A preliminary settlement filed Wednesday at a federal court in Sacramento stipulates that the UC Regents pay about $1 million to end a lawsuit filed on behalf of students pepper-sprayed by UC Davis police officers last November.
The details of the settlement were agreed upon by the regents at a closed meeting earlier this month but still have to be approved by the court. The settlement calls on the regents to pay $30,000 to each of the 21 named plaintiffs and a total of $250,000 to their attorneys.
Apart from monetary compensation for the plaintiffs, the agreement will require UC Davis Chancellor Linda Katehi to write personal apology notes to each of the plaintiffs for any injuries or damages they may have sustained from the incident, according to the settlement.
The settlement also changes the lawsuit to a class action suit, which would allow others who were pepper-sprayed to submit claims to receive up to $20,000 in compensation. The total amount of money given to additional claimants should not exceed $100,000, the settlement states.
These students would have to prove “they were either arrested or directly pepper-sprayed,” said UC spokesperson Dianne Klein. “Any money paid by UC will come from the university’s General Liability Risk Program, a self-insured fund.”
In addition, attorneys from the American Civil Liberties Union, which filed the lawsuit in February, will be allowed to review written policies about police force, the handling of student demonstrations and crowd control tactics at UC Davis for two years following the settlement’s approval, according to its text.
On Nov. 18, 2011, images of UC Davis police officers pepper-spraying seated student protesters generated public outcry and led to multiple investigations into police protest response procedures and campus administrators’ oversight of campus police. A UC-commissioned report investigating the incident released in April and found that it “should and could have been prevented.”
Officials at UC Davis now aim to implement reforms to prevent the pepper-spray incident from recurring, said UC Davis spokesperson Barry Shiller.
“This is one of the most shameful moments in UC history, and we are slowly working our way towards justice for the students assaulted that day,” said UC Student Regent Jonathan Stein.
The settlement was welcomed by the ACLU and students who were involved in the settlement.
“They are taking a step in the right direction, even though nothing can change that day,” said Fatima Sbeih, one of the students in the settlement. “Hopefully other campuses realize that they cannot approach any student protest the way that our campus did. We came together to stand in solidarity with the Berkeley protesters against police brutality and this happened to us.”
Michael Risher, a staff attorney with the ACLU of Northern California, said the settlement should serve as “wake-up call for other universities and police departments.”
“A settlement is something of a compromise, but no compromise can undo what happened,” Risher said. “This will, however, let the students get a measure of compensation for the pain, nightmares and panic attacks.”
The university has “done a lot of soul-searching after the events at Berkeley and Davis,” Stein said.
“The behavior of the police that day was out-of-bounds and not how to treat students, and we are ready as an institution to move forward,” he said.
Read the full settlement below:
Contact Aliyah Mohammed at [email protected]
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Wow, break the law, get paid… nice. Moving to California.
At some point hippies need to realize the hypocrisy of what they do. They whine about the UC system and the tuition hikes, antagonize police doing their job, get what they deserve, and proceed to sue the same university for their own personal monetary benefit. Do they maybe think a million dollars could be better spent somewhere else in the UC system?
At some point hippies need to realize the hypocrisy of what they do. They whine about the UC system and the tuition hikes, antagonize police doing their job, get what they deserve, and proceed the same university for their own personal monetary benefit. Do they maybe think a million dollars could be better spent somewhere else in the UC system?
Unfortunately for the “MALL cops” that provoked this bizarre outrage on Lady Liberty . They haven’t had to sit in a court of law and get sentenced yet. They will be lucky to see daylight in 6 months. Then have there wages garnished for the next 25 years on the civil rights fine they will have to pay.
The old bucks that saw students killed at Kent State, stopped a war In Southeast Asia and got a president fired. Still have enough testosterone to handle you miscreants of society.
All that is necessary for the triumph of you idiots is just a few of us to put your face to the constitution and read the dam thing if you can digest what it says. What a bunch of peach orchid Boars !!
The protesters completely surrounded the cops and chanted that they would not let the police leave with the students they already had in custody. Taking into account legal fees, this settlement will probably save the UC money, but it really pisses me off that these a-holes are netting $30k a pop.
This reminds me of the $300K the communist trash got when they sat down in the middle of I-80 where the Bay Bridge meets SF. The roach lawyer brigade pocketed some big coke money off that one too.
