She keeps digging:
As the tent city on the University of California, Davis, tripled in size, Chancellor Linda P.B. Katehi insisted Tuesday that the school’s police department defied her orders when it used force against students in last week’s pepper-spray fiasco.
“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.”
Quite simply, I think she’s lying. If she had in fact ordered the police to specifically NOT use force when dealing with the protestors, her immediate reaction when the incident happened would not be some passive voice doublespeak and a limp attempt to blame the students, it would have been a forceful condemnation and swift action towards the police who VIOLATED HER DIRECT ORDERS.
Paul (@princejvstin)
“Oops”. A telling slip of the tongue.
Jennifer
Yep. If she specifically told them not to do it, dude would have been fired as of Friday. Muckety-mucks don’t tolerate insubordination…which, ironically, is why the kids got pepper-sprayed in the first place.
Rabble Arouser
Yeah, I agree. It’s time to call Shenanigans on this whole enterprise.
KG
@Rabble Arouser: true, but you know how fucked a new constitutional convention would be?
Oh, you didn’t mean the whole enterprise
Bullsmith
If she did order the police not to use force, and then took what, five days to realize they had contravened her authority she’s pretty outstandingly incompetent. I mean really, where was this explanation last Friday?
The Republic of Stupidity
The one honest statement Katehi has made in this entire frackin’ mess…
Villago Delenda Est
Of course, the dumbshits who watch Faux Nooze will buy this reversal of reality completely…after all, they still think we attacked Saddam because he was a staunch ally of Osama bin Laden.
/rolls eyes
Violet
She’s a lying liar and everything she says is nothing but a pathetic attempt to cover her rear end.
Gilles de Rais
There’s no one in America stupid enough to believe that explanation. If it was true, the head of the campus police would have been fired the next day.
The chancellor needs to shut up and hand the whole sordid affair off to the legal staff, which is what they pay them for and what she should have done in the first place.
BGinCHI
She had to get up pretty early in the morning to fool herself about the whole thing.
I hope after she gets fired she has to work for a living.
The Republic of Stupidity
@Villago Delenda Est:
Well… pepper spray IS just food flavoring…
One time, mebbe 10 years ago now… inmates in Texas prison made a request for more jalapenos in the cafeteria… they got turned down, as I recall, because admin was afraid the peppers could be used as a weapon in a riot…
cathyx
Well let’s just ask the police if she told them those things.
TooManyJens
I would say, “hasn’t she learned that the cover-up is always what gets you in trouble?” but honestly, this isn’t even competent enough to qualify as a cover-up.
Spencer
“We told them specifically to do it (pepper spray students sitting cross legged with locked arms) peacefully.”
see, she’s not a liar after all.
FMguru
This absolutely does not square with her statements and actions in the first 24-48 hours after the pepper spray, which were all about the importance of clearing the quad and praise for the campus cops.
GregB
I hear she’s bringing in Joe Paterno to handle the investigation.
Villago Delenda Est
@Gilles de Rais:
BZZZT! (John McLaughlin voice) WRONG!
See @Villago Delenda Est
Rathskeller
As lies go, hers is dumb and easily disproven. From someone I’ve never heard of to internationally known liar, her 15 minutes of fame are proving spectacular. I am only sad that she personally won’t have to pay out of her own pocket for her official malfeasance, but the voters of CA will have to make good on the students she tortured.
Incidentally, I know a tenured prof in a humanities department there (not English). He told me on Friday they’d be signing a condemnatory letter, but there’s no sign of it. I guess there were internal disputes.
bin Lurkin'
@Gilles de Rais: Oh no, I want Katehi to keep babbling, I find the panic of the 1% vastly entertaining, revealing their utter incompetence is just lagniappe.
serge
There’s no way they can afford to keep her on. But she’s fungible, the trustees will get someone equally vile, just with a different name.
Hunter Gathers
My advice for Chancellor Linda P.B. Katehi:
Shut.
The.
Fuck.
Up.
Every time you open your mouth, you makes things worse for yourself.
But then again, I do enjoy watching over-privileged WASP’s make fools out of themselves.
So, by all means, keep talking.
EvolutionaryDesign
This is a strange parallel to the Anthony Weiner non-denial denial. Without the pen1s, of course.
Mike G
What she’s referring to, of course, is not the brutalization of students but the PR disaster of a public backlash. After the actual assault she issued a standard “Fuck you, little ants” bureaucrat-ese statement.
What I find even worse is that minutes before the chemical assault, Sgt. Pepper threatened to shoot the sitting students with rubber bullets. That fat fuck belongs in jail, badge or no badge.
chopper
she sure sounds like a lyin’ ass bitch.
what, too soon?
