Here’s Nathan Brown, author of the open letter to Chancellor Linda P.B. Katehi, speaking on Monday at UC Davis. His department, English, has posted a call for her resignation, as has the Physics department [pdf].
Katehi was not allowed to speak at yesterday’s General Assembly on the quad, which has grown to include a giant geodesic dome. She did speak at a meeting last night, where she announced that Davis would pay students’ medical expenses and ask that all charges be dropped. Here’s the latest firewall that the UC administration is trying to erect:
In response to many questions asked of the panel, the term “moving forward” was repeated multiple times. Talk of reassessing and changing current university and UC policies was prevalent.
The panel spoke of the five committees that have been assigned to look into the pepper spray incident. UC President Mark Yudof announced Tuesday that former LAPD Chief William Bratton will be leading the UC investigation.
“The truth is going to come out in the end, and all of this will come out publicly,” Katehi said.
Who are you going to believe? Five committees or your own lying eyes? Also too, by the third law of committee thermodynamics, we know that 5 committees are 5X better than one.
r€nato
indeed, as RIM knows, two CEOs are better than one.
Villago Delenda Est
OK, fuckup number one: forming five “committees”.
You form “task forces”. That gives the impression that you’re steaming off in aircraft carriers to engage in decisive action in the South Pacific.
Redshift
Gee, it sounds so reassuring to hear that “the truth will come out after five committees are done investigating” from the person who has the authority to tell everyone involved to disclose the truth right now.
Perhaps after she resigns, she can teach a seminar in advanced ass-covering…
Odie Hugh Manatee
New thread? Time to go OT for good news! :)
MSNBC just reported that our governor (Oregon) stayed all executions for the rest of his tenure.
Good move, IMO. I’m glad to not be like Texas.
Culture of Truth
The hunt for the real pepper sprayer has begun!
scav
Five committees in near vicinity with the concept of movement, let alone in the forward direction is well worth a pre-coffee laugh. This is beginning to appear a poorly designed Rube Goldberg contraption of pure bureaucratese SOPs all going off at once with cogs and springs scattered about the battlefield.
Villago Delenda Est
@Odie Hugh Manatee:
I’m expecting a torrent of outraged Faux-addled wingtard letters at the local fishwrap over Kitz’ announcement.
It will distract them from regurgitating all the Faux lies about the occupy movement for a few minutes, at least.
Steve
I blame the Bush Administration (although I have no reason to think Katehi is a conservative). Where else would you get the idea to do something wrong and then immediately declare, “I really think we need to move forward and not dwell on the past.”
Katrina was the classic example, where we moved seamlessly from the “we shouldn’t point fingers while people are still in harm’s way” stage to the “it’s all over, so why dwell on the past” stage.
mamayaga
And LAPD has such a stellar reputation for respecting the rights of civilians.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
They really fail to grasp that the images of Lt. Pepper Spray casually ridding the quad of weeds, and the courageous stoicism of the weeds is beyond the reach of committees or even task forces. Gardeners know that a weed is a plant that’s living where the gardener finds it inappropriate, so the image of weed sparing is quite accurate in a perhaps obscurely pedantic way.
But the casual sadism on display, along with the exponential overreaction of the police arriving in riot gear, cannot be fixed with administrative firewalls. The visuals create a visceral response.
cat48
@Mistermix So, did you catch Obama’s Mic Check moment yesterday when he was in NH?
Cat Lady
Maybe there was more to the speech, but I wish he had polemicized how the police are enforcers for the 1% and not to lose sight of the bigger Occupy issue. If he’s going to get his countertops inspected, it should be for more than advocating for Katehi to resign.
Mino
I blame Gerald Ford for starting this bullshit. Can we dig him up and beat him bloody?
Amir Khalid
@cat48:
Charles Pierce has posted a video of it. Obama handled the interruption rather gracefully — better than I could imagine any of the Republican candidates handling it.
r€nato
happy Thanksgiving Eve to one and all. If you must travel… please travel safely and patiently.
Darkrose
UC Davis has a committee on committees.
I wish I were joking.
Steve
@Mino: But at least Nixon had already resigned. The better analogy would be if Nixon, instead of resigning, had said, “You know, I think the country really needs me right now, and we should just move past this.”
burnspbesq
@mamayaga:
Umm, you might want to check with someone who actually lives in LA before you shoot your mouth off and embarrass yourself. What you’re talking about is history. Current reality is that Bratton managed a pretty significant culture change within the LAPD. Police-community relations are better than they’ve been in any of our lifetimes.
jibeaux
IF THEY WERE SERIOUS THEY WOULD HAVE SIX COMMITTEES!!
cat48
@Amir Khalid:
As always. It’s hard to shake this guy up. Lot’s have tried and failed. It would be frustrating to be an enemy of his.
r€nato
@Darkrose: UC Davis has never metacommittee it didn’t like.
Maude
@r€nato:
You too. Have a wonderful Thanksgiving.
Mudge
I am sure that forming 5 committees is a means to guarantee that 3 of the 5 will recommend that Katehi remain chancellor. It probably is a function of how many English professors or physicists are involved. The cow college bunch and engineers are more conservative.
