UPDATE: Initial University response
11/20/2011 12:24 PM
Thank you for sharing your concerns regarding the police action on the quad on Friday,
November 18. You may have already seen the message from Chancellor Katehi
expressing her concern about this action (available via http://ucdavis.edu/). The Chancellor
has committed to form a task force composed of students, faculty and staff to review this
incident, with the expectation that a report will be provided to her within 30 days of the
formation of the task force. Your complaint to me, which I will treat as a whistleblower
complaint under the University’s Whistleblower Policy, will be reviewed through the task
force process.”Thank you,
Wendi Delmendo
Wendi Delmendo
Chief Compliance Officer — General Campus
University of California, Davis
wjdelmendo@ucdavis.edu
You may have seen this video of brutal treatment inflicted on peaceful demonstrators by the University of California campus police.
Fortunately, there is a way to respond.
The University of California has a system to report and correct behavior that is counter to the values of the university.
Welcome to the University of California's systemwide intolerance report form.
If you know of any instances of intolerant or violent behavior on campus you might want to report it using their handy online form.
My description of what I witnessed:
On November 18, 2011, a large group of armed men menaced and attacked a group of unarmed students sitting in the Quad. The mob were carrying firearms and other lethal weapons. Without provocation the mob discharged chemical weapons at a number of unarmed students, although the students had made no threat of violence and posed no danger to any person.
Based on the clothing and insignia worn by the mob, it is possible they were members of the campus police force.
The bias involved was apparently the desire of the armed mob to suppress unpopular political opinions on campus.
The university promises me that they will investigate my report and get right back to me:
Thank you for reporting your concern. The information you provided will be treated with sensitivity and addressed as appropriate. If you provided your contact information, we may contact you directly. If not, please check back on your report in 2 weeks to see if we have any questions or follow-up information for you.
Your Report Key: 2577753955
If you are aware of any incidents of bias, intolerance, or violence on one of the campuses of the University of California perhaps you would like to let the university know about it. After all, if they aren't aware of the problem they can't fix it, right?
Display. Sickening. When did cops start carrying paint guns? I’m assuming full of chemical ‘less than lethal’ rounds?
The students have kept to the high road though. Look for some video of them silently sitting as the chancellor exits a press conference she cancelled when more than the press showed up. Great stuff.
Thanks for sharing the location of the university forum to express outrage. My filing is as follows (the type of bias wasn’t available on the drop down menu, so I added it in the text block):
“The primary type of bias was political violence in which a small group was singled out by a hateful and violent attack based on the expression of a political ideal.
On November 18, 2011 I was stunned to witness an attack on a group of peaceful students by a campus security officer who used pepper spray to crush a passive gathering. The students were engaged in political speech and were attacked in such a way that speech itself has been chilled. The conduct of the attacking officer, and the witnessing officers who did nothing to stop the assault, was intolerant toward the free speech rights of every single American. The police action placed order above the very fundamental constitutional obligation of Americans to freely speak and assemble, and to petition their government for change. There can be no greater attack on liberty, justice, tolerance, and dignity, than an attack on the core constitutional guarantees that keep our society free.”
On November 18th, 2011 I witnessed a video posted on a publicly used media site youtube.com. It appeared protesters were protesting socioeconomic inequality, since I heard a protester yelled, at the aggressors, and I quote, “none of you is getting a pension.” The video opened with group of men and I believe one women, all dressed in black law enforcement uniforms, helmet with face shields. All of them seemed to be armed with what looked to be side arms, and batons, some carried paint ball guns, while others had bundles of white loops on there waists. One of the aggressor (white male, approximately 50 yrs old, 6 ft tall, 200 lbs.) stood in front of a line of what appeared to be students who were sitting cross legged, in a line, on the ground. The aggressor held a red canister above his head, as if to show everyone what he was holding. The aggressor then proceeded to spray a red spray in the faces of the people sitting on the ground. The people on the ground bowed their heads to avoid the spray, while on lookers chanted, “shame on you.” After the aggressor was finished spraying, another group of the aggressors (it looked to be five to six white males in there mid thirties to mid forties) moved in on the line of people that were still sitting on the ground. These aggressors seemed to indiscriminately wrestle some of the people to the ground, while another group of white males pointed paint guns at the crowd, or had batons in a threatening manner. The aggressors then dragged off one person in a grey sweat shirt and dark grey pants, with his hands restrained behind his back. I witnessed another man ( white, mid twenties, approximately 6 ft. 170 lbs. slick black zip up jacket, beige pants) with his hands restrained behind his back, walking with two aggressors (white males, both approximately 6 ft., 200 lbs.). I observe one man ( approximately 25 yrs. 6 ft., 170 lbs) with a megaphone strapped to his waist walk by most of the aggressors. Another man (approximately 6 ft., 220 lbs brown hair) dressed as a law enforcement official with the captains insignia on his uniform directed people. Although it was difficult to make out one of the names on the aggressors uniforms, one name was definitely HELTON, while two other names looked like ALAVERA and VKWONG. The only time I heard anything from the aggressors was almost at the end of the video, when one of the aggressors (male, white, approximately 6 ft., 200 lbs holding a paint ball gun) stated, “back off” and “back up.” At this point it appeared the aggressor had come for what they wanted and group together, facing out to the crowd, and waiting for further instructions. One of the aggressors (white, male, approximately 50 yrs., 6 ft., 200 lbs.) approached the aggressor who sprayed the people earlier, and was standing at the head of the formation, and told this aggressor something (the microphone was to far away to hear). The aggressors proceeded to back away from the crowd. This was the end of the video.
During this entire video I did not see any aggressive movements from the crowd, and a lot that was chanted or said was usually posed as a question, “Who do you serve? Who do you protect? Who’s University? What’s wrong with you? Does anyone have water?
The statements shame on you, our university, none of you is getting a pension, are the only statements that might be abrasive, but these statements were said after the assault. At the end of the video the crowd stated in unison, “We are giving you a brief moment of peace, take your weapons and our friends, and go please, do not return, and we will not follow you.”
This was a very disturbing video and I do not doubt it’s authenticity. This video was over eight minutes long. Why were the local authorities not called? If this was in fact a group of rouge cops, why wasn’t cops that took an oath to serve and protect brought in to prevent this from happening? What happened to the people who were randomly kidnapped? Who will be investigating this? What can I do to prevent this from happening where I live? I am concerned about my brother and his family who live in Berkley. He has twin daughters that are in a day care, and I am sure that these children sit on the ground, and most likely chant. Will they be subjected to this brutality?
If you could contact me with some answer, or refer me to someone who can answer my questions it would be very much appreciated.
Thank you, and god bless.
Rouge Cops. Its Stings and Prince’s new group.
but how is that action, the infliction of harm upon a seated immobile individual, NOT A BATTERY???
since when is it acceptable to break a law to enforce one???
when did the idea of PUBLIC safety, when it is the public you are bashing, then become the justification for the bashing??
Who has a brother in law in the pepper spray business??? anyone in Bennington making money on this crap??