Law Enforcement

First Picnic Day, now Whole Earth.  Some in the community will be tempted to cast a broad net towards youth.  Unfortunately, as is always the case, a small number of miscreants spoil it for the rest who are looking for good and clean fun.

UC Davis officials probably had little choice but to shut down the Whole Earth Festival’s DJ Stage beginning next year, in the wake of the campus Police Department’s investigations of three violent crimes, including the reported rape of a 16-year-old girl, in and around the music venue last weekend.

When I first heard about the Student Activist Team (SAT), I was very alarmed that UCD would be expending resources to track student activities.  After all, they have limited resources, or so we have been told, and the students for the most part were exercising their first amendment rights.

It hearkened back to stories about the sixties and FBI infiltration into groups.  The truth however, seems to be much more mundane, according not just to the UC Vice Chancellor involved, but also a member of the SAT.

Four years ago, the issue of student-police relations erupted along with other complaints against the Davis police department.  Lost in the turmoil and controversy surrounding the Davis Human Relations Commission, was an event in early February 2006 where dozens of students, most of them African-American, came before the Davis City Council to complain about treatment from the police.

In May, as many as 150 students marched from campus to the Davis Police Station to protest what they called racial profiling and other tactics by the Davis Police Department.

The rash of hate related incidents continued on Sunday nigh as police received a report from a resident adviser in Kearney Hall about a 5 inch by 3 inch swastika cavered into a bulletin board.

According to police, the swastika may have been carved into the bulletin board earlier but covered by fliers. As part of the investigation, the police department took crime scene photos and fingerprints and removed the bulletin board as evidence.

The University is investigating two recent incidents as hate crimes.  The Unversity confirmed on Friday that authorities are investigating a swastika carved into the door of a Jewish student’s dorm room as a hate crime.

An incident where vandalism was discovered on the campus building that houses the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Resource Center will also be investigated as a hate crime.

In October, UC Davis officials revealed that Campus Violence Prevention Program director Jennifer Beeman had over-reported forcible sexual-assault crimes under the federal Clery Act from 2005 until 2007.  At the same time she has also been the subject of an investigation in which it appears she used grant money to pay the mortgage on her home.

Both the Davis Enterprise and the Sacramento Bee have been on this aspect of the investigation.  On Thursday, the Davis Enterprise reported on a UC Davis police investigation, laid out in a three-page probable cause statement that led to a search warrant in early December.

At some point, I was forwarded a copy of the University of Miami of Ohio’s President, James C. Garland who has a handbook to administrators on what to do when protests get out of hand.  Not surprisingly he offers a rather hardline approach to dealing with college protesters.  After long and considerable debate, I decided to respond to it, primarily because I believe a lot of the prescriptions offered by the President are actually detrimental and self-defeating.

He offers specific reference to UC Davis in his comments dated December 2009, the irony is that unlike the past, I think the UC Davis officials and administrators fared fairly well.  The situation that occurred was tense, it was perhaps dragged out too long as the students occupied Mrak Hall, but unlike the past, the university comes across of sympathetic and reasonable.  Had they followed Dr. Garland’s advice, the situation would likely have escalated rather than de-escalated.

In February of 2007, the Sacramento Bee ran a story on reporting of sexual assaults, lauding UC Davis which at one point in time was criticized for underreporting sexual assaults, and then was “leading the way” in the reporting of crime.

Wrote the Bee on February 16, 2007:

A UC Davis professor is suing the University for racial discrimination, harassment and retaliation in relation to charges surrounding the handling of a grade dispute.  The University is taking the extraordinary measure of using anti-SLAPP legislation as a means to quash a legitimate discrimination complaint.  If successful, this could set a new precedent as a legal tool used by alleged offenders to effectively gut current anti-discrimination protections in the workplace.

Professor Branner in August of 2008 filed a lawsuit at the UC Regents and Vice Provost Horwitz alleging that their actions violated his rights and protections under California law.

Last month we reported that Former UC Davis Police Officer Calvin Chang had filed suit against the university claiming breach of the settlement agreement and a variety of harassment and discrimination charges.

We also reported that this would likely be the first in a string of complaints against the departments. The Vanguard has now learned that on February 26, 2009, a second UC Davis Police officer, Officer Chithien Le has filed suited against the UC Davis Police Officer.

On Monday the Vanguard ran a story on the lawsuit filed by former UC Davis police Officer Calvin Chang. The story has since been covered in detail in the California Aggie and mentioned briefly on the Davis Enterprise website. At this point, one of the hang ups has been that the university has not been served and thus not officially notified with the complaint. So at this point they cannot respond.

Former UC Davis Police Officer Calvin Chang has filed a lawsuit against the UC Regents and UC Davis Police Chief Annette Spicuzza alleging complaints of racial and sexual orientation discrimination, housing discrimination, and retaliation.

In the lawsuit, Officer Chang, who is openly gay, alleges that he was subject to harassment including homophobic slurs and a death threat while serving as a police officer for the UC Davis Police Department. Officer Chang was at the time of his hire the only Asian-American officer on the campus and the first openly gay officer.