Annette Spicuzza, UC Davis Police Chief, Resigning After Pepper Spray Incident

DAVIS, Calif. — The police chief who oversaw the University of California, Davis, police department during its notorious pepper-spraying of Occupy protesters said Wednesday that she is stepping down.

UC Davis spokesman Barry Shiller said Annette Spicuzza told the school she is retiring effective Thursday.

Spicuzza told the Sacramento Bee ( ) that she does not want the Nov. 18 incident to define her or the university, and she's leaving so everyone involved can move forward. http://bit.ly/HydOWH

"For the past seven years, I have accomplished many good things for both the police department and community here at UC Davis; and am grateful to those of you who have remembered this," she wrote to the paper.

Spicuzza has been on paid leave since the incident, along with Lt. John Pike, who sprayed the orange liquid into the faces of protesters who were seated on a sidewalk.

Last week, a task force led by a retired California Supreme Court justice issued a report that blamed the incident on poor planning, communication and decision-making at all levels of the school administration.

The report was especially critical of Spicuzza, Pike and UC Davis Chancellor Linda Katehi.

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Information from: The Sacramento Bee, http://www.sacbee.com

Earlier on HuffPost:

 

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Comments

[Vee111]

09:36 PM on 05/05/2012

They both SHOULD BE FIRED!!! No Retirement for you missy BS!! And the Cop should be FIRED TOO take the elevator dude!! NO PAY!! NO NOTHING!!!

[holyghostie]

12:32 AM on 04/30/2012

Lt. John Pike should be fired.

[Daddy bear from mars]

05:05 PM on 04/22/2012

Could this be the next pepper spray??????????
ADS fires a high-powered beam of high-frequency millimeter waves at 95 GHz (a wavelength of 3.2 mm). Similar to the same way that a microwave oven heats food at 2.45GHz, the millimeter waves excite the water and fat molecules in the body, instantly heating them via dielectric heating and causing intense pain. While microwaves will penetrate into human tissue about 17mm (0.67″), the millimeter waves used in ADS only penetrate the top layers of skin, with most of the energy being absorbed within 0.4 mm (1/64″).

[KarlMarx]

04:51 PM on 04/22/2012

Lt. Pike casually sprayed the students with a pepper spray grade that was not acceptable for the UC Davis Police Department yet no disciplinary action has been taken and no criminal charged have been made for his actions. His actions are not acceptable in a Civilized Society; he shot pepper spray at students at point blank range as if he was watering plants. Where is the Grand Jury investigation, where is the States Attorney, there needs to be a criminal investigation into this incident and Lt. Pike needs to have criminal charges filed against him

[gotch]

11:16 AM on 04/22/2012

The students were just sitting huddled on the sidewalk. She SHOULD resign! And all her other cohorts!

[Guile Din]

08:35 PM on 04/21/2012

She has done nothing but shit to UC Davis. All her cunning lies will be remembered, forever.

[rad7402]

07:31 PM on 04/20/2012

I only wish that as punishment, this officer would be subject to the students spraying him with tear gas, after he is fired. This person should be fired from his job, and never allowed to practice law enforcement again.....EVER!

[glitterpet]

04:58 PM on 04/20/2012

.. once again it bears repeating -- you are free to exercise your rights, you are NOT exempt from the consequences of your actions. Accept that risk and move on . . that is if you are sincere in your beliefs and willing to accept responsibility for your actions .. and not just being a poseur. .

This seems to be the bigger issue -- not whether the cops were restrained or impulsive, how they were/weren't trained... you took the risk, don't ask your opponant to go easy on you! 'If you can't do the time, don't do the crime!" Goes for civil disobedience as well . . Geeez. . .

[Roelvdwegen]

06:19 PM on 04/20/2012

This was not civil disobedience, it is civil disobedience when it is against the law and this was not against the law.
Police had no legal right to intervene.

[glitterpet]

06:31 PM on 04/20/2012

. .depends on who you are listening to . . . if it's university property and a representative says desist it can constitute trespassing if you don't move, student or not! This was used frequently to break up student demonstrations many years ago. . . in fact where I first got pepper sprayed. . .tear gas came later . .and off campus. . .

