Uc-davis report: Cops misused pepper spray
University of California-davis police should not have used pepper spray on student demonstrators in an incident that prompted national outrage, a university task force said.
The Nov. 18 incident led to calls for the chancellor’s resignation after online videos of the confrontation went viral. The officers’ decision to douse pepper-spray on a seated line of Occupy protesters was “objectively unreasonable” and not authorized by campus policy, according to the report by a task force created to investigate the incident. The task force attributed the response to breakdowns in the campus chain of command, from Chancellor Linda Katehi to police Chief Annette Spicuzza to Lt. John Pike, the main officer shown in the widely viewed online videos.