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UC Davis Officials Sued Over Pepper Spraying Students

February 23, 2012

Photo by Louise Macabitas

Three months after being pepper sprayed, nineteen students and alumni filed a federal lawsuit against UC Davis campus police alleging that their freedom-of-speech rights were grossly violated when campus police pepper sprayed a row of Occupy UC Davis protestors on November 18.

The suit names Chancellor Linda Katehi as a defendant, along with other campus administrators and police officers. It details allegations against campus police Lt. John Pike, who the suit says sprayed the seated or crouching protesters at close range, causing pain to their eyes and faces.

Students are seeking financial damages against the University claiming that they did not properly train or screen campus police, as well as, demanding new policy changes on how the UC system handles protestors.

22-year-old David Buscho, a mechanical engineer major, was one of those who had joined the Occupy movement to protest against rising tuition and what he claimed was privatization of UC. Buscho described in great details the effects of being pepper sprayed and how it made him feel like he was suffocating.

"It was extremely painful and totally disorienting," he said, adding that he had a rash for a week. But the UC Davis senior said he would not keep any monetary award from the case and instead would donate it to a scholarship or worthwhile student organization. He said he joined the lawsuit to uncover details about decisions leading to the eviction of the protest camp and the spraying.

Michael Risher, a staff attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union Foundation of Northern California will represent the students. "Our goal in this lawsuit is to ensure the university makes a clear commitment to protect free speech on campus and prevent this from ever happening again," said Risher.

UC Davis spokesman Barry Schiller released a statement that said the campus attorneys and students' lawyers have been talking. "We hope those conversations continue," he said, but declined to comment any further.

Gov. Brown makes midyear cuts, warns more to come

Governor Brown

December 14, 2011

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — In rolling out midyear budget cuts, Gov. Jerry Brown said he saw no choice but to demonstrate fiscal discipline and warned that a new and more devastating round of reductions will hit next year unless his tax proposal is implemented.

Brown ordered $1 billion in midyear cuts to California's budget on Tuesday in a move that sparked criticism, even as his supporters said it showed he was the "adult in the room."

The cuts will hurt students who rely on school buses to get to class, mothers who depend on child care subsidies to keep working and programs that support the developmentally disabled.

Brown, a Democrat, said the state had no choice because revenues will fall about $2.2 billion below the $88.4 billion he and state lawmakers had hoped for when they passed the budget last summer.

"None of this is pleasant but the alternative is to do what we've done for so many years and that is to just borrow, obfuscate and delay," Brown said in a news conference at the state Capitol. "And I don't want to do that."

Citing a polarized political atmosphere in California and across the nation that he says has made compromising with Republicans impossible, Brown said he saw no other path toward fiscal order than to go directly to California's voters and give them a choice between higher taxes and maintaining schools, universities, public safety and social services.

"They should have a chance to vote on it," said Brown, who spoke about his tax proposal for the first time since papers were filed with the state last week. "The people of California are saying they don't want cuts but also expressing reservations about taxes. So that's the public dissidence and problem."

Brown wants to temporarily increase taxes on the rich, starting with individuals making more than $250,000, and raise the statewide sales tax by half a cent, to 7.75 percent. The proposal, which he hopes to bring before voters next November, would raise about $7 billion a year for five years.

He warned of further cuts when he releases his proposed 2012-13 budget in January unless voters support higher taxes.

Republicans, who blocked Brown's proposal earlier this year to place a question on taxes before voters, say it didn't have to be this way and accused the governor of using the midyear cuts to his advantage as he pushes his tax proposal. They continue to advocate for reforms to the public pension system, regulations and a state spending cap.

"The problem continues to be overspending, with an increase of 12 percent for this year's budget," said Jim Nielsen, R-Gerber, vice chair of the Assembly budget committee, in a statement. "The fact that revenues have increased over the past year, yet spending outpaces those revenues, argues for more spending control, not a massive tax increase like the governor announced last week."

Brown, who is 73 and campaigned to return to the governor's office as an elder statesman, said he remains open to speaking with GOP members. He acknowledged he faces an uphill battle in selling his tax plan to voters, particularly because he could face competing tax measures that might confuse voters.

The Associated Press

Students Speak out Against Tuition Hikes!

UC Davis Police Pepper-Spray Seated Students In Occupy Dispute

November 19, 2011

Los Angeles -- On Friday, students at the University of California became the latest victims of alleged police brutality which was captured on video. The video show students sitting in a long live on the pavement at the University with their arms interlocked as part of the occupy movement protesting school budget cuts and rising tuition. A UC Davis police officer, Lt. John Pike, then brandishes a red canister of pepper spray, showing it off for the crowd before calmly dousing the seated students in a thicket of red pepper spray.

