The US State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland issued this statement on November 22, 2011:
"We condemn the excessive force used by the police. We strongly urge the Egyptian government to exercise maximum restraint, to discipline its forces and to protect the universal rights of all Egyptians to peacefully express themselves."
Perhaps, the US State Department should consider including UC Davis Police and Chancellor Katehi, the Oakland Police department, UC Berkeley Police and Mayor Bloomberg and the US Department of Homeland Security in their next lecture on how democracies should deal with peaceful protestors.
We never turn on Fox "news", but we heard on another channel how the Fox "news" commentators were calling pepper spray a food product. They even suggested it had been diluted. This is complete nonsense.
“pepper spray is a food product, essentially.” Megyn Kelly
Peppers are rated by the Scoville method, most people are familiar with the Jalepeno which is rated between 3,500 and 8,000 Scoville units. The Habanero is listed at 100,000-350,000 units. This is seriously hot and can cause an intensely painful burning sensation, when the oil from preparing a pepper is transferred to your face or other sensitive body parts. I can personally attest to how painful this can be. The following video shows the intense effects of a very small piece of the "ghost" pepper, rated at 800,000 to 1.4 million Scoville units, over the course of one hour. Police pepper spray is 5.3 million units, 5 times hotter than the ultimate ghost pepper. This is not a food product, it is a weapon. The US is banned by international treaties from using it in Iraq or Afghanistan or any other war zone. Using this on peaceful protestors is completely unacceptable.
Change.org has a petition:
Ms. Kelly, on November 21, you told Bill O'Reilly that pepper spray (as used by Lt. John Pike to assault the UC Davis protestors) is "a food product, essentially." That was, of course, ridiculous. While you allowed that the spray was "abrasive and intrusive", you wondered if it had been diluted (reportedly, it hadn't). To back up your claim that pepper spray is a food product, please consume as much of it as was sprayed on each protestor's face, in one sitting, on camera at Fox News. You may mix the spray with one serving of food or drink, as I am not a sadist. Then, please relate the effects to your audience.
I will leave it to my colleagues and every reader of this letter to decide what poses a greater threat to “a safe and inviting space for all our students” or “a safe, welcoming environment” at UC Davis: 1) Setting up tents on the quad in solidarity with faculty and students brutalized by police at UC Berkeley? or 2) Sending in riot police to disperse students with batons, pepper-spray, and tear-gas guns, while those students sit peacefully on the ground with their arms linked? Is this what you have in mind when you refer to creating “a safe and inviting space?” Is this what you have in mind when you express commitment to “a safe, welcoming environment?”
I call for your resignation because you are unfit to do your job. You are unfit to ensure the safety of students at UC Davis. In fact: you are the primary threat to the safety of students at UC Davis. As such, I call upon you to resign immediately.
Sincerely,
Nathan Brown
Assistant Professor
Department of English
"There was no way out of that circle," Spicuzza said. "They were cutting the officers off from their support. It's a very volatile situation."
In the following video, its evident that Police Chief Annette Spicuzza is an incredible liar. The video, shows the officers in the 5 minutes before they began pepper spraying the seated students. At no point until the spraying began, was it a volatile situation. The officers were clearly relaxed and in no danger whatsover. They were in full riot gear, carrying pepper spray, rubber bullet guns and batons behind some students sitting on the sidewalk. In the video you can see one of the officers calmly stepping over the seated protestors in order to spray them directly in their faces. Police Chief Annette Spicuzza is not fit to command anything, she should be fired immediately.
In addition to the police chief, the officers who were involved in the pepper spraying are not fit to wear a uniform. Orders or not, that was clearly uncalled for brutality against peaceful protestors. UC Davis Chancellor Linda Katehi should just resign now and save everyone the trouble of an investigation that will go very poorly for her. The police officers involved were clearly in communication with their superiors before they began the pepper spraying. In the last video, you can see them using cell phones and wireless devices. The Chancellor was involved in the decision to pepper spray the seated students or she was incompetent in supervising elements of her administration, either way, she needs to resign.
There is a terrible casualness displayed by the officers who pepper sprayed the seated students, like they were applying herbicide on weeds. But, there is great resolve and bravery here also. I could not have been more proud of those young students. Those brave kids were "making salt" and Gandhi himself would applaud their non-violent protest. At no time in any of these videos is there any violence by any of the students. The silent protest against Chancellor Katehi, was incredible. The silence of hundreds of students who just watched as she walked down the sidewalk to her vehicle, was louder and more forceful than anything else they could have done. America can be very proud of these young students.
UC Davis Chancellor Katehi walks to her car during silent protest.
