Police used military-grade pepper spray point-blank on several students who were peacefully protesting in solidarity with the “Occupy Cal” movement. Both incidents of UC police brutality were provoked when students disobeyed the “no encampment” rule.

“I am appalled by images of University of California students being doused with pepper spray and jabbed with police batons on our campuses,” UC President Mark G. Yudof said in a statement released on Nov. 20. “I intend to do everything in my power as president of this university to protect the rights of our students, faculty and staff to engage in non-violent protest.”

According to UC Davis junior Lien Do, students in the quad had their arms linked peacefully when police began to pepper spray several students in the face, including Do.

“The police pushed me to the side and when the police started pepper spraying I tried to jump in to cover [students] with my jacket and I got pepper sprayed,” Do said. “I did not get as badly pepper sprayed as [other protesters] but my lips and arm were burning the whole next day.”

According to an article in the Los Angeles Times, two of the UC Davis police officers who was involved in the incident, including Lt. John Pike, have since been placed on paid administrative leave.

UC Davis Chancellor Linda Katehi has launched an investigation concerning last Friday’s events. Despite pressure from the UC community to resign, Katehi has publicly stated that she will not do so.

“I do not think that I have violated the policies of the institution,” she wrote in a statement.

In the statement released yesterday, Yudof stated that he will take immediate action in response to the campus protests.

“As I have said before, free speech is part of the DNA of this university, and non-violent protest has long been central to our history,” he said. “I implore students who wish to demonstrate to do so in a peaceful and lawful fashion. I expect campus authorities to honor that right.”