UC Berkeley’s Police Review Board acknowledged in a report released Wednesday that the policies and procedures currently in place for dealing with protests are insufficient in ensuring the use of force by police can be avoided.
The report, which was delayed several times over the course of the year, was commissioned by Chancellor Robert Birgeneau shortly after the Nov. 9 Occupy Cal protests, during which a confrontation between demonstrators staging an encampment on Sproul Plaza and police trying to remove tents resulted in the use of batons on protesters and over 30 arrests.
The report details the events of the day leading up to the incidents in which protesters were hit with batons and forced to the ground by police, but does not give a concise ruling on whether or not police actions were justified.
“Not all members of the committee agree on the number of instances in which police conduct on November 9 was inconsistent with the campus norms, but all were disturbed by the use of batons against the student protesters captured on video and described in person,” the report reads.
In a 5 page addendum to the report, the board’s Graduate Assembly representative Eve Weissman states that while she signed the report, she also believes that “campus leadership’s preparation for and response to the day’s action was unjustified, inadequate and irresponsible.”
Weissman states in the report that the campus must create a better-staffed, independent and transparent board if they truly wish to avoid future use of force by campus police.
Both the ASUC and campus Graduate Assembly issued a joint statement which reiterated Weissman’s point by questioning the existence of the board in its current form, due to its failure to produce the report in a timely manner.
“Perhaps, we should even consider replacing the PRB with a body that has more formal authority to implement change on our campus and ensure that situations of excessive use of force do not occur in the future,” the statement reads.
The two governing bodies also found the overall report and the campus’ response to protests unsatisfactory.
“We’ve had no shortage of protests on this campus in the last 50 years, and we learn from each one,” law professor Jesse Choper, chairperson of the board, said following the report’s release.
Choper said the use of batons is authorized in specific circumstances and has been used in response to protests in recent years.
The report references the findings of the preceding Bundy and Brazil reports, written following campus protests in 1997 and 2009, respectively, and what the board views as a failure by campus to sufficiently follow the findings of these reports in preparing for future protests.
Following Nov. 9, the Edley-Robinson report was commissioned by UC President Mark Yudof to assess campus response to protests on all the UC campuses. The report was released on April 27 and outlines 50 policy recommendations for improving the handling of protests systemwide.
Although the original charge was for the report to be released by the end of January, Choper said that the process was repeatedly delayed due to scheduling conflicts and the extensive number of hearings that were involved.
Campus spokesperson Dan Mogulof said that two salient conclusions should be taken away from the report — that the campus can and should do a better job maintaining free speech while protecting the rights of all of those on campus, and that it needs to improve protocols related to protest in the future.
“I would suggest that if you examine our actions subsequent to November, we’ve had a number of protests that have been resolved without the use of force,” Mogulof said. “The campus has learned and taken to heart important lessons from November.”
In a statement issued by Birgeneau following the report’s release, the chancellor states that the campus will continue to clarify its policies to improve responses to future protests on campus. Birgeneau acknowledges that the campus’ handling of the Nov. 9 protest was at times not in keeping with the campus’ fundamental values of preserving free speech.
“We truly regret that our processes are not adequate for dealing with the particular challenges of that day,” Birgeneau’s statement reads.
Adelyn Baxter is the news editor.
Comment Policy
Comments should remain on topic, concerning the article or blog post to which they are connected. Brevity is encouraged. Posting under a pseudonym is discouraged, but permitted. The Daily Cal encourages readers to voice their opinions respectfully in regard to the readers, writers and contributors of The Daily Californian. Comments are not pre-moderated, but may be removed if deemed to be in violation of this policy. Click here to read the full comment policy.
This UC Berkeley’s Police Review Board report criticical of UC Berkey police attacks on students is ironic since the department’s offcials set up the police training to beat students on the Berkeley campus with the approval of Chancellor Birgeneau and University administration http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mAx_tDn2zus
It appears that UC officials including soon to be former Chancellor Birgeneau, UC President Mark Yudof and Cal’s spokesperson Dan Mogolof should set up a video showing their heads beat by a police baton to fully demonstrate what can happen to a human head if hit by a baton. Then we can truly evaluate as Mr. Mogulof suggests how the “…campus can and should do a better job maintaining free speech while protecting the rights of all of those on campus, and that it needs to improve protocols related to protest in the future”.
Birgeneau is disingenuous in his stated regrets of the events of November 9, 2011 since we already know through a Freedom of Information Request that he was in constant contact with University officials before, during and after the events occured.
What has the UC leadership learned, and how has policing changed? It has gotten more aggressive.
At the recent raid on Occupy the Farm, officers brought dozens of shotguns and ran across the street to arrest people.
This report is both ironic and interesting coming from the Berkeley five-member Police Review Board. Ironic because we have videos of the Berkeley police training on the Berkeley campus on methods to attack demonstrators prior to the November 9th protest. Birgeneau knew what was going on as revealed by his email obtained through a Freedom of Information Act Request. The police department supervisors knew what was going on and what they were training their officers to do to students as they set up the training on the Berkeley campus.
Get rid of the UC Berkeley Chief of Police and its supervisors including Lt. Eric Tejada, the head of police department’s goon squad. Sack, retire and/or fire Provost Breslauer.
The right to freedom of expression is recognized as a dignified human right and peaceful civil actions are considered honorable, except in patriarchal societies.
