UC Davis Pepper-Spraying: Police Chief Put On Leave, Chancellor To Speak

[CreekDog]

Source: NPR

The school (UC Davis) announced this morning that the chief of the campus police department "has been placed on administrative leave pending a review" of the incident. It also said that the local district attorney has agreed to join the county sheriff in a review of what happened.

And university Chancellor Linda P.B. Katehi, who came under fire for initially defending the officers' actions, is going to be much in the news today and tomorrow as she tries to tamp down the outrage at her school.

The Davis Enterprise reports that Katehi plans to meet with Occupy UC Davis protesters today at noon PT (3 p.m ET). This afternoon, she's due to speak with members of the school's faculty (some of whom have called for her resignation).

At 10 a.m. PT (1 p.m. ET), Kathei is due to discuss the pepper-spraying incident on KQED's Forum with Michael Krasny. The show is streamed here and we're hoping we'll be able to embed the recorded audio later today.

Read more: http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2011/11/21/142586964/uc-davis-pepper-spraying-police-chief-put-on-leave-chancellor-to-speak?sc=fb&cc=fp

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In addition to injuring students, the police involved made every officer's job, everywhere in the USA more difficult than it was on Friday.

[Zoeisright]

1. RESIGN, Ms. Katehi.

And I hope those students sue the fuck out of you and those police officers.

[PearliePoo2]

10. I couldn't agree more!

Let the lawsuits begin.

[bemildred]

2. Fire the lot. Clean slate. nt

[Xithras]

13. Not that easy.

Their contracts stipulate that they can't be fired without a hearing. As I said in another thread this weekend, the governor himself can't fire the officers involved in this. Neither can the chancellor or any other supervisors.

All they can do is place the officers on paid leave and recommend the incidents to a disciplinary committee for review. In that committee, the officers actions will be evaluated, and the officers will have an opportunity to defend themselves with legal counsel and union representation. The disciplinary committee will then come up with a suitable punishment which may range from a simple warning, to termination. The chancellor will then have the opportunity to either approve their recommendation, or to either send it back to the committee or to arbitration if she doesn't agree with it.

The California public higher-ed system, including the UC's, CSU's, and CC's, have disciplinary hierarchies in place which prevent any individual from behaving like a tyrant and firing anyone by fiat. The chancellor could walk into the campus police department right now and say, "You're all fired, get out" and they could just laugh at her. She does not have the power or authority to fire anyone. In fact, if she tried they could actually institute a disciplinary action against her for attempting to violate employee contract rights. All she can do is suspend them from work, ban then from campus, and recommend them for disciplinary review.

[Downwinder]

19. No committee is necessary for an arrest for assault

[AngryAmish]

3. MS. Kathei, you are a racist and must go

[gateley]

4. Excellent point -- he disgraced all law enforcement officers. nt

[Shadowflash]

5. Campus police chief?

Is that like the head security guard at the mall?

[Xithras]

14. No. UC police are legally sworn state police officers, with authority equal to the CHP.

And, yes, they can arrest people and write tickets off-campus.

As I once had to explain to a friend who was ranting about getting a crosswalk ticket in Davis from a UCPD far from the campus (he drove into a crosswalk in downtown Davis and nearly hit a pedestrian, and a UCPD officer saw it, pulled him over, and ticketed him). In California, the highway patrols primary jurisdiction is state highways and freeways, but they are state police officers and therefore technically have the legal right to get involved in any crime anywhere in the state. They almost always leave local law enforcement to the locals, but their jurisdiction technically covers all of California.

UCPD is the same thing. They are state police officers, and their primary jurisdiction are the UC campuses. They carry guns, drive patrol cars, and usually take the lead on investigating campus crimes (i.e. when a rape occurs on campus, the campus PD investigate it, and not the local PD). Still, they can pull you over for speeding on the freeway, pull their guns to stop an off-campus crime, or arrest you for public drunkenness in towns where UC campus don't even exist, if they really want to.

These guys aren't mallcops.

[Shadowflash]

20. Makes sense, then. I was wondering how that worked.

[Donnachaidh]

6. she was on GMA today -- totally useless pos

She should RESIGN.

[GOTV]

7. I don't think sadists should run schools ...

... and supporting the actions of sadists makes one a sadist.

[KamaAina]

8. This is what you see as you approach Davis from the east (Sacramento)

I shit you not.

[Brother Buzz]

16. The Mace family were carpetbagges from the next town over

Big land holders, cattle & ranching, meat packing (sold to Armour), land development. They developed that area, El Macero, a gated community with a golf course where the country club republicans hid from all the wacky progressive Davis residents.

The oldest matriarch was my neighbor for years.

[KamaAina]

17. But was Mace named for them?

The spray, not the boulevard.

That's the question.

[Brother Buzz]

18. They grew lots of mace in wetlands to the east

Today, it's a bird sanctuary; Yolo Bypass Wildlife Area. A grant from the Monsanto Fund helped develop it. Coincidence?

[Xithras]

22. No.

As the upthread poster said, the street is named after a person. Mace Boulevard cuts through the lands of the former Mace Ranch, which was founded and owned by Bruce Mace.

Mace, the spray, was named after the traditional combat weapon. It's a chemical "club" that can incapacitate opponents.

No relation between the two.

[KamaAina]

23. I was just being silly.

Seeing as how the stench of pepper spray hangs heavy over Mace Blvd. and all.

[Brother Buzz]

24. Mace Ranch was the former Chiles ranch

Chiles, a real deal pioneer dude, left a rich history.

Mace the carpetbagger entrepreneur purchased a big chunk of it in 1950.

[PearliePoo2]

9. And.....regarding the Lying UC Davis Police Chief who spewed bullshit ...

"UC Davis Police Chief Annette Spicuzza has been placed on administrative leave pending a review of her officers’ use of pepper spray on unarmed protesters Friday. Two of the involved officers also remain on leave."

She's the lying POS that said the "officers" were trapped in a circle with no way out by the kids.

The POS coward that pepper-sprayed the kids is:
Lieutenant John Pike
Records Unit Manager
[e-mail]

[50000feet]

11. Katehi should be forced out for her *contempt* for peace.

Shocking!

[CreekDog]

12. .

[byronius]

15. She's gone. What a ham-handed leader. No sense at all.

UC Davis is generally a lefty place, like Davis itself. Her job is not going to survive this. And that's justice.

[musiclawyer]

21. The Chief is probably at -will

Expect the chief to be gone soon. On the other hand, the rank and file are civil service who can appeal all the way to binding arbitration. UC will move to terminate them. UC has no choice. Otherwise their legal exposure for civil rights violations goes up exponentially. Arbitrators in CA love to slice the baby down the middle. But any arbitrator assigned to this case will never work again if terminations are not upheld.

But it should not matter if the DA does his job and files criminal charges. The criminal cases actually get resolved much faster the the laborious civil disciplinary process. Pressure should be placed euqally on the DA and UC!