CALIFORNIA – When students at the University of California Davis were sitting down across a stretch of walkway in the quad area of the campus on Friday as part of what they said was a peaceful protest to support the Occupy Wall Street movement, an officer was caught on video showing off a canister of pepper spray to the crowd before he sprayed it directly at the faces of students.
"The UC Davis students were peacefully protesting on the quad," wrote the student who took the video in an email to The Huffington Post who decided to remain anonymous for fear of retribution.
"The cops 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."
When the incident occurred, the students were surrounded by more than a dozen UC Davis police who were dressed in riot gear and holding batons.
The UC Davis chancellor, Linda P.B. Katehi, released a statement after the incident on Friday saying,
"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."
In a letter to Katehi, an English professor at the university said, “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."
However UC David Police Chief Annette Spicuzza defended the action taken by the campus police saying it wasn’t safe for students to camp on the quad. “It’s not safe for multiple reasons,” she said.
"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."
Video – Caught on Video: Watch the 15 minute video showing students being pepper sprayed and forcefully removed by police as students chant “Shame on you!”
Photos – Occupy Wall Street protests clash with police.
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