U.C. Davis Investigation…

Jason Kuznicki

Jason Kuznicki is a research fellow at the Cato Institute and contributor of Cato Unbound. He's on twitter as JasonKuznicki. His interests include political theory and history.

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9 Responses

  1. BradK says:

    Is it just me or does the concept “Leadership Team” simply suggest a conduit for blame dispersal?  Responsibility whack-a-mole.

    If the thugs weren’t trained or authorized to use pepper spray, why then were they armed with it in the first place?  Who is watching the watchers?  No one, apparently.Report

    • Jason Kuznicki in reply to BradK says:

      It does sound that way.

      Somewhat in its defense, however, there are a lot of sections in the report assigning personal blame for various failures, implicating everyone from the officer who did the spraying all the way up to the chancellor.  There are very definitely individuals singled out for bad decisions and inappropriate conduct.  What consequences they will face it doesn’t seem to be the aim of the report to establish.

      How did the police get this product if they weren’t authorized to have or use it?  That’s a question whose answer I haven’t found yet, and it doesn’t look like it’s in there.  Still, you’re right that it’s an obvious question.Report

  2. Mike Schilling says:

    .Katehi told investigators that she didn’t want to invite “the use of drugs and sex and other things” 

    How long has she worked at a college, again?Report

  3. Mike Schilling says:

    Also, if a group of police lieutenants disobeyed their chief, used unauthorized weapons, and created a public and costly embarrassment to the University, whey weren’t they fired for cause immediately?Report

  4. Tom Van Dyke says:

    I recall writing then that any UCDavis security employee should have called in sick when the shit went down.  No medals or promotions were on offer, only firings if not indictments.

    Details unimportant.

    The decision to disperse the students, who assembled to protest tuition increases, was made based on claims from UCDPD Chief Annette Spicuzza that “80% of the protesters participating in the encampment on the Quad were not students,” but members of Occupy Oakland.

    Annette Spicuzza, come on down, and welcome to You’re Fucked Now.

     

    Let your stormtroopers touch and move the protesters, and there are wrenched necks.  Step over or around them, and they have been trampled.  Tell them in advance they’ll be sprayed if they don’t move, it’s your fault if you spray them when they don’t move.

    Call in sick, if your on security staff.  If I were Chief Spicuzza’s spouse, friend, or lawyer, I’d have recommended she come down with a toothache, a back spasm, or cancer.  No good can come of reporting for duty.

    Jason, I’m sure your indictment—or whoever’s making it—is accurate.  Something better could have been done.  What that something is—rather than doing nothing—nobody has a gaddam clue.

     Report

    • boegiboe in reply to Tom Van Dyke says:

      That pic made me lol. And then I lol’d again when I thought about skunks getting sprayed with a noxious chemical.

      Thanks, Tom!Report

    • Jaybird in reply to Tom Van Dyke says:

      They should have called in Brother Jed.

      He was usually able to empty the quad back in ’92.Report

    • Tod Kelly in reply to Tom Van Dyke says:

      “What that something is—rather than doing nothing—nobody has a gaddam clue.”

      At the risk of sounding cynical, whatever that something was probably should have included:

      1. Not pepper-spraying students that were just sitting there while people were pointing cameras at them

      2. Not initially claiming their lives were in jeopardy, because of aforementioned cameras

      Which is not to disagree with your main thesis, Tom.  I just think that even if every potential path was bound to be thankless, from a PR perspective they still somehow managed to choose one that was especially poor.Report