Law Faculty Statement on Protest Incident
Chancellor Linda P.B. Katehi
University of California, Davis
Davis, CA 95616
Professor Linda Bisson
Chair, Davis Division of the Academic Senate
Geneticist Maynard A. Amerine Endowed Chair in Viticulture and Enology
University of California
Davis, CA 95616
November 22, 2011
Dear Chancellor Katehi and Chair Bisson:
We, the undersigned members of the Law Faculty of the University of California, Davis, are saddened and appalled by the events of Friday, November 18, 2011. The use of force against non-violent protesters sitting on the ground was shocking. The fact that the victims of the force were our University's students makes the resort to force even more troubling. We recognize that police might legitimately resort to measured and proportionate force when required by the circumstances. However, the publicly available video and other photographic evidence of the events suggest that the resort to force in this instance was not warranted.
We are deeply committed to the safety of our police officers, who routinely risk their lives to protect our community. We are also equally committed to the safety of our students, whose care is entrusted to us. The University must respect the students' right to peacefully protest on the public issues of the day, including especially the right to protest university policies. The University should exercise the authority it has to regulate the manner and form of such speech with great care.
On a University campus, as elsewhere, both the police and the students deserve to be treated with respect.
We are grateful that the University Administration is organizing an inquiry, and we are also grateful that the University's Academic Senate is conducting an inquiry independent of the campus administration. We do not prejudge the conclusions of these inquiries. We expect that both inquiries will be expeditious, yet provide the process that is due to all the parties.
Ash Bhagwat
Professor of Law
Mario Biagioli
Distinguished Professor of Science and Technology Studies & Law
Director, Center for Science & Innovation Studies
Professor of Law
Alan Brownstein
Professor of Law, Boochever and Bird Chair for the Study and Teaching of Freedom and Equality
Anupam Chander
Professor of Law and Director, California International Law Center
Gabriel J. Chin
Professor of Law
Angelo DeSantis
Wydick Fellow
Katherine Florey
Professor of Law
Richard M. Frank
Professor of Environmental Practice
Director, California Environmental Law & Policy Center
John Patrick Hunt
Acting Professor of Law
Lisa C. Ikemoto
Professor of Law
Margaret Z. Johns
Senior Lecturer
Thomas W. Joo
Professor of Law
Albert Lin
Professor of Law
Miguel A. Méndez
Professor of Law
Rex R. Perschbacher
Professor of Law, Daniel J. Dykstra Endowed Chair
Lisa R. Pruitt
Professor of Law
Meehan Rasch
Wydick Fellow
Leticia Saucedo
Professor of Law
Daniel L. Simmons
Professor of Law
Madhavi Sunder
Professor of Law
Clay Tanaka
Professor