The Republic of Stupidity
Sorry… but speaking on behalf of my people…
No one w/ a name like “Katehi” is a WASP… ever… ever… ever…
Butterball… yes…
Worthington… yes…
Greeks? Not so much…
moops
yes, the phrasing here is very telling
Not, “I had just witnessed a disaster”. In her head the disaster is the PR fallout, not the actual assault. If it was the actual incident the disaster would be been in the past tense.
I”m enjoying her self-destruction. This latest and most obvious lie should be blowing up on her over this day.
The Dangerman
Damage Control 101; cut the crap and cut your losses. Her statement is ridiculous in light of her past words.
The only thing left in this charade is to pick squares over the date of her termination/resignation; there are Thanksgiving Turkey’s that will be left in the broiler for far too long that will be less toasty than this woman’s career.
andrewsomething
@Mike G:
This.
Trooptrap Tripetrope
You only have to read the statement she issued the day after the incident…in which she completely absolved the campus police of any wrongdoing…to know that she is now lying her ass off.
scav
sproing!
GSD, she keeps losing critical bits, just shaking herself et al to bits.
WaterGirl
@Mike G:
You are completely right that the disaster she refers to is the PR disaster.
What I also found interesting is that she woke up really early, like 3am – I imagine she got a 3am phone call from someone who made her aware of her PR disaster.
Edit: I see lots of us agree on the PR disaster.
Amanda in the South Bay
Yeah, but as other people have mentioned, this is a land grant school, so I’m sure there are plenty of Ag/Engr/etc professors who have no problem with DFHs getting peppered.
Villago Delenda Est
@The Republic of Stupidity:
She’s been assimilated.
Like Tom Tancredo, another person whose surname ends in a vowel, he’s become, defacto, a WASP in all but actual ethnic heritage.
Jay C
It sounds like Chancellor Katehi is trying (desperately, flailingly, and probably vainly) to cover both ends of the “dispute”: one one hand, she probably is “horrified” at suddenly becoming the best-known face of overreaching police brutality in America: OTOH, she also has to mollify an administration (not faculty) whose clumsy handling of the Occupy removal she was just recently praising. Until, of course, the Bad PR got too big to ignore.
It would be nice to read that Ms. Katehi has been invited by the (Regents? Trustees? Jerry Brown? WhoeverTF is in charge of UC?) to pursue other employment opportunities as of, say, next week: but I won’t hold my breath:
Paul in KY
Maybe the men of the Fighting Drunkremovers didn’t think pepper spray counted as ‘force’. Kind of how Ozzie & the boys said beer didn’t even count as an alcoholic beverage back in their partying days.
Phoenician in a time of Romans
Of course she’s lying. But it does offer a great opportunity.
Those who were pepper sprayed should ask the university to be a party to suing the cops, on the grounds that they exceeded orders. They should conspiciously try to cast the university against the police.
Satanicpanic
She is heeding the wisdom of the Moustache of Understanding: The first rule of holes is when you’re in one, stop digging.When you’re in three, bring a lot of shovels.
Paul in KY
@Gilles de Rais: Oh, I think there’s people stupid enough to believe it. There’s a whole party of them.
proverbialleadballoon
you got it, john. funny how her story has changed every single day since this occurred on friday. i agree with a commenter from yesterday, if she wants to keep her job, she gets pepper sprayed in the face from point-blank range on national television. otherwise, join the lucky duckies of the unemployed, woman.
Hunter Gathers
@The Republic of Stupidity:
Could of fooled me. She sure as shit acts like one.
Paul in KY
@chopper: Oh shit! Now you’ve gone and done it…
John M. Burt
Sure they did it peacefully.
Just look at that cop with the pepper spray in his hand. He is perfectly, absolutely at peace, without the slightest hint of a troubled conscience.
Emma
OK, fair warning, read the story, but skip the comments. Are there really so many people in the United States who hate anyone who doesn’t immediately obey? For a bunch who’s always screeching about “freedom” and “second amendment remedies” they’re quick enough to kow-tow to authority.
Or maybe they think it will never happen to them because they’re the “right sort”?
Mary G
She threw the chief of police under the bus yesterday. Republicans talk so much about personal responsibility, why do they never take it themselves?
MosesZD
No. Sorry, nice try. But you’re failing to account for her being an institutional creature. And the first thing they do is circle the wagons for the benefit of the institution, not the people.
You see this with Universities. You see this with police. You saw it at Penn State and Sandusky. You saw it with Peyton Manning when he was at UT.