I guess Bratton was chosen because Louis Freeh was busy.
Mino
@cat48: Actually, I was surprised to see so little coverage of it. Sharpton deliberately edited it out on his program.
Odie Hugh Manatee
@Villago Delenda Est:
I’m sure that the fainting couches are going to get a good workout.
To paraphrase Dig’Em Frog: Fuck’em!
cat48
Well, off to the grocery for fresh veggies. Have a great Thanksgiving everyone.
Mino
@Steve: Don’t you think, in today’s environment, that Nixon wouldn’t do exactly as you’ve described?
Judas Escargot
Oh dear. Did he really have to end with ‘comrades’?
I know what he meant. Everyone here knows what he meant. But now all Fox has to do is play the last 10 seconds of that vid on infinite loop to give all the old white people 1960s flashbacks and send them screaming into Newt’s waiting arms.
John Weiss
@Odie Hugh Manatee: Yeah, that was a good thing to hear.
If ‘pre-meditated murder’ is different from ‘execution’, I’d like to have that explained.
cat48
@Mino:
If he had ran out like Bachmann did, they would have covered it. However, he took it in stride so no conflict to cover!
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@mamayaga: Actually, Bill Bratton is known for having improved that situation, dramatically.
Mino
And I want to add my wish for full stomachs and a winning team tomorrow.
Mino
@cat48: Agreed. He was pretty smooth.
Certified Mutant Enemy
Today should be a national holiday…
Paul in KY
People who have severely fucked up love the phrase ‘moving forward’.
WereBear
@cat48: Rachel Maddow covered it nicely.
Mino
Plus it doesn’t feed the meme that OWS is a Dem plot.
Paul in KY
@Judas Escargot: I guess they wouldn’t let him play ‘The Internationale’.
Optics, people!
Certified Mutant Enemy
For some people, “moving forward” means protecting their own ass.
Odie Hugh Manatee
@John Weiss:
Killing is killing, it doesn’t solve anything and mistakes can be made that can’t be undone later.
As Texas and Rick Perry well know but won’t admit because reality isn’t their thing.
kc
“Let’s not bicker and argue about who killed whom . . .”
Rihilism
Katehi then added, “What we have here is a failure to communicate”…
Lex
[[“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.”]] — Katehi
Uh-huh. And if this were true, we’d have heard it before Tuesday night.
andrewsomething
I know I’m incredibly naive, but what exactly will these people be investigating? It’s not like we’re trying to get to the bottom of long time policing practices in a large urban city or something. Katehi, Spicuzza, and Pike are the only three people that are really involved.
AFAIK, Pike was in charge on the scene and of course administered the pepper spray. Even if he “acted within the law” he needs to be fired for poor judgement if nothing else. Spicuzza either ordered this or allowed this to happen. Either way she needs to go, for letting her officers take these actions without her OK if nothing else. Katehi certainly ordered the removal. She’s trying to claim that the way it happened was against her orders. The buck stops with her, and she should go. Of course, she’ll probably get off. Hell, even if she leaves, she’ll probably get a multi-million dollar golden parachute.
What is there to investigate? It take five committees to talk to three people three people?
Redshift
@WereBear:
Yes, that segment was quite brilliant. She showed video of the various candidate responses to a mic check — Ron Paul ignoring them until they finished speaking and then being sneeringly dismissive, Karl Rove getting angry and telling them (literally!) to shut up and exercise their free speech rights later, and then to Obama’s completely cool reaction, first calming his own supporters who wanted to shout them down, then telling them “I want to hear what you have to say; will you listen to what I have to say first? Thanks.”
Impressive, as always.
Petorado
Clever little gambit by Katehi. Have a long, drawn-out process to where ultimately all asses will be covered with “mistakes were made” pronouncements by committees formed of old, white, establishment males who ensure no one is brought to justice … and voila — UC Davis has Rodney King-type riots and the establishment will be vindicated by the resulting demonstrations that prove that violent hippies need to be brought to heel by whatever force is necessary. Protecting university property uber alles will be the order of the day. … At least that’s what appears the administration is gunning for.
Steve
@Mino: Oh of course he would. Nixon was a master. We can only thank our lucky stars that today’s Republican Party doesn’t have anyone with half his cunning.
John Weiss
@Odie Hugh Manatee: @Odie Hugh Manatee: Capital punishment, as the euphonism goes is state sponsored murder.
Certainly some acts deserve the demise of the perp. But I’d rather have the offender incarcerated for life than have her put to death.
Besides, life incarceration is less expensive.
Linda Featheringill
@burnspbesq: #18
Glad to hear that. Maybe progress is possible.
El Cid
Do you still need a human mic if you have an actual microphone and PA system?
Nate Dawg
@andrewsomething: Lt. Pike did not act within the law. It is settled law in the Ninth Circuit that it is unlawful for police to use pepper spray to disperse crowds EVEN IF those crowds are committing a misdemeanor (such as trespassing, which is arguable here).
