A coalition of activist organizations demonstrating at the Monsanto office in Davis CA. successfully caused a shutdown of the multinational chemical and biotech company offices there on on Saturday, March 17.

The Peppergate scandal at UC Davis is no more about Lt. Pike and bungling cops on the Quad than Watergate was about E. Howard Hunt and burglars in the Democratic headquarters. Or, at least, it shouldn't be -- not if the university is to have a soul going forward.

Hopefully, what happened on the UC Davis campus last week will be seen as an inspiring example of the power of the most creative kind of non-violent power.

What we have seen in the last two weeks around the country, and now at Davis, is a radical departure from the way police have handled protest in this country for half a century.