UC report calls for more tolerance of protests
Source: San Francisco Chronicle
University of California officials dealing with student protests should "shift away from a mind set" focused on rules and regulations, and instead "recognize explicitly the historic role of civil disobedience" as a legitimate tactic, a new university report says.
The analysis, to be presented Friday, was ordered up in November by UC President Mark Yudof after campus police at UC Berkeley struck students with clubs during an Occupy protest and UC Davis officers coated protesters with pepper spray. Videos of both incidents went viral, prompting widespread criticism of police and campus administrators.
The new report is the result of months of review by UC General Counsel Charles Robinson and Chris Edley, dean of the UC Berkeley School of Law. The two visited campuses and spoke with students, faculty and police in coming up with 50 recommendations for how the university should handle protests.
Robinson and Edley concluded that UC police are too quick to quash demonstrations rather than allow them to play out. Administrators should tolerate more civil disobedience, such as allowing protesters to erect tents on campuses that don't allow overnight camping, the report said.
Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/05/04/BA3P1ODI4S.DTL