Comments on: UC Davis students reach $1 million settlement with UC Davis over pepper-spray incident

By: Itsumishi

Itsumishi — Sat, 29 Sep 2012 01:49:00 +0000

God damn. She’s still in a job and he got what pretty much equates to a really nice layoff package. This is a very fucked system indeed.

By: Bedhead02

Bedhead02 — Fri, 28 Sep 2012 12:54:00 +0000

Does this really hurt the University? Isn’t this settlement paid for by the other students at UC Berkley? That’s where the school gets it’s money from right? Students. Seems ironic that in a protest about the unreasonable cost of education; a minority of students are costing the others more money.

By: Margo Watt

Margo Watt — Thu, 27 Sep 2012 18:18:00 +0000

Yeah….sure….that happened?!?!?! In your dreams.

By: wysinwyg

wysinwyg — Thu, 27 Sep 2012 16:41:00 +0000

I’ll be honest, I thought that was pretty clear.

It looked like you were shushing Marja to me. Please forgive me for thinking a comment you made in a particular context might actually pertain to that context. I don’t know what I could have been thinking.

By: James

James — Thu, 27 Sep 2012 16:20:00 +0000

Or read what other people write, apparently. Still, for the sake of clarity.

1) I don’t doubt the possibility of ptsd being a potential result of the above events because, y’know, they’re horrendous.
2) Apropos of nothing, I personally feel that ptsd is an overused term – typically in media and ambulance-chasing circles.

Not in this context, obviously. But then that’s why I qualified my statement using words to indicate that this particular personal belief wasn’t being applied here and was instead just a subjective observation. I’ll be honest, I thought that was pretty clear.

By: wysinwyg

wysinwyg — Thu, 27 Sep 2012 15:44:00 +0000

More tuition hikes for the victim and PTO for the cop involved.

He had six months to find another job. Anyone wanna bet he got a higher-paying job in private security?

By: wysinwyg

wysinwyg — Thu, 27 Sep 2012 15:42:00 +0000

Actually battery in most US jurisdictions. Assault and battery go hand in hand, though, since battery is usually accompanied by threats of battery (i.e. assault).

By: wysinwyg

wysinwyg — Thu, 27 Sep 2012 15:34:00 +0000

Well the last thing we’d want to do is talk about the potential consequences of institutional violence…

By: Nathan Hornby

Nathan Hornby — Thu, 27 Sep 2012 13:47:00 +0000

Not new in concept, but definitely something perpetuated by a very lawsuit happy nation such as the US. There’s a reason they have more lawyers than anywhere else in the world.

By: AnthonyC

AnthonyC — Thu, 27 Sep 2012 13:41:00 +0000

Also not new, and not American. Go read some of the medeival Icelandic saga – money to compensate for the murder of a loved one and many other crimes was apparently a standard practice.

By: James

James — Thu, 27 Sep 2012 10:45:00 +0000

While I don’t doubt that ptsd is a distinct possibility for some of the students involved in the above (and I don’t wish to make light of the issue of ptsd itself) I can’t help feeling that it has become one of those terms that’s thrown around at the drop of a hat.

By: Jayarava Attwood

Jayarava Attwood — Thu, 27 Sep 2012 10:26:00 +0000

Well at least the wrong has been recognised. But where does that £1m come from? Student fees must make up a portion of it.

One wonders, if the constitution was breached, why the police were not sued, and in particular the officer with the industrial pepper spray sprayer.

Looking at the footage again it still seems outrageous.

By: novium

novium — Thu, 27 Sep 2012 04:47:00 +0000

Hrm. Well, 30k’ll get you two years or so of tuition (excuse me, “fees”) assuming you’re an in-state student and assuming the regents don’t further jack them up by another couple thousand dollars any time soon… but considering that they’ve raised the cost by nearly 5k/year in the last four years alone, there’s probably not a lot of hope of that.

By: ultragreen

ultragreen — Thu, 27 Sep 2012 02:54:00 +0000

When the next big riot occurs, these guys who don’t mind being pepper sprayed are more than welcome to stand in the front line facing the police. Perhaps the real protestors could even pay them to take their place. Mercenary protestors for hire!

By: ultragreen

ultragreen — Thu, 27 Sep 2012 02:48:00 +0000

Pepper spray is not innocuous nor is it suitable for pranks. People have died as a result of exposure to it. Here is one example:

TODAY show | Aired on January 17, 2012

Widow: Pepper spray death was ‘torture’

62-year-old Nick Christie died just hours after being repeatedly pepper sprayed at the Lee County jail in Ohio, raising questions of abuse by authorities.

By: ultragreen

ultragreen — Thu, 27 Sep 2012 02:36:00 +0000

You know, if you inhale pepper spray into your lungs, the result can be death. Another possible consequence of pepper spray is permanent injury to your eyes. Some of the students who were pepper-sprayed were admitted to the hospital afterwards.

