Davis students show power of nonviolence
Last week, the University of California officially announced it would pay a total of nearly $1 million in settlements to the 21 UC Davis students and alumni who were pepper-sprayed during a nonviolent protest on campus last November.
Yet more important than financial retribution is the power of nonviolent student protest exemplified by those UC Davis students and graduates. This form of protest is something that current and future generations of students should understand, learn from and apply to their own lives as a way to stand up for the issues they feel passionately about.
Nonviolent tactics legitimize a protest in two ways: legally, by not challenging the monopoly on the use of force held by the state, and ideologically, by holding itself to a higher standard than rioting or other illegal tactics.
In the case of UC Davis, such tactics allowed protestors to elicit popular sympathy and support for their cause while showcasing the continuing problem of police brutality.
In the hours following the November incident, the infamous video of defenseless students taking pepper spray in the face from an armed police officer went viral on the Internet, enraging students and proponents of free speech nationwide.
A day after the incident, UC Davis students held a vigil on campus, near the site of a press conference where Chancellor Linda Katehi, who had ordered police presence at the protest, denied responsibility for the incident. As she left the conference — head bowed — hundreds of eyes fixated on Katehi, holding her accountable without saying a word.
In an era that is dominated, both at home and abroad, by violent clashes between police and civilians and protests that erupt into conflict rather than cause change, the choice of non-violent protest speaks volumes.
Those students pepper-sprayed and violently arrested at the protest were widely praised for their courage in the face of law enforcement brutality, as those at the vigil were for their demonstration of solidarity, purpose and self-control as Katehi walked by.
Though the officers who fired the pepper spray will not face any charges, a clear national consensus has been reached that the police action taken at UC Davis was wrong.
In April, a report on the incident found the UC campus police guilty of poor judgment and in violation of university policy. As part of last week’s settlement, the American Civil Liberties Union will work with UC Davis to redevelop policies on student demonstrations, crowd management and the use of force.
The pepper spray incident and its aftermath, meanwhile, will remain an indication of the maturity that students are capable of.
In the age of the Arab Spring, the Occupy Movement and student outrage over tuition hikes and budget cuts, the events at UC Davis have shown that young people can and should take on the responsibility to make peaceful change happen.
Valerie Yu is a freshman majoring in English.