Footage of police in riot gear pepper spraying students at point blank range has surfaced and caused outrage at the University of California-Davis and beyond.
University of California Davis Chancellor Linda Katehi, who has been called upon to resign, said in a statement that she was forming a task force to investigate.
She called police action and video images, which circulated Saturday, "chilling." Police say it was "fairly standard police procedure." You watch and decide ...
In the video, an officer dispassionately pepper-sprays a line of several sitting protesters who flinch and cover their faces but remain passive, arms interlocked.
As the images and clips spread on YouTube, Facebook and Twitter over the weekend, the university's faculty decried the school's "gross failure of leadership."
At a news conference, Katehi said what the video shows is "sad and really inappropriate" but defended her leadership and said she had no plans to resign.
"I do not think that I have violated the policies of the institution," she said. "I've worked personally very hard to make this campus a safe campus for all."
The protest was reportedly held in support of the overall Occupy Wall Street / Occupy Oakland movement and in solidarity with protesters at UC-Berkeley.
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