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tazzygirl -> RE: Video - Pepper Spray Incident Debunked (11/25/2011 8:56:46 AM)
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"We told the police to remove the tents or the equipment," Katehi said in an interview with The Bee in her office inside the administration building, which remains locked down to the public.
"We told them very specifically to do it peacefully, and if there were too many of them, not to do it, if the students were aggressive, not to do it. And then we told them we also do not want to have another Berkeley."
In her most expansive comments since Friday's attempt to remove the tents spiraled into the pepper-spraying of students, Katehi said she still does not know who decided to use pepper spray and was stunned when she first saw video clips of it Friday night.
"It looked horrible, horrific, I would say … , " Katehi said. "I can tell you that I woke up Saturday really early in the morning, like 3 a.m., and I felt like it was a disaster on our hands."
She also said she never would have approved the use of full-scale riot gear by officers sent in to remove the students and that Police Chief Annette Spicuzza was part of an emergency conference call before the incident.
"We told her that it has to be peaceful, that anything else would not be acceptable," Katehi said one day after Spicuzza was placed on administrative leave along with two officers who used the pepper spray.
Spicuzza did not respond to a message left at her home Tuesday, but she has previously said the officers used the pepper spray because they were being cut off from other police by the students. Video clips that have surfaced so far do not show that happening.
Katehi said Spicuzza indicated Saturday that it was Lt. John Pike who decided to use the pepper spray.
"I believe on Saturday when I spoke with her I said, 'What happened?' " Katehi said. "She tried to explain that it was the decision of Lt. Pike."
Pike's voice mail has been full since Sunday, and he could not be reached.
Video clips of the officers spraying students who were sitting peacefully on the ground have been viewed online by millions of people since Friday and resulted in widespread calls for Katehi to resign.
She has resisted those calls and met with student groups several times Tuesday, including an afternoon session at which she called for all charges against 10 individuals in Friday's incident – nine of them students – to be dropped.
She also said UC Davis and the UC system would cover all medical expenses incurred by students who were pepper- sprayed.
Read more: http://www.sacbee.com/2011/11/23/4074993/katehi-campus-police-were-told.html#ixzz1ejl4OQHY
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