CALIFORNIA: UC Davis To Pay $1M To Students Pepper-Sprayed By Cop

Last week I reported that the above police officer had gotten off with no criminal charges. But at least today we learn the amount of the settlement to be paid to students by UC Davis.

The details of the settlement, approved in secret earlier this month by the regents, are contained in documents filed in federal court in Sacramento this morning. The deal, hammered out in mediation sessions after 21 students and former students sued last February, still must be approved by a federal judge. It calls for each of the 21 plaintiffs to receive $30,000 for a total payout of $630,000. The agreement also transforms the suit into a class action, which will allow others who were hit with pepper spray during the Nov. 18 protest to submit claims for payments of up to $20,000. That part of the deal envisions five to 10 additional claimants coming forward, with a sliding scale that reduces the payout for each of those depending on the final tally. Those claimants wil be paid from a pool of money limited to $100,000. In addition, the settlement calls for the payment of $250,000 in legal fees and costs to the lawyers who filed the suit.

No Charges For Pepper Spray Cop

The cop who casually pepper-sprayed a seated group of peaceful UC Davis students last year will not face criminal charges. The incident sparked a national rallying of the Occupy Wall Street movement.

Yolo County District Attorney's office said in a statement that there was insufficient evidence to prove the use of force was illegal. A task force appointed by the university concluded in April that the Nov. 18 pepper-spraying was "objectively unreasonable" and could have been prevented. In reaching their conclusion, prosecutors said they relied on facts included in the task force's report. Among them was the finding that the officers perceived they were dealing with a hostile mob and needed to spray the protesters to clear a path to safety.

The cop was fired in July. Last week the university reached an undisclosed settlement with some of the students.

Don We Now Our Spray Apparel

(Via - Copyranter)

Photoshop Of The Day

(Via JMG reader Craig and many others.)

UC Davis Chancellor: I Won't Resign

Despite widespread condemnation for the pepper-spraying incident on her campus, the chancellor of UC Davis says she will not resign. Via Talking Points Memo:

Two police officers involved in a pepper-spraying incident at the University of California-Davis have been placed on leave, and over the weekend, the university’s faculty association called for the chancellor’s resignation. But Chancellor Linda Katehi told ABC’s Good Morning America on Monday that she’s staying put. “I really feel confident at this point the university needs me,” she told GMA. “There are so many critical issues to be addressed and we really need to start the healing process and move forward.”

UC Davis Investigates Police Brutality

RELATED: The school's chancellor was the subject of an eerie silent protest by students as she walked to her car. The chancellor is already the subject of a resignation petition.

Resisting Arrest

(Source)

UPDATE: AmericaBlog has the story and information about the already-launched campaign against the cop.

UPDATE II: There's video.

UC Davis LGBT Center Vandalized

The LGBT center at the University of California campus in Davis was struck by graffiti vandals over the weekend. For now, the damage will remain as a symbol of anti-gay sentiment. From a UC Davis bulletin:

On the night of February 26th the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender (LGBT) Resource Center experienced acts of vandalism. The entrance to the LGBTRC was defaced with derogatory and hateful words that target the Queer community. This vicious hate crime demonstrates the need for community centers like ours to exist in order to offer a safe space on campus and combat the homophobia, discrimination, and hate that is still prevalent within our society. As a center we wanted not to immediately remove the vandalism in order to ensure that this hate crime does not go unnoticed by the campus community. Facilities and administration offered to clean it up immediately but we wanted to take this opportunity to educate the campus about struggles that our community continues to face. We feel it is easier to erase physical representations of violence than to heal from the ongoing impacts of this hatred. Erasing it makes it possible to avoid believing these things happen on our campus. We want to work towards a healing resolution.

There has been a rash of such incidents in recent months, with vandalism of LGBT centers seen in Orlando, Long Island, and elsewhere.