SAN FRANCISCO – State lawmakers are calling for greater oversight of campus police departments after investigators blasted administrators and officers at the University of California, Davis, for pepper-spraying demonstrators – a police action that drew widespread criticism after a video went viral.
In a report released on Wednesday, a UC Davis task force said the decision to douse seated Occupy protesters with the eye-stinging chemical was ”objectively unreasonable” and not authorized by campus policy.
”The pepper-spraying incident that took place Nov. 18, 2011, should and could have been prevented,” concluded the task force created to investigate the confrontation.
The chemical crackdown prompted widespread condemnation, campus protests and calls for the resignation of Chancellor Linda Katehi after videos shot by witnesses were widely played online. Images of an officer casually spraying orange pepper-spray in the faces of nonviolent protesters became a rallying point for the Occupy Wall Street movement.
Assembly Speaker John Perez, who sits on the UC Board of Regents, said in a statement that the report ”shows the systemic and administrative problems that led up to an outrageous and excessive use of force against peaceful student demonstrators.”
Perez, D-Los Angeles, said he would work with the UC board and state Legislature to make sure UC Davis officials are held accountable in addressing the report’s ”very troubling revelations.”
Perez’s spokesman, John Vigna, said it was too soon to say what form the legislation would take, but it would likely focus on police oversight at UC campuses.
