<p>UC Davis in $1M Pepper Spray Settlement</p>
<p>UC</a> Davis in $1M Pepper Spray Settlement - Yahoo! News</p>
<p>ABC News Headline for today!! lol</p>
<p>no worries it’s tax payer money!</p>
<p>They got off cheap. Their lawyers didn’t want a jury to see that video.</p>
<p>^^ My thoughts EXACTLY, Hunt!</p>
<p>$30,000 per student! For a temporary and minor injury! But, heh, it’s just taxpayer money.</p>
<p>For a heck of a lot more than ‘temporary and minor injury’ ! This isn’t about what was or wasn’t done to students. It was about the misuse of power, excessive force, civil rights violations… kinda about half the stuff in the Bill of Rights. Sort of historically crucial issues on which this country was formed.</p>
<p>ABSOLUTELY RIDICULOUS.</p>
<p>This settlement rewards those clueless morons just because our legal system encourages settlements to avoid even more expensive litigation.</p>
<p>It also shows how public officials treat public funds. </p>
<p>California truly deserves all of its financial woes.</p>
<p>No, it’s not ridiculous at all. Non-violent protestors were violently assaulted (and yes, pepper spray is a weapon) without reasonable cause by an agent of the government.</p>
<p>When the government violates a citizen’s civil rights, that citizen deserves compensation. $30,000 per student is getting off cheap. Any jury would have gone far higher.</p>
<p>Why are you blaming the victims here, xiggi? Why are you not blaming the vile, unethical and illegal actions of a rogue police officer who decided to use a chemical defense weapon against unresisting, non-threatening protestors? That officer is no better than Bull Connor’s thugs who wielded fire hoses and dogs against civil rights marchers.</p>
<p>no honor is accepting $30k you didn’t earn…As a parent, I would not allow that to happen…sorry</p>
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<p>Perhaps because disobedient citizens who refused to move are NOT victims. They sought to become martyrs for their “cause.” They opted to defy a police force that is not known to comprise the most astute and intelligent citizens. Morons on both sides of a dispute is obviously a recipe for disaster. </p>
<p>Stupidity is rewarded in this case. And, as usual, at the expense of the taxpayer and the contributors in our society.</p>
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<p>You might want to review the videos of the incident.</p>
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<p>Government officials --in this case, UC police – acting stupidly, yes indeed. </p>
<p>But I disagree that the “protestors” were “unresisting”. Indeed, just the opposite: they resisted a request to leave. They resisted a warning to leave.</p>
<p>As an aside, I never understood the critical thinking skills (or lack thereof?) of the Occupy Davis movement. Given the fact that UC publicly and clearly states that 33% of all tuition increases goes directly to the poorer students and the fact that the UC Blue and Gold plan completely shields poorer students from any increase, it would seem to me that the planned increases would be applauded by the OD students. By raising fees solely on the upper middle class (however defined) and wealthy (those 1%'ers), and shielding the poor, it’s a Win-Win.</p>
<p>I’ve seen the videos of the incident. There’s a line of seated peaceful protestors, and a masked police officer walks methodically up and down that line of protestors spraying pepper spray directly into their faces. That violates every precept of the appropriate use of force by a law enforcement officer. The response to nonviolent civil disobedience is not the use of a chemical weapon - that escalates the level of force far beyond what is necessary to enforce the law.</p>
<p>I am a uniformed federal forest officer trained and authorized to carry high-powered pepper spray to defend humans from bear attacks. I’ve seen what pepper spray does to bears at close range. There is zero justification for doing that to a group of people who are not posing a threat to any other person.</p>
<p>they were warned 3 times to move…and now are rewarded for not obeying a police officer., with taxpayer $$$…total joke, no moral compass</p>
<p>The response to someone who doesn’t move is to physically carry them away - not deploy a chemical defense weapon into their faces.</p>
<p>I defy you to find a single law enforcement agency in the United States that authorizes the use of chemical defense weapons against a non-violent subject. You won’t find one. It’s unethical, illegal and unconstitutional.</p>
<p>Any jury would have hung a much bigger judgment on the UC police, and they knew it. Hence the settlement - $1 million is peanuts by comparison.</p>
<p>^ I somewhat agree…but you don’t reward these kids with money, especially taxpayer $$$. I hope every parent would insist on the money being donated to charity.</p>
<p>“Reward these kids with money”? I’m sorry, do you not understand how the legal system works in the United States? They were wronged by the government and the government will pay a penalty for doing so. “Punitive damages” impose a cost on wrongdoing, making it less likely that such wrongdoing will be committed again.</p>
<p>If your car gets hit by a drunk driver, are you being “rewarded” when you sue that driver for damages? Or are you pursuing fair compensation for the harm done, and to punish the person responsible to drive home the point that harming other people comes with a cost?</p>
<p>Yes, it’s taxpayer money - that’s what happens when you have a government of, by and for the people. We, the people, are collectively the government, and we, the people, are collectively responsible for what our government does. If this case makes people scrutinize our police forces, press for higher training standards and work to ensure that law enforcement is responsible, ethical and constitutional… then so much the better.</p>
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<p>Let me correct that for you.</p>
<p>*I’ve seen the parts of the videos of the incident that displayed seating students … and ignored the parts that happen to display a belligerent mob on all sides of the police force. *</p>
<p>Was there a better way to resolve the issue? Obviously, but that speaks directly to our reliance of uniformed people who carry weapons. Uniformed is rarely a proxy for informed.</p>
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<p>And, we the people, are also directly responsible for our actions and our decisions. Something that some would rather dismiss than support. We do indeed have the government we deserve as we elected it. And that says all that needs to be said about our collective wisdom.</p>
<p>^ fine…then they should give it away then. I get what you are saying, punish the wrong doer by making them pay to stop it from happening again…BUT. I don’t believe these kids should get the money…they don’t deserve it since they were also at fault…</p>
<p>“Uniformed is rarely a proxy for informed.”
Right. Another reason why the use of excessive force by anyone uniformed is wrong. And another reason why it’s subject to lawsuit. </p>
<p>“I don’t believe these kids should get the money”
It’s not the students’ fault that lawsuits are often rewarded with cash, and that’s what they got. (Because they probably “got” something else as well for example, hopefully, better training for campus cops.)</p>
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<p>Nonsense. There was nothing of the sort. Unarmed, non-violent protestors are not a “mob” and they posed no threat to anyone.</p>
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<p>I work with a number of law enforcement officers on a day-to-day basis, and that’s quite frankly nonsense. The vast majority of cops are honest, hard-working, educated professionals sworn to uphold the law.</p>