Skinner: New Law Needed After Pepper-Spray Report

State Assemblywoman Nancy Skinner, whose East Bay district includes El Cerrito and Kensington, said Wednesday she intends to develop state legislation to address the critical conclusions of a report blasting UC Davis for its use of pepper spray on student Occupy protestors in November.

A university-appointed task force, headed by former state Supreme Court Justice Cruz Reynoso, released its findings Wednesday. The report began, "Our overriding conclusion can be stated briefly and explicitly. The pepper spraying incident that took place on November 18, 2011 should and could have been prevented." (The bold font is included in the report, which is attached to this article.)

The Associated Press report Wednesday on the task force findings said:

"Campus police should not have pepper-sprayed student demonstrators at the University of California, Davis, in an incident that generated national outrage when video was posted online, investigators said Wednesday in a report that assigned blame to all levels of the school administration.

"The decision by officers to douse a line of seated Occupy protesters with the eye-stinging chemical was "objectively unreasonable" and not authorized by campus policy, according to the report by a UC Davis task force created to investigate the incident."

The report faulted UC Davis Chancellor Linda Katehi, other campus administrators and campus police for their handling of the incident.

UC President Mark Yudof issued a statement saying in part, "We can and must do better. I look forward to working with Chancellor Katehi to repair the damage caused by this incident and to move this great campus forward."

"Free speech," he said in closing, "including nonviolent protest, is part of the DNA of this university, and it must be protected with vigilance. I implore students who wish to demonstrate to do so in a peaceful fashion, and I expect campus authorities to honor that right."

Skinner said in her statement Wednesday:

“This report confirms what many have suspected from the beginning—that the use of pepper spray on peaceful protesters ‘could and should have been prevented.’  The information that the pepper spray used was not an authorized weapon and the campus police were not properly trained in its use gives great weight to the Task Force’s recommendation that changes must be made involving the training, organization, and operation of UC Police Departments.  As the Assemblymember representing UC Berkeley, I intend to pursue legislation based on the recommendations encompassed in the report. I thank the members of the task force for their hard work in  providing this vital information.”