The 'shocking' UC Davis pepper-spray outrage

Police and administrators on a California campus face the scorn of students and faculty after video of a controversial confrontation goes viral

A California cop pepper sprays peaceful protesters at the University of California, Davis
(Image credit: YouTube)

The University of California, Davis, placed two campus police officers on leave Sunday, after they pepper sprayed protesters who were peacefully blocking a walkway in a show of support for the Occupy movement. (See the video below). The president of the University of California system said he was "appalled" by videos of the Friday incident, which went viral online. UC Davis Chancellor Linda Katehi ordered an investigation and took "full responsibility," but resisted calls for her resignation. Was there any justification for treating the demonstrators this way?

No. This is just plain wrong: There's no way to sugarcoat this "chilling" video, says Philip Kennicott at The Washington Post. Watching an officer "applying a toxic chemical to humans as if they were garden pests is shocking." Campus police say the officer wielding the spray can was just doing his job. But if this is standard procedure, the standards need to be changed.

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