UC Davis Pepper Spray report and OWS fallout

The actual feet on the ground OWS movement is now mostly history logistically and to a lesser extent newsworthy for those who remain encamped anywhere. However one of the high-profile related incidents related to OWS was the confrontation between campus police, students, protesters, and onlookers at UC Davis involving pepper spraying and the consequences from its use.

The rest of the article:

http://www.davisenterprise.com/local-news/ucd/reynoso-pepper-spray-report-out-by-early-february/

Since the full report will be made public and open for public hearing there is sure to be more controversy—doubly so because of the national attention and issues between police in various cities and OWS “protestors” nationwide including the very divergent actions of both the police and the protestors on a location by location basis. Also, the UC Davis incident went viral on the Internet and in the MSM.

So the above is going to be incorporated into the legacy of OWS protests and not just about a single incident at UC Davis.

The release of the report and investigation into the pepper spray incident has been pushed back to February 21st. Originally it was to be released in early February.

From an administrative standpoint what a Charlie Fox this has dissolved into. Wait till you read why:

http://www.davisenterprise.com/local-news/crime-fire-courts/reynoso-talks-with-police-union-delay-pepper-spray-report/

http://www.kcra.com/news/30412569/detail.html

There will be a lot of unhappy people over the content.

Bureaucracies! They will solve no problem before its time.

http://www.davisenterprise.com/local-news/crime-fire-courts/pepper-spray-report-delayed-again/

It was also revealed that the Campus Police Chief and the Lt. in charge on site at the time of the incident were not permitted to be interviewed. Permitted? Permitted!

Isn't there anyone who doesn't have their head up their ass that should realize the way the release of this report is constantly being delayed and with the exclusion of the interviewing certain key individuals that even if for the sake of discussion the report is totally complete and accurate in its content that it is not going to carry any credibility of complete and accurate no matter what the conclusions are?

The report was scheduled to be released today. The date has been set for some time. However, today the Police Union has gone to court to block its publication.

LOL. I’m sure there will be something in the report or something left out of the report to offend everyone when it is finally published.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2012/03/uc-davis-pepper-spraying-report-delayed.html

Irrelevant. They didn't conduct the key investigation or make the independent investigative team's conclusions or write the idenpendent investigator's reports.

The UC Davis police messed up in many ways and as stated by others made many bad decisions and used improper tactics or failed to use appropriate tactics when executed, all detailed in the report. The police were the fire starter of the resulting melee and the injuries and panic that went with it. But it is all spelled out in detail in the report as you will see when you read it if you haven't all ready done so.

I'm sure you know who Bill Bratton is but for those that may not: http://www.globalaffairs.org/forum/topic/68232-who-is-bill-bratton/page__p__613652

What counts is the quality and accuracy of the investigation into the incident which was headed up by Bratton and his investigative firm Kroll and Associates. Their detailed step by step professional raw report along with analysis is set forth in its own section of the report.

Bratton/Kroll investigation is extensive and detailed. Refreshingly well written. The entire report including both the faculty input combined with the Kroll report is approximately 200 pages long.

However, at the very simplest but completely accurate level the following sums up the key point IMO:

Lt. John Pike, who pepper sprayed the students, “bears primary responsibility for the objectively unreasonable decision to use pepper spray.” [Underline emphasis added.]

I skimmed read the entire report. (Whew.) Kroll did a superb job. Incredibly comprehensive in the investigation and evaluation of both the campus police from every angle or category and also the appropriate or relevant UC Davis Administrative and Academic personnel. Factually based with corroboration and reported per the investigation. Essentially overall and taking the totality of the fact and circumstances neither the campus police or the University Staff did anything remotely resembling what they should have done at any step of the way starting way before the actual pepper spray incident.

Personally, the thing I found most interesting was during the time of the pepper spray incident virtually all of the claims of justifications for any of their actions were clearly shown to unfounded in reality by the incredible abundance of clear high quality video that covered everything from every angle and during the entire time of the actions in dispute. There was substantial other evidence but as we all know "a picture is worth a thousand words."

The police were not trained properly, didn't communicate properly, had a breakdown in the command structure or chain of command, should not have used the pepper spray, used the wrong type of canister of pepper spray, a larger more powerful canister that no one on the campus department were trained to use and beside being completely wrong in using pepper spray at all also used it incorrectly and an unsafe manner. They made sequential one bad decision after another. In mitigation they got extremely poor direction or support from the administration. The chief surely must be history in the near future.

The entire report has relevant information in but for those not wishing to read the entire report the most relevant part to the discussions in posts at GA in threads related to this whole topic starts around page 116.

News articles on the contents of the UC Davis Pepper Spray controversy and incident report, summarizing its findings, facts, opinions, conclusions, and investigation.


New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/12/us/task-force-criticizes-pepper-spraying-of-protesters-at-uc-davis.html

Los Angeles Times

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-0412-uc-davis-20120412,0,267683.story

MSNBC

http://usnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/04/11/11146298-report-uc-davis-police-should-not-have-pepper-sprayed-protesters?lite

Sacramento Bee (Sacramento’s main Newspaper)

http://www.sacbee.com/2012/04/12/4407941/report-pepper-spray-incident-at.html

San Francisco Chronicle

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/04/11/MNVS1O1S0T.DTL

Washington Post/AP

http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/university-of-california-to-release-report-on-police-pepper-spraying-of-occupy-protesters/2012/04/11/gIQAxsqs9S_story.html

Nor for me.

Not surprisingly given the tremendous amount and varied sources of evidence even the strong supporters of the UC Davis police pretty much nationally remain silent regarding the outcome of the investigation.

IMO the UC Davis force will come out better for this and they will get a new chief. I also expect a better relationship between students and the campus police. How the relationship between the police and the university faculty will evolve is hard to say.

Nor am I surprised. Even more than fixing the problem at Davis I hope police all over the nation will learn from this and avoid repeating this type of incident elsewhere. Sadly, I'm pessimistic that will be the case.

His separation follows the April departure of UC Davis Campus Police Chief Annette Spicuzza.