DAVIS – On Nov. 18, 2011, students of UC Davis lead a peaceful protest on their campus to demonstrate their beliefs on the Occupy Wall Street movement that occurred last fall.
During the protest, all the students sat and were not violent when the police pepper sprayed the students from an endangering range.
On Wednesday Feb. 22, 19 students and alumni filed a lawsuit against the police officers who had peppered sprayed them emphasizing that they felt like their rights to free speech had been suppressed. The suit was filed in the U.S. District Court in Sacramento.
The students are also suing the administration of UC Davis as well, including the Chancellor Linda Katehi.
Katehi was asked to step down from her position as she was the one to give the police direct orders to break up the protest, but has refused to resign.
Three months after the incident, administrations were asked to vote whether the Chancellor should remain on their campus. The vote came to 586-408 in favor of having confidence in the Chancellor’s leadership abilities, even though they still believe that her order was wrong.
“A wise leader would have not ordered the police to act against non-violent demonstrators,” David Copp, Philosophy Professor at UC Davis said during the two week voting period, according to CBS News San Francisco.
UC Davis President Mark Yudof and UC Davis Chancellor Linda Katehi had ordered an investigation task force to find out what had happened on their campus .
Lt. John Pike, a UC Davis officer and the Police Chief Annette Spicuzza are suspended with pay due to the investigation. The information on this task force is going to be withheld from the public as of Tuesday, March 6 at the request of the attorney representing the police officers.
The next court hearing is on March 16 and the judge will decide whether or not the report made from the investigation should be released to the pubic after hearing both sides of the story.
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University of California, Davis Students Sue over Pepper Spraying Incident
By Bonnie Winget
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March 14, 2012
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