As the spray reached the faces of students they began to feel the effects of the chemicals. One woman was transported to a hospital to be treated for chemical burns. "The UC Davis students were peacefully protesting on the quad," wrote one student.

"The cop gave them 3 minutes to disperse before he said they would come and disturb the protest. The main objective for them was removing the tents. ... The students did have a right to be on campus, they were assembling peacefully and the campus was open at the time." In a longer version of the video, the students are shown seated across a stretch of walkway surrounded by more than a dozen UC Davis cops, dressed in riot gear and clutching batons.

Many other students are standing along the sides of the scene, watching and protesting as the standoff unfolded. Some students shouted "Thugs on campus!" and "From Davis to Greece, fuck the police!" Those chants were tamped down quickly by others, who warned all to "Keep it peaceful" and "Keep it nonviolent."

So the students started up a new chant that would prove prophetic: "You use weapons! We use our voice!" At one point, one of the riot cops ambles over to the seated line and asks one of the students a question. The student replies, "We're sitting here." The police officer then returns to his position with the other officers. He also turns his back on the seated students, as does at least one other officer. They show no fear that the students might turn violent or threatening. The first cop talks on his radio for a while.

After a few "mic checks" and few more chants, a cop goes back to the seated students. The student asks, "You're gonna shoot me for sitting here? You're shooting us for sitting here?" Roughly a minute later, the officer can be seen shaking the pepper spray canister as the gathered students start shouting, "Don't shoot your children!" As the officer began spraying the group of students, onlookers screamed, "Don't do it! Don't you do it!"

UC Davis chancellor, Linda Katehi, released a statement Friday which states, "We deeply regret that many of the protestors today chose not to work with our campus staff and police to remove the encampment as requested. We are even more saddened by the events that subsequently transpired to facilitate their removal."

UC Davis assistant English professor Nathan Brown, released an open letter to the chancellor, calling for her resignation. He wrote, "You are responsible for it because this is what happens when UC Chancellors order police onto our campuses to disperse peaceful protesters through the use of force: students get hurt."

A total of ten students were arrested Friday on campus. After the pepper spraying, the crowd of students began marching down the quad. The UC Davis cops? They're pushed back down the walkway and finally leave. The students start an old cheer that rang true again, "Whose quad? Our quad!" UC Davis Police Chief Annette Spicuzza defended her officers' actions to KCRA. She argued that it just wasn't safe for students to camp on the quad.

"It's not safe for multiple reasons," Spicuzza said. In a report by the CBS Sacramento station Friday night, Spicuzza said the officers' own safety was also a concern. "If you look at the video, you are going to see that there were 200 people in that quad," she said. "Hindsight is 20-20, and based on the situation we were sitting in, ultimately that was the decision that was made."

UC Davis officials were said to have warned the occupiers that they could not set up a tent city, and were given ample notice that the tents had to be cleared out by 3 p.m. on Friday. Some complied. Others did not.

One UC Davis official said that the officers were trapped (the videos suggest otherwise) and had to transport several of the arrested students. "The pepper spray was used because they needed to get out of there," she said, emphasizing that the students were repeatedly warned before the spray was deployed.

Protest Erupts in Violence over Tuition Hikes

Tessa Bohling, 17, joins other students protest against fee hikes on the campus.
Photo by David Crane

Nov 16, 2011

LONG BEACH, Calif. -- California State University trustees have approved a 9 percent tuition hike despite a demonstration that ended in a struggle between police and protesters.

Assistant Chancellor Robert Turnage says the trustees reconvened elsewhere as the demonstration occurred at the doors of the Long Beach meeting room and they voted 9-6 in favor of the increase.

The hike will raise student costs $498 to $5,970 a year. Three people were taken into custody during the demonstration and an officer suffered a cut arm when a door shattered.

A struggle erupted between demonstrators and police Wednesday as trustees of the huge California State University system met to consider another tuition hike, this time a 9 percent increase that would raise student costs $498 to $5,970 a year.

Opponents of the plan disrupted the meeting by chanting and waving signs, and the struggle occurred as police tried to force them outside and close doors to the building. Demonstrators tried to keep the glass doors open and one finally shattered, cutting an officer's arm. It appeared that pepper spray was used because a choking vapor filled the air. Three people were quickly taken into custody. More officers in riot gear arrived and the situation rapidly quieted as demonstrators dispersed.

