UC Davis Chancellor Linda P.B. Katehi “apologized” for last Friday’s pepper spray incident during remarks to thousands of students who had gathered on the campus quad for a General Assembly this afternoon.
Here’s Lee Fang’s video of Katehi’s teary remarks within the past hour, which began with, “I am here to apologize. I feel horrible for what happened on Friday”…
…What Katehi didn’t do, once again, was either resign, as faculty and students alike have called for, or condemn the behavior of her police force for their outrageous behavior in pepper spraying nearly 20 students who had peacefully locked arms while staging an “Occupy” sit-in late last week.
Videos of the shocking incident showing UC Davis Police Department’s Lt. John Pike casually torturing the students, went viral over the weekend, sparking outrage and calls for the immediate resignation of the UC Davis Chancellor. She has said she will not resign, telling ABC’s Good Morning America this morning that she is “really feel confident at this point the university needs me.”
She didn’t mention, however, whether the university needs any holes in the head or not…
During the ABC interview, Katehi said, “It was a difficult situation for the campus to really strive to make sure the students are safe.”
“The biggest, most critical issue is the safety of the students who are using the campus, the facilities, who really want to learn in this environment,” she explained — without clarifying how spraying students in the face with pepper spray was helpful to their “safety.”
Following a hastily scheduled press conference on Saturday, which students were not notified of, Katehi was forced to walk through a chilling gauntlet of hundreds of students who had gathered outside the location of presser, as they sat silently while she made her way to her car to leave. Watch the haunting “Walk of Shame” video here.
Pike was placed on “Administrative Leave” on Sunday pending the university’s investigation, as was UC Davis Police Chief Annette Spicuzza who was present at the Friday incident and later lied to reporters about it.
“There was no way out of that circle,” she told the Sacramento Bee on Friday, referencing the circle of sitting students who had peacefully locked arms and whom Pike is seen on video easily stepping out of. “They were cutting the officers off from their support,” she lied to the paper.
Spicuzza’s remarks bring to mind similar comments given to the press by Oakland PD’s Interim Chief Howard Jordan following the 10/25/11 violence which began when law enforcement officials discharged chemical weapons among peaceful demonstrators.
Jordan would tell media that night that the police “were in a position where we had to deploy gas in order to stop the crowd and people from pelting us with bottles and rocks…We felt that the deployment of gas was necessary to protect our officers.”
As an exclusive analysis by The BRAD BLOG has found, however, the police deployed gas on the crowd before they were met with projectiles from any of the demonstrators, according to the currently available evidence. The Oakland PD has failed to offer evidence to contradict our report, and later walked Jordan’s comments back by telling us that they were just his “preliminary belief” at the time of the presser. Nonetheless, Jordan’s remarks, like Spicuzza’s, were widely reported by the media in the wake of the police violence.
The Friday pepper spray incident at UC Davis was just the latest among a growing string of violent confrontations with peaceful demonstrators by police at Occupy Wall Street protests around the country.
One of the many videos of the Friday, 11/18/11 incident, in which Lt. John Pike (and other officers) are seen torturing peaceful student demonstrators with pepper spray, follows below…
Hmmm, it sounds like whatever Katehi was selling, the students weren’t buying.
She seems to have the same syndrome that Christine Quinn has; they’re both using their past as somehow making what they do today okay. Quinn being ambivalent about criticizing Bloomberg overstepping his bounds regarding the First Amendment while referring to her past activism (I was arrested with her in one instance). Katehi referring to something in 1973(!). Does anyone know what she’s referring to? Quinn is looking to have Bloomberg pass her the mayoral torch and Katehi is looking to keep her $400grand salary.
Here is what I would like to see: have Chancellor Katehi call another assembly of students and have Lt. Pike pepper spray HER at point blank range as a demonstration of how they keep students “safe”. If she withstands two sprayings, and then has him put his knee on the back of her head while applying plastic tie “cuffs” with enough force to cut off her circulation, I will waive the need to apologize and hope she is capable of learning empathy.
That was the weakest ‘apology’ possible, with the usual ‘let’s move forward’ and ‘we must work together’ lameness.
FAIL.
There shouldn’t be any resignations, which would come w/ a nice pension. There should be terminations w/ no benefits.
Very disappointing. If they accept this apology, I can’t imagine what the sense was in the whole deal!
To my way of thinking if she’s serious about earning the trust of the students she would start with a full and honest accounting of her part in how these events she is now decrying came to pass. By the words I’ve heard so far she talks about Friday’s events as if she’s just another person bearing witness to the nightmare and not a key player in the whole mess. That’s not credible which makes me think she’s not serious.
That’s not too say she may not be deluding herself and actually believing her own weak (non)accounting of events.
Safe?! Safe like Fukushima safe. The weasel wording is despicable.
In the 9th Circuit the pepper spray usage is illegal under the premises set forth.
Any lawyers up for a civil rights violation case against Davis officers?
The response from students and faculty came yesterday when a large General Assembly was held and determined to have a general strike and protest aimed at the UC Board of Regents meeting on Nov. 28 and called for solidarity from all California educational institutions, http://bicyclebarricade.wordpress.com/
The officers who were suspended WITH PAY should have to pay for their illegal activities:
Good Guys vs. Bad Guys
the 2 cops should be in jail for assault and battery,the cop that lied in jail for obstructing justice,the chancellor fired…..and of course the university and all players hit with law suits but of course that would mean we lived in a place with “justice for all”
Naturally, Fox “News” comes out in support of using pepper spray and any other anti-American corporate state fascist action. After Fox News commentator downplayed the effects of pepper spray, calling it a “food product”, this online petition appeared, asking her to try it:
http://www.change.org/petitions/fox-news-anchor-eat-or-drink-a-full-dose-of-pepper-spray-on-national-television