Davis, CA / UCD - Pepper Spraying Protesters In Davisville

I grew up in Davis, CA in the '60s and '70s. Most Americans were unaware of this small quaint town that I use to refer to as a one cow town in Northern California that is home to the University of California at Davis (an enrollment of 32K students, 24K undergrads). That was until Friday, November 18th when UC Davis Protesters were sprayed with Pepper Spray at the UC Davis Quad. In this age of citizen journalism, this story has gone global with millions of views on YouTube and is now the hot story in the National Media.

After this incident, I saw a health blog The Health Effects of Pepper Spray in the Wall Street Journal by Katherine Hobson that notes that there is some medical research that indicates that pepper spray can result in a health hazard.

The U.C. Davis Medical School is ranked no. 42 in the Country (US News and World Reports) and certainly

UC Davis Chancellor Linda Katehi and UC Chief Spicuza certainly had all the educational and medical resources available to them before ordering UC Police in full riot gear to remove the protesters with or without pepper spray. The U.C. Davis Medical School is ranked 42nd in the Country (US News and World Reports). So when Lt. John Pike administered the pepper spray to UC students, you have to ask what type of formal training he had prior to this incident and who gave the direct order (Who Ordered the Pepper Spray?) and we all know that former Marine like Lt. John Pike follow orders.

UC Davis Protesters Sprayed with Pepper Spray, November 18, 2011 #UCD #pepperspray

Occupy Portland Woman Pepper Sprayed - November 17, 2011

New York Pepper Spray September 24, 2011 #OccupWallStreet #pepperspray

As I relaying to a friend earlier this morning while I was reading the UC Davis Pepper Spray hourly updates on a former classmate's Facebook wall, this incident has now definitively put Davis on the map. Previously, some may have known Davis for the '60s Blocking of Arms Shipment in the Vietnam War Protests that made Life Magazine in the early '70s; the Allan Bakke, Reverse Discrimination Supreme Court Case of a 32 year old former Marine who sued as a White Male to get into the UC Davis Medical School; and Ken O'Brien the infamous Quarterback and 24th pick by the New York Jets in the 1983 NFL Draft (5th Quarterback) from UC Davis, a former Division II School behind John Elway and ahead of Dan Marino.

So now U.C. Davis is known as the Pepper Spray School ...