<html><head><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body dir="auto"><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; ">Courtesy of the Los Angeles Times at:</div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; "><br></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; "><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 19px; white-space: nowrap; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-text-size-adjust: none; "><a href="http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2012/09/uc-davis-pepper-spray.html">http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2012/09/uc-davis-pepper-spray.html</a></span></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; "><br></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; ">-----------------------------------</div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; "><br></div><div><h1 class="entry-header" style="text-align: -webkit-auto; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; font-weight: 100; "><font size="3"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">UC to pay nearly $1 million in UC Davis pepper-spray settlement</span></font></h1></div><div><div class="entry-body" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: left; "><p style="text-align: -webkit-auto; margin: 10px 0px; padding: 0px; "><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; ">The University of California will pay damages of $30,000 to each of the 21 UC Davis students and alumni who were pepper-sprayed by campus police during an otherwise peaceful protest 10 months ago, the university system announced Wednesday.</span></p><p style="text-align: -webkit-auto; margin: 10px 0px; padding: 0px; "><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The agreement, which must still be approved in federal court, also calls for UC to pay a total of $250,000 to the plaintiffs’ attorneys and set aside a maximum of $100,000 to pay up to $20,000 to any other individuals who join the class-action lawsuit by proving they were either arrested or directly pepper-sprayed, a university statement said.</span></p><p style="text-align: -webkit-auto; margin: 10px 0px; padding: 0px; "><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">A video released online, showing an officer spraying seated students directly in their faces at close range during an Occupy rally, had triggered outrage.</span></p></div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><a id="more" name="more" style="text-align: left; "></a><span style="text-align: left; "></span></span><div class="entry-more" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: left; "><div style="text-align: -webkit-auto; "><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">And UC's own investigations and a shake-up at the UC Davis police force put the university in a weak position to argue against the students' lawsuit.</span></div><p style="text-align: -webkit-auto; margin: 10px 0px; padding: 0px; "><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The preliminary settlement, which was approved by the UC regents in a closed-door meeting earlier this month, will be paid through the UC's self-insurance program, which officials said has about $600 million in reserves.</span></p><p style="text-align: -webkit-auto; margin: 10px 0px; padding: 0px; "><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><strong>[Updated 11:30 a.m. Sept. 26:</strong> The settlement also calls for UC Davis Chancellor Linda Katehi to write a formal apology to each of the students and alumni who were pepper-sprayed or arrested.</span></p><p style="text-align: -webkit-auto; margin: 10px 0px; padding: 0px; "><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Fatima Sbeih, a plaintiff in the lawsuit who was pepper-sprayed, said in a statement the incident created a divide between students and campus police.</span></p><p style="text-align: -webkit-auto; margin: 10px 0px; padding: 0px; "><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“Since Nov. 18, students have been afraid of the police. The university still needs to work to rebuild students’ trust and this settlement is a step in the right direction,” said Sbeih, who recently graduated with a degree in international studies.</span></p><p style="text-align: -webkit-auto; margin: 10px 0px; padding: 0px; "><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Another protester, Ian Lee, who is entering his sophomore year at the school, said in a statement that he participated in the demonstrations because of the “privatization of the university” and rising tuition costs.</span></p><p style="text-align: -webkit-auto; margin: 10px 0px; padding: 0px; "><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“I felt like the university silenced me,” he said in the statement.]</span></p><p style="text-align: -webkit-auto; margin: 10px 0px; padding: 0px; "><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">In April, a UC task force headed by former state Supreme Court Justice Cruz Reynoso found that UC Davis police had violated policy and that campus administrators mishandled the November 2011 campus protest.</span></p><p style="text-align: -webkit-auto; margin: 10px 0px; padding: 0px; "><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">In May, a separate draft report about campus responses to civil disobedience across UC urged administrators to use mediation instead of confrontation in most cases, although it said pepper spray might remain a necessary tool of last resort. A final version was released this month with no major policy changes.</span></p><p style="text-align: -webkit-auto; margin: 10px 0px; padding: 0px; "><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">---------------</span></p><p style="text-align: -webkit-auto; margin: 10px 0px; padding: 0px; "><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Video</span></p><p style="text-align: -webkit-auto; margin: 10px 0px; padding: 0px; "><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; "><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6AdDLhPwpp4">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6AdDLhPwpp4</a></span></p></div></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; ">------------------------------------<br><br>Seeya at the polls, Moscow, because . . .<div><br></div><div>"Moscow Cares"</div><div><a href="http://www.MoscowCares.com">http://www.MoscowCares.com</a></div><div> </div><div><div>Tom Hansen</div><div>Moscow, Idaho</div><div><br></div><div>"We're a town of about 23,000 with 10,000 college students. The college students are not very active in local elections (thank goodness!)."</div><div><br></div><div>- Dale Courtney (March 28, 2007)</div><div> </div></div></div></body></html>