UPDATE: Two UC Davis cops placed on 'Administrative Leave'...
By Brad Friedman on 11/19/2011, 8:10pm PT  

The Twilight Zone-like video above, shot and posted by Lee Fang, was taped this evening as UC Davis Chancellor Linda P.B. Katehi walked to her car while students lined the sidewalk and roadway, sitting and locking arms in complete silence. Their demonstration came on the heels of Katehi's support of the hyper-militarized UC Davis Police Department's outrageous and brutal use of pepper spray on dozens of compliant, peaceful Occupy demonstrators who were sitting in a circle, locking arms, on the campus quad yesterday.

We covered the shocking pepper spray incident, including the remarkable photographs and videos of the event, along with the calls for Katehi's resignation, earlier today here.

Fang's describes what happened leading to the haunting moment seen in the video above this way:

A pretty remarkable thing just happened. A press conference, scheduled for 2:00pm between the UC Davis Chancellor and police on campus, did not end at 2:30. Instead, a mass of Occupy Davis students and sympathizers mobilized outside, demanding to have their voice heard. After some initial confusion, UC Chancellor Linda Katehi refused to leave the building, attempting to give the media the impression that the students were somehow holding her hostage.

A group of highly organized students formed large gap for the chancellor to leave. They chanted “we are peaceful” and “just walk home,” but nothing changed for several hours. Eventually student representatives convinced the chancellor to leave after telling their fellow students to sit down and lock arms.

The blatant torture of peaceful demonstrators on the UC Davis campus yesterday was just the latest in a string of similarly appalling incidents of violence orchestrated by highly militarized "law enforcement" officials over the last several weeks across the nation in response to the growing Occupy Wall Street movement. We detailed a number of the most disturbing recent incidents, many of them caught on video tape and photographs, in this report yesterday.

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UPDATE 11/20/11: Several quick updates following the events of last night depicted above, including explanations of how it came about (one of the pepper sprayed students organized it), interviews with some of the pepper sprayed students, an interview with a Baltimore cop who supports the use of force at UC Davis, and news that two of the UC Davis cops have now been placed on "Administrative Leave". Details follow below...

• Some more Fang video prior to Katehi's Walk of Shame, showing one of the pepper sprayed students himself calling for the silent shaming.

• An email from one of the students at the silent protest, explaining how Katehi had brought it upon herself by creating a " fake hostage situation depicting the students as hostile, violent, & unreasonable," as they protested outside her press conference (which she did not inform students about in advance.)

Fang's interview with one of the pepper sprayed students who says nobody from the UC Davis administration has reached out to apologize to her for what happened. She now wishes Katehi "would resign."

BoingBoing interview by Xeni Jardin with another pepper sprayed student (and more photos of the incident), explaining what led up to it and alleging "he sprayed us at point blank range."

John Aravosis at AmericaBlog reports on a Baltimore cop interviewed by AP who "says it's standard procedure what the UC Davis cops did to the passive protesters there, pepper spraying them in the face, instead of just arresting them, for simply sitting peacefully on a sidewalk. In fact, he says they could have beaten the protesters with batons too, for simply moving an arm or crawling up in a ball."

• And finally, for now, two of the UC Davis cops have been placed on "administrative leave" for now, though the University's announcement did not name them. While Lt. John Pike, the one seen most prominently pepper spraying students in the videos of the incident is likely one of them, it's unknown whether UC Davis Police Chief Annette Spicuzza is the other.

Spicuzza lied to the public after the incident (just as Oakland PD Interim Chief Howard Jordan did following the police-instigated violence there on October 25th, as The BRAD BLOG has reported exclusively) when she told media that "The students had encircled the officers...They needed to exit. They were looking to leave but were unable to get out."

The many video tapes of the incident appear to contradict Chief Spicuzza's account.

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UPDATE 11/20/11 3:30pm PT: UC President Mark G. Yudof offers the type of response that Katehi should have, but has yet to give, despite, so far, three attempts (in order, here, here and here) at issuing statements. She has so far failed to condemn the behavior of the UC Police force, to date, using on the word "saddened" described her feelings on the matter.

Contrast that to Yudoff who says his statement today:

I am appalled by images of University of California students being doused with pepper spray and jabbed with police batons on our campuses.

I intend to do everything in my power as president of this university to protect the rights of our students, faculty and staff to engage in non-violent protest.

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