AlterNet /
By Mela Heestand
UC Davis Students and Faculty Face Prison Time for Peaceful Protest Against Bank
The pepper spraying of UC Davis students shocked the nation,
but the persecution that the Davis Dozen protesters face is far worse.
April 27, 2012 |
The pepper-spraying of University of California Davis protesters on
November 18, 2011 promised to be a galvanizing moment for the student
movement after University Police Lieutenant John Pike used military
grade pepper spray at point blank range on seated protesters who had
peacefully assembled to demonstrate against tuition hikes at UC Davis.
The world took notice. Not only did the Lieutenant Pike pepper-spray
“meme” spread like wildfire on Facebook and Twitter, major news outlets
gave the event coverage, to varying degrees of depth and understanding.
But it seems that the University administration has successfully
evaded scrutiny of the role it played in a series of events that began
in January at UC Davis when 12 protesters, some of whom had been
pepper-sprayed in November, staged another peaceful sit-in at the campus
branch of US Bank. The sit-in was an important political action in
defense of public funding of the University and against the replacement
of that funding by private contracts with corporations. The protestors
won an enormous victory when US Bank closed it University branch on
February 28, possibly breaking its agreement with UC Davis.
Banks have no place on University campuses for many reasons. Part of
the function of the contract UC Davis had with US Bank allowed the
administration’s continued shift of funding of the University from
public to private sources. This is particularly problematic when the
private source of funding is a corporate bank, because banks make money
from rising tuition costs, in the form of interest from student loans.
In other words: university contracts with banks encourage tuition
hikes, because banks stand to profit directly from rising tuition, while
the administration comes to rely on funding from bank contracts.
This is a part of a vicious cycle that is destroying the public
character of the UC system — and costing thousands of dollars to
students in increased tuition and long-term debt every year. Just six
years ago, tuition at the University of California was $5,357. Tuition
is currently $12,192. According to current proposals, it will be $22,068
by 2015-2016, amounting to a 312% increase in just 10 years. These
tuition hikes increasingly force more and more students out of higher
education altogether and put untenable financial burdens on those who
must take out crippling loans and work extra jobs for an education that
is now public in name only.
The protestors’ success in this fight against the privatization
agenda of the University should be cause for celebration; however, on
March 29, nearly a month after the bank pulled out of UC Davis, the 11
students and 1 professor involved in the sit-in received orders to
appear at Yolo County Superior Court. At the request of the UC Davis
administration, District Attorney Jeff Reisig is charging the so-called
Davis Dozen with 20 counts each of obstructing movement in a public
place, and one count of conspiracy. If convicted, the protesters could
each face up to 11 years each in prison, and $1 million in damages. The
UC Davis administration is sending a clear message to protesters:
dissent will not be tolerated. And those who do protest will face a
violence much more pernicious than pepper-spraying at the hands of
Lieutenant Pike.
Unfortunately, this time around there is no graphic youtube video
that could potentially go viral and capture the psychological and
financial stress the protesters are under as they face the possibility
of having to leave school and, even worse, say goodbye to friends,
family, partners and children as they go off to serve time in the
California penal system. There is no video to elicit gasps of horror at
the threat of a lifetime of financial ruin that the protesters face.
There is no video to show the unremitting repression of their
democratic right to freedom of assembly and political protest.
There is no video to capture the machinations of the UC Davis
administration, under the direction of Chancellor Linda Katehi, who
appears to be seeking retribution for the pending ACLU lawsuit against
the university for the pepper spray incident. Whereas no charges were
filed against the protestors after the pepper spray incident, the
District Attorney is now quite willing to prosecute the 12 demonstrators
charged with “obstructing movement in a public place”.
Obstructing movement in a public place? That sounds a whole lot like
an ad hoc law designed to silence dissent. And what better time for
the UC Davis Administration to subject protesters to an absurd version
of the law than when nobody is watching? If the world were watching,
surely we would ask why these peaceful protesters could be sentenced to
11 years in prison, which, for the sake of comparison, is the maximum
penalty for voluntary manslaughter in the state of California. It bears
repeating: students and faculty who put their educations, careers,
families as well as their own bodies on the line to defend the
accessibility of public education for all, now stand to serve the same
sentence as a felon who has killed another human being.
The pepper spraying of UC Davis students shocked the nation, but the
persecution that the Davis Dozen protesters face is far worse. It is
life-altering for them.
We cannot allow the story of the Davis Dozen
to fall through the cracks, even though it might not strike a chord as
immediately visceral as the now infamous video of Lieutenant Pike
attacking students with a chemical agent. Let us reflect on the tragic
irony that the state funding that should be allocated to aiding the
intellectual growth and development of the 11 students involved in the
sit-in might be funneled towards their incarceration. The modest salary
that is paid to a professor, committed enough to advocate for public
education might be replaced by state money to keep this highly gifted
professional locked up.
And indeed, if we look at where the state money paid by the people of
California for services to foster the common good, we can plainly see
that this scenario is a sinister microcosm. In 2011, the UC and CSU
systems account for $5.6 billion of state funding, while the prisons are
receiving $9.6 billion dollars from the state. The state spends about
$50,000 per inmate each year. We cannot look the other way and allow
the boot of the penal system to fall on these protesters, while corrupt
University administrators secure the way to enrich the 1% on
California’s dime with impunity and at the expense of public education.
We must immediately demand that all charges be dropped against the
Davis Dozen.
Mela Heestand is a graduate student in Comparative Literature at University
of California Davis. She is currently living in the Boston area where
she is involved in grass-roots organizing.
