Exclusive Interview: UC Davis Protestor Eyewitness Account Of Police Pepper Spraying

The pepper spraying by police of about a dozen University of California, Davis, students Friday afternoon has become an iconic example of police brutality and discrimination against not only the Occupy Wall Street movement by local and state officials, but against the very constitutional rights police and the elected officials they serve are paid to protect.

The New Civil Rights Movement contacted a UC Davis Department of History graduate student who was part of Friday’s protest. While the student, Robin Marie Averbeck, was not directly pepper sprayed, she says she and a friend “were close enough to catch some blow back from the spray and were coughing for a minute or two, but we recovered quickly.”

We asked Robin Marie Averbeck several questions via email, and asked her to share with us in her own words as many details as possible. Initially we had planned to only use selected quotes from Averbeck’s statement, but we find her comments so powerful, credible, honest, and passionate, we are presenting her statement here, below, in full, and unedited except for clarification. We have highlighted in bold a few of her more poignant and critical comments.

Averbeck, and all the students who participated in last week’s protests at UC Davis are heroes. Their non-violent actions have changed the conversation in America, and highlighted the paramilitary forces our police departments have become.

Stay tuned today for more stories about the UC Davis attack.

 

Hi David –

First I’ll just give you a rundown of my involvement. I showed up at the Occupy UC Davis campus around 2:15, when it was just the 30 or so campers and maybe a dozen other people who have been participating in the student movement – which would describe me; I’ve been participating in all the events this past week but I was not one of the campers. (I have to warn you I do not feel confident with my ability to gage the number of people in any assembly, so I would try to get second confirmations on my numbers if you can. I will talk to some of my other friends in the department tonight to see if anyone else is interested in commenting.) I was there when the police showed up at 2:30 to remind the Occupiers that the Chancellor told them to leave by 3:00, and I along with some other students went to the MU [Memorial Union, which is the main eatery/student center on campus] to announce to the students inside that the cops were coming and to encourage them to come out and support us.

When they started arriving, we took all the tents and put them at the center of the quad, and linked arms around them forming a circle. At this point there were probably 50 of us who had gathered by then. The riot cops (which I have heard the number to be 50; I’m not sure if it was that high but it was at least 25 that first arrived on the horizon) took a while to observe this (maybe 5, 10 minutes at most) but then began breaking through the chain and making arrests. At this point the line clumped into little clusters and we remained holding hands and sat down. The other tents that the cops had not gotten to were also taken down quickly by other occupiers; so it is worth noting that the official request of the Chancellor, that the tents be taken down, was already quickly accomplished and therefore all we were then doing was standing our ground.

While we chanted and refused to move, some other students who had gathered in the large crowd of spectators that had gathered around began joining us in the clusters that were refusing to move.

I have to say that this is one of the most inspiring things I’ve ever seen – because all of us already there had already committed to the movement, already committed to the possibility that we would be arrested or brutalized in some fashion. However these were students who were previously uninvolved – who were sitting there finally realizing that the Occupy movement, the student movement against the privatization of their university, and a police state that represses its own politically conscious citizenry all meant something to them, is real and has real consequences to them and their friends. Seeing someone at the moment that their apathy finally melts away is a beautiful sight to behold, and that day alone made it a proud day for UC Davis.

I would say that at least 12, perhaps as many as 20 students joined us there; it might have been more, actually, but I’d prefer to be conservative in my estimate.

A few minutes later we decided through People’s Mic to form a circle around the students that had been arrested, which resulted in the circle you see in the pepper spraying video. Those of us in the linked-arm circle were all sitting down. I was on the lower left side of the circle, maybe 15-20 feet from the students who got sprayed. Before the spraying started, students were chanting various chants, from “You are, we are, the 99 percent” to “Cops Off Campus” and “Books not Batons.” One person even used People’s Mic to announce that he had found a beanie, so whoever had lost it should come talk to him; it was inspiring and everyone was feeling the solidarity, at least I know I was.

There was about 10-15 minutes of this I think – this is the situation I supposed the cops felt they were cornered or threatened, and yes, that is absurd. At no point did we threaten [the police] or refuse to let them leave – in fact, before the pepper spraying started my friend, who was immediately to my left in linked arms, used People’s Mic to demand that they leave – another girl in the circle asked to amend that to we politely ask them to leave! So they could have left at any time – as you see in the video, we were all sitting down, so to claim we were somehow obstructing them is beyond absurd, it is clearly a lie.

So it was in the midst of this situation, which lasted probably about 15 minutes from when we sat in the circle that you see in the video, that I looked over my shoulder and saw the huge cloud of orange dust as the students were being sprayed right in front of me. In all honesty, I was shocked and horrified – I almost started crying on the spot. I don’t know why I was so surprised – it seems naïve of me – but it is really something different seeing this in person. I and a friend to my right were close enough to catch some blow back from the spray and were coughing for a minute or two, but we recovered quickly. After a minute or two of continuing to sit, the students got up as the riot police backed away, realizing that the pepper spray had failed to disperse the crowd, and we chanted as we approached them very slowly, mostly chanting “Shame on you.” It was at this point I figure that they realized there was nothing else to be done to disperse the crowd and they left, along with the students they had arrested.

More than anything else, I would say that what stood out to me was first, how horrifying it was to see this in person, and second, how it only increased the determination amongst the students. I can speak for myself that once I saw those students getting sprayed I was even more determined than I was before not to budge in the face of violence; I actually thought for a minute that the cops would just continue spraying around the circle, so I started bracing myself to be sprayed, because there was no way in hell I was going to be intimidated by that kind of violence, especially not after seeing my fellow students brutalized like that and how bravely and stoic they remained in the face of it. It was also beautiful to see everyone coordinating afterwards to get help for the students sprayed, and the students themselves comported themselves with great dignity.

I do not know if any counseling is being offered for the students sprayed; all in all this took about an hour and a half, from when the cops first started showing up on the horizon to when the students reassembled for a general assembly after they had been shamed off the campus.

Feel free to use my full name – Robin Marie Averbeck – and that I am a graduate student in the Department of History at UC Davis.

Best, much thanks,

Robin Marie Averbeck

 

For more on the UC Davis pepper spraying attack, see all our UC Davis stories here, including:

Watch: Shocking Video Of Police Pepper Spraying UC Davis Students

 

UC Davis Professor Demands Chancellor Resign Over Pepper Spraying Of Students

UC Davis: New Video Surfaces Of Police Pepper Spraying Passive Students

UC Davis Pepper Spray Attack Of Students By Police: What Questions Do We Need Answered?

 

 

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