(Though, in the case of UT, they settled Naughtright’s claim for $300k. Then when Manning (stupidly) trashed her in his book, he paid her another $300K for defamation…)
The fact is institutions protect themselves first and foremost. And only when it blows up, and after some difficulties, do things get properly settled.
Unless, of course, you elect a psycho jellyfish like Obama who not only gives war criminals a pass, but becomes even worse…
bin Lurkin'
@Mary G: “The louder he talked of his honor, the faster we counted our spoons.” -Ralph Waldo Emerson
TooManyJens
@Emma:
They Are The 27%.
scav
@Mary G: Too Big to Be At Fault?
MikeJ
@Mary G: She gave the chief a paid vacation during Thanksgiving week. Hardly throwing under the bus.
Had her first response been to fire the cops involved and the chief, *that* would have been throwing under the bus but she’d wind up keeping her job.
WaterGirl
Well, in fairness, the students weren’t aggressive. So I guess the police thought it was okay to do it, right?
apostropher
No one w/ a name like “Katehi” is a WASP… ever
Not Anglo-Saxon, and not Protestant either.
scav
Wait a minute:
Oooooh, that should go over will with the other UC chancellors.
ETA: or the Regents.
Amir Khalid
Not that this is relevant to anything she did, or to her painfully inept dissembling about it; but it’s already been noted here that Chancellor Katehi is an immigrant from Greece.
Rafer Janders
@Emma:
OK, fair warning, read the story, but skip the comments. Are there really so many people in the United States who hate anyone who doesn’t immediately obey?
Umm, yes.
You ain’t from around these parts, are ya?
Amanda in the South Bay
@Amir Khalid:
I’m not really sure how that’s relevant, because she behaves just like the 1% in all cultures act-dare I say sociopathic and ass kissing. There’s functionally nothing distinguishing her from a native born American upper class twit.
eemom
@The Republic of Stupidity:
hey, LET folks think she’s a WASP. As Lewis Black said when George Allen was rumored to be Jewish, we’re not claiming her.
Kola Noscopy
Just as a reminder, Cole, you have NOOOOOO credibility on this or any other matter of civil justice or decency until you can bring yourself to demand the heads of Bush, Cheney, and all the other liars and criminals you supported, in a court of law with the fervor you reserve for low level Oligarchs like this stupid chancellor woman and the Penn State buffoons.
Such self righteous fervor! Such anger and outrage! All aimed at the safe, low hanging fruit.
I look forward to your daily posts demanding Bush be dragged to the Hague, for starters.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@Hunter Gathers: But oddly enough, she’s not a WASP! She’s Greek, and was doing admission favors for the kid of a Greek Orthodox priest in Illinois which earned he initial notoriety. Pedantic, I know, but somebody’s gotta do it.
4jkb4ia
@Kola Noscopy:
Didn’t you read where John said this upset him because authority has failed everywhere?
More On Topic:
This is absolute weak-sauce but she may feel guilty enough to believe it.
feebog
At the end of the linked article:
The fact that Bratton once was in charge of the NYPD may lead some to conclude that this will be a whitewash. However, he was also Chief of the LAPD for seven years, and as an LA resident, I thought he ran a pretty transparent and accountable operation during his seven year tenure.
Jay in Oregon
@Emma:
That’s exactly it.
There are Good People and Bad People (you can replace “Good Person” and “Bad Person” with “member of the Tribe” and “non-member of the Tribe”, or “Patriot” and “anti-American”, etc.) and they believe that the system will never be turned against the Good People.
If you get in trouble, then you must have done something that makes you a Bad Person. If someone is demonstrably a Good Person (because they converted to your brand of Christianity or headed up a top college football program, for example) and they get in trouble then it’s because Bad People are lying or cheating.
TooManyJens
@Jay in Oregon: And who the Good People and Bad People are isn’t defined by what they do. Torture is bad when Bad People do it and good when Good People do it — and of course, they always do it to Bad People because if they weren’t Bad, Good People wouldn’t be torturing them.
Amir Khalid
@Kola Noscopy:
Awww… Poor baby’s having a tantrum.
Svensker
@Hunter Gathers:
She is many things but I doubt she’s a WASP. Orthodox folks don’t like being called WASPs.
ETA: What Republic of Stupidity said.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@Svensker: Plus she’s not exactly Anglo Saxon, in addition to the Orthodox objection to the Protestant label…
MikeJ
@Amir Khalid: I dunno. What with Thanksgiving coming up in the US I can always hear more about pie.
I’m making a walnut-carrot pie. Sort like a pecan pie without pecans but with walnuts and carrots.
