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      SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — The University of California, Davis said
Monday that it has placed its police chief on administrative leave
amid outrage over widely circulated videos of officers dousing
pepper spray on student Occupy protesters.


      In a news release, campus officials said it was necessary to
place police Chief Annette Spicuzza on leave to restore trust and
calm tensions following Friday's crackdown on the "Occupy UC
Davis" encampment, which resulted in 10 arrests.


      The school has also placed two officers on administrative leave.

 clearly show one riot-gear clad officer
spraying a line of protesters as they sit passively with their arms
intertwined. Spicuzza said the second officer was identified during
an intense review of several videos.


      On Sunday, UC President Mark Yudof said he was "appalled" by
images of protesters being pepper-sprayed and plans an assessment
of law enforcement procedures on all 10 campuses.


      "Free speech is part of the DNA of this university, and
non-violent protest has long been central to our history," said
Yudof, who heads the 10-campus UC system. "It is a value we must
protect with vigilance."


      Yudof said it was not his intention to "micromanage our campus
police forces," but he said all 10 chancellors would convene soon
for a discussion "about how to ensure proportional law enforcement
response to non-violent protest."


      Protesters from Occupy Sacramento planned to travel to nearby
Davis on Monday for a noon rally in solidarity with the students,
the group said in a statement.


      UC Davis officials refused to identify the two officers who were
place on administrative leave but one was a veteran of many years
on the force and the other "fairly new" to the department,
Spicuzza said.


      She would not elaborate further because of the pending probe.


      "We really wanted to be diligent in our research, and during
our viewing of multiple videos we discovered the second officer,"
Spicuzza said. "This is the right thing to do."


      Both officers were trained in the use of pepper spray as
department policy dictates, and both had been sprayed with it
themselves during training, the chief noted.


      David Buscho, a UC Davis senior from San Rafael, said he and his
girlfriend were pepper-sprayed Friday.


      "I had my arms around my girlfriend. I just kissed her on the
forehead and then he sprayed us. Immediately we were blinded,"
Buscho said. "So I was sitting there blind, suffocating. My
girlfriend was writhing in pain. I wanted to touch her but my hands
were covered in pepper spray."


      "He just sprayed us again and again and we were completely
powerless to do anything," Buscho said. "This was my first
protest. I've never seen any police brutality in person like
that."


      Meanwhile, UC Davis Chancellor Linda Katehi said she asked the
Yolo County District Attorney's Office to investigate the
department's use of force. She said she's been inundated with
reaction from alumni, students and faculty and also would speed up
an investigation that was to have taken three months.


      "I spoke with students this weekend and I feel their outrage,"
Katehi said in a statement Sunday.


      Katehi also set a 30-day deadline for her school's task force
investigating the incident to issue its report. The task force,
comprised of students, staff and faculty, will be chosen this week.
She earlier had set a 90-day timetable. She also plans to meet with
demonstrators Monday at their general assembly, said her
spokeswoman, Claudia Morain.


      The UC Davis faculty association called for Katehi's
resignation, saying in a Saturday letter there had been a "gross
failure of leadership." Katehi has resisted calls for her to quit.


      "I am deeply saddened that this happened on our campus, and as
chancellor, I take full responsibility for the incident," Katehi
said Sunday. "However, I pledge to take the actions needed to
ensure that this does not happen again. I feel very sorry for the
harm our students were subjected to and I vow to work tirelessly to
make the campus a more welcoming and safe place."


      The incident reverberated well beyond the university, with
condemnations and defenses of police from elected officials and
from the wider public on Facebook and Twitter.


      "On its face, this is an outrageous action for police to
methodically pepper spray passive demonstrators who were exercising
their right to peacefully protest at UC Davis," Senate President
Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento, said in a statement
Sunday. "Chancellor Katehi needs to immediately investigate,
publically explain how this could happen and ensure that those
responsible are held accountable."


      The protest Friday was held in support of the overall Occupy
Wall Street movement and in solidarity with protesters at the
University of California, Berkeley who were jabbed by police with
batons on Nov. 9.


      Nine students hit by pepper spray were treated at the scene, two
were taken to hospitals and later released, university officials
said.


      Meanwhile Sunday, police in San Francisco, about 80 miles west
of Davis, arrested six anti-Wall Street protesters and cleared
about 12 tents erected in front of the Federal Reserve Bank.


      Across the bay in Oakland, police cleared out the city's two
remaining Occupy encampments on Sunday and Monday. Authorities say
protesters at both locations left peacefully and no arrests were
made.

Gallery

UC Davis president vows pepper spraying probe

Social Issues

The University of California, Davis said
Monday that it has placed its police chief on administrative leave
amid outrage over widely circulated videos of officers dousing
pepper spray on student Occupy protesters.

Campus police chief on leave after pepper spraying

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