There have been many protests at Cal. How come everyone makes such a big deal about one protest. No one mentions all the other protests and how smoothly they went. Thank God the UC Berkeley cops did not allow the tents on campus. My wife and I are not paying thousands of dollars in tuition just to see a bunch of cry babies whine over a tent on the plaza. WTF. Out of 35,000 students at Cal, only about 100 were at the protest. The rest were people at the protest who
had no idea why they were there.Finally, It seems that the administration at Cal, vice chancellor and the chancellor, the law professors all have no clue what they are doing. Why do they wait so long to take action against protestors who are violating the law and disrupting the campus? This is costing hundreds of thousands of tax dollars the longer they wait.
Cal Parents…perhaps you would like to volunteer to be attacked and beaten by the campus police in the same manner as the protesters were as demonstrated in the numerous videos of the events as they occurred? We can then see if you still claim these victims are “cry babies”. I am sure a training exercise can be set up for you.
Our family recently celebrated the graduation of our neice, we couldn’t help but notice the glum demeanor of the graduates, some shared their feelings of free floating intimidation. Hopefully, once they are away from Berkeley, they will regain some of their youthful enthusiam.
Awwww….poor babies. Maybe they were so glum because they knew they had to go out in the real world, and their pacifier days were coming to an end.
Which graduation were you at? My friends didn’t feel sad about anything other than having to leave college and their friends. I didn’t see anyone who was feeling intimidated. I have never felt intimidated.
Yeah it’s only like the UCPD have had how many decades to create sane policies and procedures dealing with nonviolent demonstrators? If the so-called review board can’t use the words “excessive force” to describe what everyone saw on video, they should just disband and admit they are incapable of rational thought.
As always, we can learn from history or just repeat it. There have been plenty of examples of long term and short term protest on campus, and the police should review the tape and records of how they ended those past protests, before they go in to break up future protests.
1. fire Celaya NOW.
2. fire brutalizing officers NOW.
Nothing like over reacting to show you understand peace. If we want protests in Berkeley to happen without injury, then it would be good if both sides learned not to over react. You don’t need to fire everyone just like they didn’t need to react with excessive force. Celaya and his officers can learn from the experience on how to better handle protests. You don’t want to throw out the whole bunch and bring in a new group with no experience who will just repeat the mistakes of the past, because they have never dealt with a protest before.
Celaya and his officers need to understand that they are held accountable for their actions and such accountability requires that they be fired. He needs to take with him Lt. Eric Tejada who is the head of Celaya’s goon squad.
Here is the video of the Unversity’s police training on a field near Barrows Hall on campus at least 15 days prior to the November 9 incident. The video was taken on October 25, 2011. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mAx_tDn2zus
Celaya and his staff would have had to arrang this training ahead of time and with the permission of the University administration.
FIRE CELAYA! FIRE THE POLICE OFFICERS INVOLVED! FIRE MOGULOFF AND GET RID OF THESE PEOPLE INCLUDING UNIVERSITY OFFCIALS AND STAFF WHO BELIEVE THEY CAN BEAT CIVILIANS WITH IMPUNITY!!
Accountability has a different meaning for you and me. I think some kind of disciplinary measure and then a review of what happened and creating new processes will allow these men to do a better job in the future. If you fire them, then you just have a new group that will come in and repeat what the previous group did. You are using your own version of a baton to solve the issue.
WE NEED TO SEND A MESSAGE TO CELAYA, LT. ERIC TEJADA AND EVERY OTHER POLICE OFFICER WHO BEAT PEACEFUL CIVILIANS ON NOVEMBER 9, 2012! There are numerous videoes showing their faces and badge numbers so that they are easily idenfied.
OUR MESSAGE IS IF YOU BEAT STUDENTS AND OTHER PEACEFUL DEMONSTRATORS YOU WILL BE HELD ACCOUNTABLE!!!! YOU ARE FIRED NOW! THE SAME GOES FOR ALL UNIVERSITY OFFICIALS AND STAFF WHO BELIEVE THEY CAN BEAT CIVILIANS WITH IMPUNITY! THEY WERE ACCOMPLICES TO THE BEATINGS!
There is no provision in the law that allows a person one hit, one strike, one assault or one battery against another person and the fact these assailants were wearing a badge and a uniform does not change this rule. Even a dog cannot have one bite. They put the dog down. Well we are putting the dogs down but sparing them euthanasia.
I think we send a message by doing something short of treating people like dogs. We don’t make our point by demanding an eye-for-an-eye. What we want everyone, including the police, to see is that we are all about peaceful demonstrations and making the world better. The liberal idea of bloody response and revolution has failed repeatedly. It is time to embrace the liberal idea of non-violent protest. Demanding the end of careers is a violent response. Discipline and reformed processes provide both justice and prevention of future incidents. We can discipline the officers, but instead of putting them down, I think we should work on reforming them so they can better serve us.
I totally disagree. These police officers from Captain to Lt. Eric Tejada to the rank and file as well as the University officials who allowed the training of beating students on campus 16 days before the November 9, 2012 incident and allowed the students to be beaten should be fired. That makes them accountable.
As stated previously there is no provision in the law that allows someone to hit another human being with impunity either civilly or criminally. Allowing these people to remain in their positions sets a dangerous precedent and is inconsistant with our judicial system and our rules of society.
If you feel that strongly let’s have the police officers in question hit you over the head and body with a baton, shove you on the ground and do exactly to you as was videotaped being done to the students. Then let’s see if you maintain the same position.
These officers are not worth reforming….they have already shown they have no judgment when they beat innocent peaceful protesters. They are trained to know they cannot hit people who are unarmed and not attacking them. That was taught to them in the Academy. If they have no conscience, no knowledge of the fundamentals of the law, act in violation of the rules of society and the law, they do not belong in law enforcement and certainly do not belong in the police departments of Cal or the City of Berkeley.