Keithly
@Hunter Gathers: as others may well have noted by now, Katehi was born in Greece and does not qualify for WASP-hood. Schadenfreudelicious derision for the 1% is still appropriate, however.
rikryah
she is a liar.
fleetingglimpse
Crooked Timber
“Fortunately, my friend has translated the key recommendations
University campuses are unsafe. While the [Greek] Constitution permits the university leadership to protect campuses from elements inciting political instability, Rectors have shown themselves unwilling to exercise these rights and fulfill their responsibilities, and to take the decisions needed in order to guarantee the safety of the faculty, staff, and students. As a result, the university administration and teaching staff have not proven themselves good stewards of the facilities with which society has entrusted them.
The politicizing of universities – and in particular, of students – represents participation in the political process that exceeds the bounds of logic. This contributes to the rapid deterioration of tertiary education.
Among the authors of this report – Chancellor Linda Katehi, UC Davis.”
John H
Apparently many “authority” figures, such as Ms. Katehi and the Mayor of Oakland, don’t really have much control of the police. Or they are technocrats who don’t understand that police tactics have grown far more militarized and hardcore over the past few decades. Because the police sure don’t seem to feel constrained in the slightest to avoid overwhelming force.
fleetingglimpse
Katehi’s Q&A with the American Hellenic Council
Did Linda Kathei attend? The question was not answered.
Mike G
For fancy-dress-fascist bully cops like Pike, “non-violent” protestors just means “easy target that won’t fight back”.
TooManyJens
@fleetingglimpse:
If this translation is right, this is mind-numbing. It’s illogical for students to be actively involved in politics?
pete
Ah yes, Katehi wants her life back,
Tony J
Maybe slightly OT – but since we’re talking about reactionary arseholes getting piled on for their viscerally arseholish responses to the Occupy movement, this made me laugh.
Scott P.
@a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q):
So White Orthodox Greek? I don’t think you want to go down that route…
scav
Interesting little detail from The Guard here
Darkrose
@Amanda in the South Bay:
I’m not sure where y’all are getting this idea that because yes, UC Davis is an ag school, the faculty must be conservative. The liberal/conservative spectrum is, as far as I’ve been able to tell, the same as any other university, skewing slightly left.
Mona
John nails it:
ruemara
I hate to say this but at this point in America, WASP is not just for WASPs anymore. It’s also a mindset.
pseudonymous in nc
Beware of Greeks being gits.
Katehi represents the new “academic executive” class, whereby universities are run by people who regard the institutions as corporate entities with a sideline in education, and get recruited from amongst themselves.
She’s Wil E. Coyote over the cliff, just before looking down. Only a matter of time.
I think they’re mistaking UC Davis for Victor Davis Handjob, who actually taught at Fresno State before getting his wingnut welfare sinecure.
Yes. They cheered on the suppression of Civil Rights protestors, they supported the Kent State shooters, and they like seeing students get pepper-sprayed today, but would prefer it if they got shot. There are lots and lots of Americans who would be very comfortable with an authoritarian state.
Snarki, child of Loki
Katehi was one of the “outside experts” that urged the Greek government to overturn University Asylum: by which outside police were prohibited from disrupting student demonstrations.
Looks like her greek-fascist roots are showing.
Mark Badger
UC Davis sent a lot of professor types to Nevada to work for Obama, they were pretty much real dfh’s getting back in the game.
Evolving Deep Southerner (tense changed for accuracy)
@Rafer Janders: Thymezone?
gregor
There goes the oft repeated myth and the claim especially by females that women make good administrators.
The mayor of Oakland. Katehi. The police chief of UC Davis. All women.
And to top it all, one of Asian descent, one Greek, and one probably hispanic.
Mnemosyne
@gregor:
Because male administrators wouldn’t have screwed up like this, only dumb broads?
Seriously, I think you meant that it disproves the myth that women make better administrators.
No one of importance
“There goes the oft repeated myth and the claim especially by females that women make good administrators.”
Yeah. Three bad female apples, and the entire tree/gender is a piece of shit.
But hundreds and hundreds of incompetent, evil, dictatorial male rulers, presidents, mayors, governors prove nothing about how useless men are at running things, right?
scav
Oh I’m sure gregor would agree that we simply can’t allow white males anywhere near our football teams, let alone unaccompanied boys, on the same logic. And look what they’ve done to the Catholic Church? Trashed the place. Take away their backward collars the lot of them (can’t even dress themselves).
samantha
@Snarki, child of Loki:
This is not true, since she mentioned that she was among the protesters fighting for democracy at Athens Polytechnic back in 1973.