Calls Mount for UC Davis Chancellor to Resign Following Brutal Pepper-Spraying of Student Protesters More than 34,000 people have signed a petition calling on Chancellor Linda P.B. Katehi of the University of California at Davis to resign her position after nonviolent student activists were pepper-sprayed in the face at point-blank range by a riot police officer, identified as Lieutenant John Pike.
The petition, started by David Buscho, one of the students who was pepper-sprayed by the officer, reprints a letter from UC Davis faculty member Nathan Brown, an assistant professor in the Department of English. Brown wrote, in part:
I am writing to tell you in no uncertain terms that there must be space for protest on our campus. There must be space for political dissent on our campus. There must be space for civil disobedience on our campus. There must be space for students to assert their right to decide on the form of their protest, their dissent, and their civil disobedience—including the simple act of setting up tents in solidarity with other students who have done so. There must be space for protest and dissent, especially, when the object of protest and dissent is police brutality itself. You may not order police to forcefully disperse student protesters peacefully protesting police brutality. You may not do so. It is not an option available to you as the Chancellor of a UC campus. That is why I am calling for your immediate resignation.
The violence against the peaceful UC Davis students is only the latest brutal assault on nonviolent protesters, but perhaps one of the most iconic thus far. Who can argue that students seated on the ground, arms linked, heads bowed, were a threat to the helmeted and armed riot police? .............(more)
The complete piece is at:
http://www.alternet.org/newsandviews/article/736788/calls_mount_for_uc_davis_chancellor_to_resign_following_brutal_pepper-spraying_of_student_protesters/