were fighting overseas their country was attacked from within by traitors.
Shame! Shame! Shame! Until they are hounded from their positions of trust.
The serious health issue is the mental health of the governors of the university and its gestapo police assholes.
What is over looked is that pepper spray is a chemical weapon, a kinder, gentler chemical weapon that is considered to be non-lethal. Its lethality and other adverse health effects are directly related to how it is used and the promptness and quality of medical attention provided after its use. From NYPD Procedure No: 212-95, Use of Pepper Spray Devices (included in the Appendix of Report of the Pepper Spray Committee Civilian Complaint Review Board of New York City).
… discharge pepper spray into a subject’s eyes for maximum effectiveness, using two (2) one second bursts, at a minimum distance of three (3) feet …
The Patrol Guide prohibits the use of pepper spray against subjects who passively resist (e.g., going limp, offering no active physical resistance). If possible, avoid using pepper spray on persons who appear to be in frail health, young children, women believed to be pregnant, or persons with known respiratory conditions.
Avoid discharging pepper spray indiscriminately over a large area for disorder control. (Members who are specifically trained in the use of pepper spray for disorder control may use pepper spray in accordance with their training, and within Department guidelines, and authorized by supervisors.)
The desk officer will ensure that all prisoners who have been sprayed with pepper spray receive appropriate first aid, if needed, upon arrival at the stationhouse. Desk officers are also responsible for ensuring that prisoners who have been sprayed with pepper spray are properly observed throughout the arrest process, and that they receive prompt medical attention if they need or request it. A Command Log entry will be made stating whether the prisoner has had his/her skin flushed with water, been examined by EMS, or been transported to the hospital.
The NYPD procedure has several interesting provisions:
– Discharge pepper spray into a subjects eyes
– Using two (2) one second bursts
– At a minimum distance of three (3) feet
– Prohibits the use of pepper spray against subjects who passively resist
– Use of pepper spray for disorder control must be done by offices trained in its use for disorder control
– Pepper spray is not to be used for disorder control except by officers who are trained
– Desk officers, not arresting officers, are responsible for the health of prisoners
– First aid, if needed, is done after a prisoner has arrived at the stationhouse
If the NYPD pepper spray procedure is representative of police pepper spray use, we have a serious problem. My primary concern is that its use does not comply with the procedure and possibly by officers who are not trained in the use of pepper spray for disorder control. Video tapes can be reviewed to determine where pepper spray was aimed and for how long. This objective evidence can be reviewed against police training and procedure documents, manufacturer’s recommended usage, and material data safety sheets (MDSS) which describe the health effects of hazardous materials. This can be done a few days or less depending on the number of people involved.
By providing an objective, detailed analysis against known and accepted objective criteria the police will have additional pressure to produce a timely, accurate report based upon objective criteria. By referencing objective criteria in an independent report, the police report will be forced to include objective criteria. If it is absent, they can be asked why it was not included and used.
An analysis that will stand up to critics or outright lies requires a more rigorous approach. This can be done by a frame-by-frame analysis of video where the time stamp of the frame is recorded for significant event such as the start and of pepper spraying a person, end of pepper spraying a person, where the pepper spray was aimed, when a person stated that their reaction to pepper spray caused a medical problem, etc. The methodology must be repeatable and obtain the same results.
An example of criteria is the advice of the major manufacturer of pepper spray for California law enforcement to police that they should use just a single one-second burst of the chemical or no more than two half-second bursts.
The analysis will be criticized because it was not done by an “expert†whose credentials would qualify them as an expert witness. Remember, the objective is to have an objective analysis that supports the claim of police violence and/or brutality. It’s better to have them respond to Occupy Wall Street than for Occupy Wall Street to respond to them.
Once the analysis is done, the results must be evaluated against objective criteria including police procedure, police training manuals, and manufacturer’s recommendation on use of pepper spray. Police procedures and training materials (objective criteria) can also be used to determine if police acted properly in a lawful manner to crowd non-violent Occupy Wall Street protesters. It’s better to ask knowledgeable questions based on specific knowledge and have the police respond instead of having them control the dialog.
There have been several reported deaths from the use of pepper spray and studies on the lethality of pepper spray. They include:
The Effectiveness and Safety of Pepper Spray U.S. Department of Justice, April, 2003
– https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/nij/195739.pdf
Pepper Spray Update: More Fatalities, More Questions ACLU of Southern California, June 1995
– http://www.aclusc.org/attach/p/Pepper_Spray_New_Questions.pdf
Health Hazards of Pepper Spray North Carolina Medical Journal
– http://duketox.mc.duke.edu/pepper%20spray.pdf
– http://nopepperspray.org/health_hazards_of_pepper_spray_ncjm.htm
Capsaicin Wikipedia
– http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capsaicin
Pepper Spray and Tear Gas Medic Wiki
– http://medic.wikia.com/wiki/Pepper_spray_and_tear_gas
Advanced Chemical Weapons
– http://www.tscm.com/mace.html
This is a comprehensive guide to the effects of pepper spray and its use. It states that pepper spray is a neurotoxin. Of interest is the “When to use – Use of Force Ladder or Continuum†that is about half way through to document.
THE USE AND ABUSE OF PEPPER SPRAY Lynne Wilson
– http://www.nlg-npap.org/html/research/LWpepperspray.pdf
NYPD Pepper Sprays Man To Death, Ruled As Homicide By Medical Examiner
– http://blog.alexanderhiggins.com/2011/08/02/nypd-pepper-sprays-man-death-ruled-homicide-medical-examiner-47111/
Canned Heat: Did Pepper Spray Kill Dustin Dustin Harley Clark? Metro Active
– http://www.metroactive.com/papers/sonoma/05.15.97/news-9720.html
Brandt Hardin #1: “Is this the country we were raised in, were men and women are beaten, gassed, pepper-sprayed and arrested for their disapproval of the government?”
The pepper spray is new. Black protesters in the 1960s had high-pressure fire-hoses and police attack dogs turned on them. Look up “Bull Connor“.
So, yes, this is the country we were raised in. It has all become like Birmingham, Alabama, circa 1963.