Unacceptable

On Friday, November 18th, now infamous incident occurred on the campus of UC-Davis. This, a college where one of my best friends went to undergrad was the scene of an act of police brutality extraordinary in its horror and the nonchalance with which it was carried out. Over the weekend, the responses and details flowed out of the campus, particularly after Chancellor Linda Katehi defended police actions, refused to resign, and felt it necessary to negotiate her own exit from her office building because she felt threatened by crowds of students angry they were excluded from a press conference. I understand that police officers have a job to do and that policies should exist to protect both cops and protesters. I understand that citizens (including students) conducting peaceful protests and acts of civil disobedience should expect the possibility of arrest. What I do not understand is how the events of this video can take place on a university campus in the United States of America in 2011. At the risk of sounding melodramatic, we have lost our way.

Below, my friend (and UC-Davis alum) and my letters to Chancellor Katehi, sent via her website:


Dear Chancellor Katehi,
 
I graduated from UC Davis in 2006 and from the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs in 2009. I am the daughter of public school professors, a committed public servant, and a proponent of the University of California, which I consider to be the finest public school system in the world. I took advantage of every experience UC Davis had to offer. I participated in the University of California, Washington DC internship program and studied abroad in Vienna. I joined political and social organizations on campus and developed a strong compulsion to serve. I believe in public service and in public education. The degree of success I have achieved since my undergraduate career would have been impossible without the insight I gained at UC Davis through lively debate and exposure to new ideas.
 
The video I saw via CNN, MSNBC, Facebook, Twitter, and celebrity gossip blogs alike of the events that took place last Friday horrified me. But nothing could have prepared me for the shock of learning that the campus police, donned in riot gear, were acting on your request. The implication is that you are concerned with the content of the protest (a strong word to describe a group of students peacefully seated on the main quad) occuring on our campus. For this to have happened on the same campus that helped me develop and express my opinions is heartbreaking. 
 
There are many issues facing UC Davis, not least of which are unprecedented budget problems. It is essential to have strong leadership during times like these. We cannot address these problems without trust, which will be impossible for you to regain. Your actions directly caused physical pain and emotional insecurity of your students who pay your salary. Given the brutality of the reaction, it is almost irrelevant that the students were engaged in a peaceful, free-speech demonstration in what must be maintained as a safe environment. I would like to add my voice to that of the faculty, students, alumni, and supporters of UC Davis and call for your immediate resignation.


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and mine:


Dear Chancellor Katehi,

My only connection to UC-Davis is that one of my best friends from graduate school got her Bachelor's degree from your institution. Other than that, I am simply a deeply concerned American citizen, public school graduate, and supporter of the students who were treated brutally by UC Davis's police force. 

While I appreciate your decision to suspend the Chief of Police, this action is not near enough. You must resign. Your initial support of the police's obviously unnecessary and brutal action against peacefully protesting students is unforgivable. And while I understand that a task force will be directed to investigate what happened--there is already plenty of understanding about what took place, because it was caught on tape. Details are important, and of course we (the public) will want to know exactly how such brutality was allowed to occur. But in the meantime, the image of a group of students sitting down and being pepper-sprayed at point-blank range by a police officer seemingly not feeling threatened (visor up, casual posture) is all we have. And it turns my stomach. 

You have demonstrated you are unable to stand up for students when they are in danger; your inability to protect them from the very police force that is supposed to keep them safe is not going to be forgiven by a task force and a police chief on administrative leave. I join with Professor Nathan Brown and the others who have called for your resignation. Because you need to be held accountable, and also because if this took place on the campus of one of my alma maters, I would insist on the same. 

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