Much has been said in the media about the incident at U.C. Davis where campus police used pepper spray on OccupyDavis protesters. Questions have arisen over the propriety of that level of use of force against “peaceful” protesters who were simply refusing to move. This kind of questioning is good and appropriate. When we give “police powers” to individuals, it is imperative that they are responsible in the use of those powers, and that the public holds these officers accountable for their actions.
That said, I want to draw the attention of FlashReport readers to the video below, sent to me by U.C. Davis College Republican Leader Marcus Shibler. At about eight minutes in length, this video puts the pepper-spray incident in some context — and demonstrates how a large group of “peaceful” demonstrators was not very peaceful at all. And for the first time it shows that U.C. Davis police may not have been just trying to get the OccupyDavis protesters to move, but the protesters may have, in fact, been trying to keep the police from leaving.
I encourage you to watch this full video, if you are investing time into trying to understand what happened at U.C. Davis…