UC-Davis to Investigate Pepper-Spraying of Peaceful Students

After video footage was posted on social-media sites showing a police officer pepper-spraying seated students at the University of California at Davis on Friday, the chancellor announced that she would form a task force to investigate the incident. The students, part of an Occupy Davis encampment the police were trying to clear, appear in the video to be sitting passively on the ground with their arms linked when a police officer walks up, displays a bottle of pepper spray, and then calmly sprays the protesters in a sweeping motion.

According to the Associated Press, the Davis Faculty Association on Saturday called for the resignation of the chancellor, Linda P.B. Katehi, saying her authorization of police force was a “gross failure of leadership.”

“The chancellor’s role is to enable open and free inquiry, not to suppress it,” the faculty association said in its letter.

Chancellor Katehi, who said in a news conference on Saturday that she had not violated any institutional policies and had no plans to resign, wrote in a letter posted on the university’s Web site that Friday “was not a day that would make anyone on our campus proud.” The use of pepper spray as depicted in the video, she wrote, “is chilling to us all and raises many questions about how best to handle situations like this.”

She said the task force would include faculty, staff, and students, and would investigate the events leading up to the incident.

[Updated, 11/20/2011] In developments on Sunday, two officers were placed on paid leave in connection with the incident, and Chancellor Katehi set an accelerated timetable for the task force that will investigate. Ms. Katehi said the panel will be chosen this week, will convene immediately, and will have a deadline of 30 days for completing a report on its findings.