It was not clear whether the meeting would continue. The trustees had yet to vote on the plan, although it had received a narrow 4-3 approval by the finance committee. It would be the 23-campus system's ninth tuition increase in nine years. With campus fees added in, the total cost for undergraduates would be more than $7,000 for the full year.

Elaine Nadalin, a sociology student at CSU Long Beach, was among several dozen students arriving at the meeting to oppose the hike. "Students are the least able to subsidize these increases. Some of us will be barred from accessing higher education" said Nadalin, a member of the group Students for a Quality Education. "Banks are making record profits at a time when there are record cuts." University officials said the proposed tuition increase for 2012-2013 is necessary because of continuing cuts in state funding. The CSU budget has been slashed by $650 million in recent years and another $100 million cut is possible next month.

The board plans to ask the Legislature for an additional $138.3 million in state funding. If approved, the tuition hike wouldn't be needed. Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom, a member of the CSU board of trustees, said he opposes a tuition hike.
"We have an obligation to our students and their families to send a strong message to Sacramento that our higher education system and economy cannot meet its potential unless this catastrophic trend is reversed," he said.

There are about 412,000 students enrolled at Cal State campuses. Cal State officials said the availability of financial aid means about 45 percent of the university system's students won't be impacted by the tuition hike. The demonstration was expected to be largely driven by members of ReFund California, a coalition of student groups and university employee unions seeking to make big banks and wealthy individuals pay higher taxes to help fund public education.

Tuition rose 23 percent and enrollment was slashed by 10,000 students in the past two years because of the cuts in state funding. The tuition hike vote comes as faculty from two campuses made plans to walk off the job Thursday to protest Cal State's withholding of contractual pay raises for faculty members.

California Student "Dream Act" Provokes Controversy

July 25, 2011

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - California Governor Jerry Brown signed into law on Monday a bill allowing illegal immigrants to receive privately funded scholarships to attend the state's public colleges and universities. The bill, dubbed the California Dream Act, passed the state Legislature earlier this month and aims at helping illegal immigrants who earned a diploma after attending at least three years of high school in the state.

Enactment of the California measure came three days after opponents of a similar law in Maryland collected enough signatures to force a state referendum seeking its repeal.

"At the end of the day, if we're going to continue as a powerful, equal-opportunity society, we're going to have to invest in our people," Brown, a Democrat, said at the signing ceremony in the library of a Los Angeles community college.

The California law is named after national legislation in Congress to give young, undocumented immigrants who have lived in the United States for at least five years a pathway to citizenship through college or military service.

The federal bill failed to win passage in December 2010, and its chances have dimmed since a newly elected Republican majority took control of the House of Representatives.

Critics say the California Dream Act gives illegal immigrants a false promise because their status will not change after graduating from college and they will remain unable to find legal employment. Former Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, a Republican, vetoed an earlier version of the bill last year.

But Julian Rivera, 20, a student at the University of California at Berkeley who entered the United States illegally with his parents at age 12 from Mexico, said the measure could make it easier those like him to afford to stay in school.

"It doesn't matter where you come from, it doesn't matter what your background is, it just matters that you have passion for something and you want to do it," he said. "This is a country that has given us that freedom."

OPPOSING "THE DREAM"

Patrick McDonough, a Republican member of the Maryland House of Delegates who helped lead the petition drive for the repeal initiative there, said U.S. citizens who are struggling to pay for college should not have to compete with illegal immigrants for scarce financial resources.

"People would say, 'Why should we, when we're having tough economic times ourselves, pay for someone who is here illegally?'" he said.

The new California law is fairly limited in scope, making undocumented students who qualify eligible for private scholarships. A separate bill under consideration in the legislature would allow illegal immigrants to seek publicly funded scholarships as well.

State law already allows illegal immigrants who qualify for admission to a four-year state university to pay in-state tuition rather than the more expensive out-of-state tuition rate. But four-year institutions are still beyond reach for many undocumented students without financial aid.

Twelve other states also grant in-state tuition eligibility to illegal immigrants based on attendance and graduation from a state high school, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

Arizona, Colorado, Georgia, South Carolina and Indiana have laws barring illegal immigrants from in-state tuition benefits.

Passage of legislation in California and Maryland to extend private scholarships to illegal immigrants comes as a number of states, led by Arizona, have taken steps to crack down on the undocumented.

"You're going to see the red states go more the Arizona approach and blue states the California Dream Act approach," said John Skrentny, director of the Center for Comparative Immigration Studies at University of California, San Diego.

The Associated Press