I think maybe one or two grand is enough. This is more evidence our courts are run by left wing extremists who think the government is a combo piggy bank and forced redistribution mechanism. This wouldn’t be an incentive for more career troublemakers to make more trouble would it? Along with making the police officers’ jobs much more difficult. I’ve seen much outrageous behavior from this element–the most memorable was the “activist” who helped block the way into Wheeler Hall and then bit a police officer when he was removed. He got arrested, but wound up getting his fellowship money restored, after all the was a Phd in Ethnic Studies and a Palestinian an so of the Exalted Class. The “Berkeley 8″ professors had the nerve to write a letter protesting the special treatment, the last time anybody from the faculty did anything that made any sense.
IF these dumb, self-righteous douche bags really cared, they would not receive this money. We are in a complete gutter with the budget, which was something these students “cared so much” about. So yea, take that couple ten thousand dollars, and make the other students pay for it…
It actually has been noted that some, regretfully not all, of the students involved are donating the settlement money to charities and reinvesting in campus programs. Further more, the money used to pay out on the settlement was already taken from you in tuition fees before any of this happened. UC Administration has this funny habit squirreling away funds in the “Oh Sh*t Box” in case they screw up in a big way and need to handle things with a generous sprinkling of green. most businesses practice this in their budject, UC is no different. your tuition isn’t getting hiked up because of protesters, its because The University is a business and you are their customer, if they raise the price and you still buy their product, your not allowed to complain.
I have mixed feelings on this. The police engaged in a criminal action vs the protesters and whatever officer ordered that they be pepper-sprayed should be fired. Furthermore, the cops who did the spraying should have suffered suspension w/o pay.
On the other hand, $30,000 per demonstrator is an excessive amount for the “pain and suffering” incurred. The protesters deserved some compensation, but that sum is far too much. The message it sends is: “Break the law, get big bucks.”
Occupy protesters who violated the law in Davis and elsewhere who were subsequently arrested for obstructing fellow students’ right of way, breaking windows along with other destruction of property, and even assault have been given a slap on the wrist, if that. The idiots who keep breaking into the UC gardens haven’t even been busted.
If rule of law is to be upheld, those who break it must do the time for the crime.
I think this has a lot less to do with what the protesters deserved in terms of compensation and much more to do with actually providing disincentive for UC to keep beating the shit out of people who protest.
Those retarded cops were soooo scared of sitting students they have to walk their fat ass around and spray mace one them. Campus cops are nothing more than glorified Rented Mall cops with guns. LOL
They’re state cops, actually–like the CHP.
this cop violated the use of force policies even in combat-zone iraq
Great. When your tuition goes up AGAIN next year, remember that part of your money is going to pay some scummy hippies who were antagonizing the police all day.
Thanks occupy! Another victory for the middle class!
You idiot! Since when is SITTING IN PLACE “antagonizing” to the police??? These people deserve recompense for basically being tortured for no reason. If you think that THERE IS a reason to use a weapon banned in warfare by the UN on sitting students, you should look into water-boarding interrogator as a career choice.
$30K for one squirt of pepper spray seems a little high, does it not?
And lol at the UN banning pepper spray but demanding that all countries legalize abortion. Is pepper spray really worse than having your skull punctured and your brain sucked out with a vaccum pump? Really??
lol at your 18th century impression of abortion.
the truth hurts, abortio-nazi
If you knew any truth, you’d know that an undeveloped fetus is as much a human as a sperm and egg separated by a finite distance. NO ONE advocates for late-term abortion, that’s why it’s illegal nitwit. And if conservatives are so against any form of abortion, why are they equally against birth control? Like what, people just shouldn’t have sex under the conservato-nazi regime? Talk about government interfering in people’s lives…sheesh.
When you sit in place SURROUNDING the police, I would call that antagonizing. If only there was a box I could check to make sure my tuition money isn’t going to these people.
Have you even seen the videos? Not only are the students not “surrounding” the police in any meaningful way, but also HOW THE HELL ARE UNARMED STUDENTS A THREAT TO A POLICE FORCE ARMED WITH LETHAL WEAPONS IN RIOT GEAR??????????????? Like, what, the police were worried that they’d get yelled at? If only there was a box I could check to make sure my tuition money isn’t going to try to educate you (a futile endeavor apparently). :P
“Any money paid by UC will come from the university’s General Liability Risk Program, a self-insured fund.” Won’t affect tuition.