Headwaters v. Humboldt County lays out the issues quite nicely and comes down squarely on the side of protesters (who were far more disruptive and unlawful in that case than the kids at Davis).
ruemara
@Darkrose: I think there’s a whole committee devoted to ignoring my applications for a job. But at least there’s a process.
Mark
@El Cid: #50
Good point–if he’s got something worth saying just say it.
The optics of the human microphone thing are just terrible. Imagine the comments about sheep etc… everyone would be making if a bunch of Tea Partiers did the same thing.
Nate Dawg
@Mark: The reason the people’s mic became a tactic is because Bloomberg outlawed the use of megaphones at Zucotti. Live by the sword…
AA+ Bonds
If you’re wondering who the hell this guy is, he’s best known for zero tolerance policies in New York and LA, otherwise known as the “broken windows” policy, otherwise known as beating up homeless people.
The fix is in.
andrewsomething
@Nate Dawg:
I hope your right. I fear that the precedent set will be seen as having to do with the direct application to the eyes with a qtip not pepper spray in general. Either way, that is something for the courts to decide once they sue. I still have no idea what the university is supposed to be investigating.
AA+ Bonds
@Mark:
The “optics” of you hushing up about your Concern Feelings, now that’d be great
AA+ Bonds
@Lex:
They had to figure out exactly who they were going to throw over the side, feel out the board, etc. That sort of weaseling takes a few days.
AA+ Bonds
@burnspbesq:
Yeah, I’m sure that community relations between the police and wealthy BigLaw such as yourself went just swimmingly under Bratton
However, the reality for the rest of people under Bratton’s rule in NY and LA was that of policing centered around vigorous arrests for petty crimes and open contempt for the poor and homeless. Bratton considered this to be a “policy”.
You’ve done a decent if unwitting job of explaining why Bratton was chosen: to satisfy rich donors and ensure that no police or administration face consequences for these brutal assaults.
AA+ Bonds
Just to reiterate: “King Bratton” ‘s appointment demonstrates Katehi’s hopes that by the time Bratton absolves everyone of all blame for anything, none of us will be paying attention anymore.
Bratton’s policies have always involved brutal treatment of petty crimes and contempt for the poor.
Bratton’s philosophy is that if you pepper spray the hell out of folks for minor law and order crimes (like sitting down when the police tell you to give up your rights), then all the murders and arsons will work themselves out.
Nate Dawg
@@andrewsomething: That would be quite a ruling, if it hinged on the qtip to the eyelids aspect in Headwaters….seems like a stretch. Here’s hoping that these students have their day in court, and justice will prevail.
Schlemizel
@Steve:
Actually he sort of did try that during his “I am not a crook” speech but the times were very different, we had a free press & people could still be outraged when a politician, even a Republican one, lied so openly.
Schlemizel
@AA+ Bonds:
I think we already know who gets tossed overboard. The cops. Oh sure they are the ‘house boys’ for the 1% and as such like to think that the master will treat them better then the field hands. But the truth is master only cares about himself and only treats the house help better because they can get close to master so have to be treated with more caution. But when the smelly stuff hits the whirly thing everyone will be used to shield the 1% and your previous record of lick spittle service is worth nothing.
The Republic of Stupidity
Yeah… but which, or whose end?
I’m guessing the south bound end of a north bound horse…
Bullsmith
If anyone knows how best to whitewash police brutality, it’s gotta be a former chief of the LAPD. Top quality cya going on here. Only the best and brightest.
Mike G
Committees are bullshit machines. The whole purpose of this is to ass-cover and stretch out the process until people stop paying attention and every douchebag involved can slither back to their positions without punishment.
Too bad Bush isn’t still in office to give them all a Medal of Freedom.
WaterGirl
@Mike G: If committees at UC Davis are anything like committees at the University of Illinois, they have no real power or decision-making authority, they are there only to “make recommendations” to the administration, which does what it wants.
Committees are for political cover; they provide the illusion that the faculty has power to make decisions.
Older
@Mark: The real purpose of the mic check is not to communicate with other people, but to communicated with one’s own group. And to make the members of the group feel like they are all together in their great enterprise.
Plus it’s a masterful response to a repressive act by the other side.
Even if I *do* think of Steve Martin every time — calling out “…and I promise not to repeat things other people say!”
rageahol
I nominate Andrew Meyer to lead the counter-investigation of the investigation.
Darkrose
@ruemara:
I applied for my current job in early September of 2004, right after I moved out here. I got the call asking me to come in for an interview a couple of weeks before Christmas, the day before I was going to accept another offer.
In my department, we’ve got three open reqs, at least one of which has been open for over six months, and since we’re losing yet another person to Apple, there’s going to be more.
Lolis
I am impressed by UC Davis students. As a Cal grad, I didn’t know they had it them.
Jay in Oregon
Just like if you get nine women pregnant, you can have a baby in a month.
xian
@Steve: yes, right after he “took all responsibility” for Watergate.
xian
@Nate Dawg: i’m not sure that interpretation of the ruling is correct. wasn’t that a ruling made when looking at the issue in the most favorable possible light for the potreters, in order to determine not to summarily dismiss the original complaints? that’s not the same as a blanket ban.