Apparently, some people are willing to do almost anything for money, even if it subjects them to daily torment, destroys their lives, or even kills them.

By: Antinous / Moderator

Antinous / Moderator — Thu, 27 Sep 2012 02:30:00 +0000

- Intrusive, upsetting memories of the loan – ✔
- Flashbacks (feeling like the loan payment is due in full right now) – ✔
- Nightmares (either of the loan or of other frightening things) – ✔
- Feelings of intense distress when reminded of the loan – ✔
- Intense physical reactions to reminders of the loan (e.g. pounding heart, rapid breathing, nausea, muscle tension, sweating) – ✔

By: ultragreen

ultragreen — Thu, 27 Sep 2012 02:25:00 +0000

Those student loans must be pretty terrible if they are even worse than post-traumatic stress syndrome!

By: ultragreen

ultragreen — Thu, 27 Sep 2012 02:19:00 +0000

No cop is going to pepper spray you in the face if the cop knows that his employer will be fined 1 million dollars and it will result in the loss of his or her job. This settlement makes it clear what will happen should the police use excess force again.

By: John O'Brian

John O'Brian — Thu, 27 Sep 2012 02:11:00 +0000

Some relevant points and corrections for all the commenters here:
The Reynoso report, commissioned to independently examine the event, pointed to massive failures of governance at all levels. The police literally believed (incorrectly) that operational decisions were not theirs to make, and governors believed (incorrectly) that their advice and suggestions would be taken as advice and suggestions rather than orders. Officers were knowingly using a type of pepper spray that is not legal for that use. I don’t know an appropriate definition of “military grade”, but it’s apparently what you spray broadly at entire crowds from 50 feet away, not from that range.
Each student will be getting around $30k, that math is correct.
The cop was suspended and then fired, during which time he was paid $60k.
Chancellor Katehi, who holds the highest office at UC Davis and is ultimately responsible (IMO) for the governance atmosphere that enabled the spraying, earns $30k in a month and still works there.
Tuition at UC Davis is also around $30k a year.
Given the massive decline in state funding to the UC system, it is highly unlikely that anyone other than students are to pay this bill, either through tuition increases or service decreases (class size increases are a kind of service decrease).

Credit for all of this goes to the inestimable Angus Johnston of studentactivism.net and @studentactivism:disqus. Also, anyone interested (or outraged, like you damn well should be) should read the Reynoso report.

By: Rick Adams

Rick Adams — Thu, 27 Sep 2012 01:14:00 +0000

One million is not nearly enough. How about this: “Tuition for each student involved with the protest is limited to the cost of professors and maintenance staff for ten years. Plus, they each get to beat the shit out of an administrative manager of their choice… three times. That sounds “punitive” enough for me, and truth be told, completely fair.

By: pjcamp

pjcamp — Thu, 27 Sep 2012 01:01:00 +0000

So does Officer Swagger Pants still have a job? I mean, given that he just cost his employer a million big ones by going outside his authority. . .

By: jhertzli

jhertzli — Thu, 27 Sep 2012 00:40:00 +0000

How much are they paying for onions or horseradish?

By: AwesomeRobot

AwesomeRobot — Wed, 26 Sep 2012 23:58:00 +0000

Clearly you don’t have student loans.

By: ldobe

ldobe — Wed, 26 Sep 2012 23:49:00 +0000

Yep you’re right, will fix

Edit: Fixed.

By: CastanhasDoPara

CastanhasDoPara — Wed, 26 Sep 2012 23:48:00 +0000

named plaintiffs, not defendants

Glad you’re good a math though. (Though I have a sick feeling that some day your usage may actually be made correct.)

By: invictus

invictus — Wed, 26 Sep 2012 23:38:00 +0000

Plaintiffs, rather than defendants, I would think.

By: Itsumishi

Itsumishi — Wed, 26 Sep 2012 23:31:00 +0000

This is exactly the problem. I doubt anyone will be taking any real pay-cuts as a result of this, but students will probably see extra people in classrooms and less new facilities on campus.

By: J. Brad Hicks

J. Brad Hicks — Wed, 26 Sep 2012 22:56:00 +0000

In case any one has failed to notice, we stopped enforcing the Nuremberg principles years ago. Heck, one of the first things that Eric Holder did when he was sworn in was that there would be no prosecutions of any government agents who were following what they believed to be legal orders. Contrary to what I was taught, growing up, and to my disgust and empurpling rage, “I was only following orders” is now a defense, not an indictment.

By: Antinous / Moderator

Antinous / Moderator — Wed, 26 Sep 2012 22:25:00 +0000

Arrested? Tried? Guillotined? Enquiring minds want to know.