UC picks protest investigators
Former LA police chief named
The University of California has tapped former Los Angeles police chief William Bratton to lead the investigation into the pepper spraying of UC Davis students during a nonviolent protest last week.
UC President Mark Yudof also named Christopher Edley, Jr., dean of UC Berkeley law school, to head an examination of police policies and practices at all ten university campuses.
Bratton will have 30 days to conduct an independent investigation of the UC Davis incident and report back to Yudof and an advisory committee of students, faculty, staff, and other community members. The panel will recommend changes in police protocol to UC Davis Chancellor Linda Katehi to ensure the safety of peaceful student protestors.
Bratton was LAPD chief from 2002 to 2009. He also led the New York City police department, and is now chairman of the New York-based Kroll consulting company.
“My intent,” said Yudof in a statement released yesterday, “is to provide the Chancellor and the entire University of California community with an independent, unvarnished report about what happened at Davis.”
A video that went viral within hours of being posted on the web last Friday shows campus police blasting pepper spray directly into the faces of student protestors seated peacefully on the quad to try to prevent the officers from tearing down their Occupy encampment.
Two officers involved in the spraying and the campus police chief have been placed on administrative leave. Katehi, who has been inundated with calls for her resignation, apologized to students during an emotional speech Monday afternoon. She acknowledged that many of them have lost faith in her.
“And I know you may not believe anything that I’m telling you today, and you don’t have to. It is my responsibility to earn your trust.”
The systemwide investigation, lead by Dean Edley and UC General Counsel Charles Robinson, will include visits to UC campuses to talk with students, faculty, staff, and experts on campus safety and police practices.
“With these actions,” Yudof said, “we are moving forward to identify what needs to be done to ensure the safety of students and others who engage in nonviolent protests on UC campuses. The right to peaceful protest on all of our campuses must be protected.”
Brutal application of violence by UC Berkeley Chancellor Birgeneau’s police on students protesting increases in tuition.
University of California Berkeley Chancellor Birgeneau hijack’s all
our kids’ futures. I love University
of California (UC) having been a student & lecturer. But today I am
concerned that at times I do not recognize the UC I love. Like so many I am
deeply disappointed by the pervasive failures of Regent Chairwoman Lansing,
President Yudof, Chancellor Birgeneau from holding the line on rising costs
& tuition increases
Chancellor Birgeneau
has molded Cal.
into the most expensive public university. Paying more is not a better
education.
Californians are
reeling from 19% unemployment (includes: those forced to work part time; those
no longer searching), mortgage defaults, loss of unemployment benefits. And those
who still have jobs are working longer for less. Faculty
wages must reflect California’s
ability to pay, not what others are paid.
Current pay increases
for generously paid University
of California Faculty is
arrogance. Instate tuition consumes 14% of Ca. Median Family Income!
Paying more is not a
better education. UC Berkeley(# 70 Forbes) tuition increases exceed the
national average rate of increases.
UC President Yudof, Cal.
Chancellor Birgeneau($450,000 salary) dismissed many much needed cost-cutting
options. They did not consider freezing vacant faculty positions, increasing
class size, requiring faculty to teach more classes, doubling the time between
sabbaticals, cutting & freezing pay & benefits for chancellors &
reforming pensions & the health benefits.
They said such
faculty reforms “would not be healthy for UC”. Exodus of faculty,
administrators? Who can afford them and where would they go?
We agree it is far
from the ideal situation, but it is in the best interests of the university
system & the state to stop cost increases. UC cannot expect to do business
as usual: raising tuition; granting pay raises & huge bonuses during a weak
economy that has sapped state revenues & individual Californians’ income.
There is no
question the necessary realignments with economic reality are painful. Regent Chairwoman Lansing can bridge the public trust
gap with reassurances that salaries & costs reflect California’s ability to pay. The sky above UC will not fall when Chancellor Birgeneau is ousted.
Opinions? Email the UC Board
of Regents marsha.kelman@ucop.edu
Report this comment for abusive language, hate speech and profanity
Folks, far worse happens at UMass Amherst, it has been happening at UMass for about a decade now, and as grotesque as the video is, by the standard of what I see and hear about happening at UMass, I honestly can not see what the problem is.
Those kids were given an opportunity to run away– at UMass, they would not have been. The kids standing on the sidelines taking pictures weren’t sprayed, hit or arrested — at UMass, *they* would be kicked out of school for “participating” in the altercation. At UMass, every kid within a MILE of there would be in trouble for having been there — this includes the kid walking back to her dorm from the library and the kid whose parents just dropped him off in the parking lot. They literally use facial recognizaiton technology and the student id database to identify every student they can and bully them into accepting suspension rather than expulsion, to ‘get on with their lifes’ rather than defend their rights.
Every Wednesday Afternoon at 3 pm, UMass has a secret meeting of administrators who decide which kids are to be kicked out of school — they decide and the students are summarily kicked out and told that they can, essentially, appeal the decision to the people who have already tried them in absentia should they so desire — two days later they are given a chance to raise issues like being a student with a similar-sounding name and not even being he kid the cabal wanted to boot.
It extends into the adjacent towns of Amherst & Hadley — MA law requires a license plate to be visible at 60 feet — I was once stopped for not having my license plate visible at 6,000 feet (that is more than a mile) — I am not making this up. (My solution, I now come back to campus by way of the low-income minority neighborhoods where the police do not dare stop any vehicle for any reason out of concerns of being accused of being racist. One does what one must do.)
We won’t even get into issues of disability or how they have creatively interpreted the involuntary psych commitment law to have the police out falsely accusing students of things like “disorderly conduct” and “disturbing the peace” and then using the student’s protestations of innocence as grounds for the psych commitment — with nothing but a telephone call to the mental health intern (grad student) on call.
There is a whole lot more — worse — that I can’t even talk about because of FERPA and other obligations. And this is the reality of another public university of the 21st Century.
So I have a really hard time understanding why people are upset about what happened at UC Davis. Far worse happens all the time at UMass Amherst and no one really seems to care…. At UMass, they would have gone after EVERYONE and not just the kids sitting there on the sidewalk….
Report this comment for abusive language, hate speech and profanity
Brutal use of baton jabs on students by UC Berkeley Chancellor Birgeneau campus police.
Campus
UCPD report to chancellors and take direction from their chancellor. University of California campus chancellors vet their
campus police protocols. Chancellors are knowledgeable that pepper spray and
use of batons are included in their campus police protocols.
Chancellor Birgeneau’s campus police use baton jabs on his students. UC
Berkeley Chancellor Birgeneau and UC Davis Chancellor are in dereliction of
their duties.
UC Berkeley Chancellor Birgeneau and UC Davis Chancellor need to quit or be
fired for permitting the brutal outrages on students protesting tuition
increases
and student debt
Opinions? Email the UC Board of Regents marsha.kelman@ucop.edu
Report this comment for abusive language, hate speech and profanity