Pepper-Spray Cops Placed on Leave

Now for the pepper-spray fallout at UC Davis. Two campus cops involved in spraying seated students were put on administrative leave today, and the school's chancellor struggled to keep her job, the AP reports. Chancellor Linda Katehi rebuffed the faculty's call for her resignation, promising to assemble a task force of staff, faculty, and students to investigate the incident. "I am deeply saddened that this happened on our campus, and as chancellor, I take full responsibility for the incident," she said.

"However, I pledge to take the actions needed to ensure that this does not happen again." Meanwhile, a former Baltimore police lieutenant who saw the video called it "fairly standard police procedure." Charles J. Kelly said he spotted two cases of "active resistance" from UC Davis protesters that justified pepper spray: a woman pulling her arm away from an officer and a demonstrator curling into a ball. The school's police chief characterized the spraying as self-defense: "The students had encircled the officers," she said. "They needed to exit. They were looking to leave but were unable to get out." (Read about other Occupy pepper-spray incidents here and here.)