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Subscribe to RSSA Santa Monica College police officer broke policy last year when he used pepper spray on demonstrators trying to enter a board of trustees meeting where officials were set to discuss a controversial tiered payment program, according to an independent review released on Friday.
The report found that although most campus officers acted with restraint, the use of pepper spray and a raised baton by one officer was inappropriate and did not comply with policy.
Police did not order students to disperse before using the pepper spray, the Los Angeles Times reports, adding that the probe found students did understand the limits of free-speech rights.
Some 200 students were involved in the April demonstration, and about 30 people were treated for pepper spray, authorities said at the time. Campus officials said at the time the students’ attempts to get into the boardroom "was a safety issue."
The melee was exacerbated by inadequate planning by campus police and pushing and grabbing by some student demonstrators voicing their anger over a proposed fee plan that would raise prices on in-demand courses, according to the LA Times.
The report listed 13 recommendations, including better planning before large gatherings and increased training of campus police.
This YouTube video shows students at Santa Monica College being pepper-sprayed after storming a Board of Trustees meeting.
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The death knell of a bureaucrat's career ....... "He broke policy."
Bottom line - you can't bum-rush into a room and exceed capacity.
If the students want to be taken seriously, they need to act like adults. It's a shame things got out of hand and people were hurt.
Glad they got pepper-sprayed. Too bad their angry over tuition costs. Why should the choice of being a college student be any different than what the rest of us had to go through or are still going through? These protesters clearly were creating illegal acts and wouldn't disperse when asked to, so good, let the spraying continue until they get it through their thick skulls that you either obey and play by the rules, which includes unlawful assembly, or you pay by getting sprayed.
The protesters were not ordered to disperse before they were sprayed so cops used excessive force, the cops should be charged with oppression under the color of office