[glitterpet]

11:02 AM on 04/22/2012

. .reread . . ."Goes for civil disobedience AS WELL" sorry if I was unclear. . I meant planned or unplanned, "legal" or "spontaneous" you need to be prepared not sorry afterward. . things go wrong, people get scared or angry, communications get garbled, authorities are not properly trained/disciplined, etc.

. oh, and believe it or not, sometimes the communications get garbled on purpose, who knows? Been there, seen it, dealt with the consequences. . . smarter next time. . .and surprisingly, I agree with nearly every poster here, I was making general comments about preparedness and the need to strategize, even for "legal" demonstrations . . .

[DoctorBri1776]

12:48 AM on 04/22/2012

Ridiculous comment. Are you an American citizen? Do you understand citizens are guaranteed certain rights under the First Amendment? This wasn't civil disobedience and even then civil disobedience should not be met with brutality. What is your problem? Officers of the law, in your mind, should be accorded the right to mete out vigilante justice?

[glitterpet]

04:48 PM on 04/20/2012

Lemme see, personally . . . pepper gassed? Check! tear gassed . . . nasty! Check! . . . chased by a mean looking dog? Check! knocked over by a riot cop? Check! Some of us old geezers view these as badges of honor . . . we didn't whine, we strategized!

Both of these sides feel they has "God" on their side . . . you just have to be smarter, more creative, and more effective to win over your opponant. . . geez, don't whine, grow up!

[just a voice here]

12:28 PM on 04/20/2012

So if a cop orders me to wash his car, I must obey?..or get peppered sprayed?

[Jay Love]

05:55 AM on 04/20/2012

the cop over-reacted possibly, but we now live in a society where individuals such as these students have no respect for public safety, orders given by officials, etc...they just want to do what ever they wish for no regard to authority, its the start of a moral breakdown of society?

[Michael Hiatt]

01:31 PM on 04/20/2012

You have no respect for the freedom of speech that this country was built on and that these students are exercising. It's not the breakdown of our society; it is the constant remaking of our society that is going on here.

Thes students are protesting government actions here...you know, like our forefathers...it is the morality we all live by in this country.

[Roelvdwegen]

02:20 PM on 04/20/2012

Yes, such defiant and unruly students.. how dare they sit down on their own campus.

[charlesa1946]

04:31 AM on 04/20/2012

On the surface sounds like honorable thing to do. From the looks of the photos [photos lie].
Looks like the Officer is pretty casual about the event.

[TOMARIO]

04:13 AM on 04/20/2012

It's easy to run.

Tomario

[Gcock10]

04:07 AM on 04/20/2012

DID this happen in the USA?

[estimatorone]

03:14 AM on 04/20/2012

A lot of this has to do with one thing - control, control, control. Police
are trained to take control of a situation. Orders, right or wrong, must
be obeyed immediately. If they are not, the officer can feel that a
challenge is being made to him and therefore a possible threat to his
person. Even worse, he may feel that he is losing control of the situation.
This is why you hear of students sitting peacefully getting maced, an
80 year old woman being tazered for getting too loud toward a 6'4" tall
officer, a man in a diabetic stupor being pummelled by 6 policemen,
a suspect being beaten up because he may have shown some resistence
to his arrest, a 5 year old girl going through a temper tantrum being
handcuffed, and traumatized, because she did not calm down fast enough -
it goes on, and on. Sometimes, the police actions escalate situations
into actions that did not have to happen. However, you cannot take these
"mistakes" done by the relatively few officers and equate them to the good
jobs the overwhelming number of their colleages do day in and day out.

[Know BS]

03:49 AM on 04/20/2012

Police actions are determined by judgment and decision making - which is formed through training. The campus cops were not adequately trained. The chief was unwilling or unable to make the appropriate decisions and stick by them. Campus administration made inappropriate tactical decisions. And then the whole group failed to communicate clearly with each other.

Poor judgment and decision making were apparent in the approach to this incident. Read the full investigation report. It's on the UC Davis website.

[KarlMarx]

04:53 PM on 04/22/2012

Lt Pike knew exactly what he was doing. He acted proud before he started using the pepper spray can.

[Gcock10]

04:07 AM on 04/20/2012

BIG SIGN that POLICE are not TRAINED PROFESSIONALS.
A Professional should know how to do his/her job with DICIPLINE and RESTRAINT.
COPS ARE NOT PROFESSIONALS.

[charlesa1946]

04:34 AM on 04/20/2012

...restraint, well said.