Pepper Spray

Reports of pepper spraying at Occupy protests have been popping up all over the country, and images of those incidents have sparked many discussions about the possible excessive use of such methods. But what about the health effects on the people it's been used on? “The No. 1 effect is on the eyes. It's so toxic it makes you close your eyes almost involuntarily,” said Dr. Mark Morocco, an associate clinical professor of emergency medicine at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center.

SAN FRANCISCO - The Los Angeles Times and Sacramento Bee filed suit Wednesday against the University of California Board of Regents, demanding the release of police officers' names removed from a critical report on the controversial pepper spraying of UC Davis students. The lawsuit, filed in Sacramento County Superior Court, contends that when university officials agreed in a court settlement last month to redact all but two names, they "failed to represent the interests of the press and public," leaving the newspapers with "no choice but to bring this petition to protect the public's right of access to this important information.

Armed with videotapes of law enforcement officers methodically swabbing liquid pepper spray into the eyes of nonviolent protesters, attorneys sued the Humboldt County Sheriff's Department and the Eureka Police Department on Thursday for violating the civil rights of environmental demonstrators.

University of California police and administrators should use mediation instead of confrontation when dealing with most student protests, but pepper spray might remain a necessary tool of last resort, according to a UC draft report on campus civil disobedience. The new study, released Friday, urged that campus police be trained to defuse potentially volatile situations and that UC officials not even mobilize police at peaceful demonstrations. In the rare instances when force is required, the report recommended the campus police try "hands-on pain compliance" such as arm twisting or pressure points "before pepper spray or batons whenever feasible.

A Los Angeles police sergeant was arrested Sunday on suspicion of burglary after a woman found him inside her home near the San Bernardino National Forest and sprayed him with a potent form of pepper spray that is typically used to ward off bears, authorities said. LAPD Sgt. Lucien Daigle allegedly fled but crashed his car a few miles from the woman's Mentone home, said San Bernardino County Sheriff's Sgt. Paul Morrison. Daigle reeked of pepper spray when he was approached and had valuables inside his car that belonged to the woman, Morrison said.

The San Diego County Sheriff's Department has begun an internal affairs investigation into a deputy's use of pepper spray to make an arrest at a political fundraiser. The probe was ordered after Democratic congressional hopeful Francine Busby met with Undersheriff Bill Gore to complain about the incident Friday at a home in a Cardiff neighborhood. Busby is seeking her party's nomination for a rematch next year with Rep.

Anybody who watched last fall's viral videos of campus police officers blasting orange pepper spray into the faces of seated protesters at UC Davis could have figured out that something had gone very wrong on the Central California campus. But it took two reports on the incident by an independent university panel and paid consultants to spell out the scope of the screw-ups, which indict not just the officers holding the spray canisters but the entire campus police force, its chief, a team of university leaders and Chancellor Linda Katehi.

In response to "Public's Demand for Pepper Spray Is Bigger Than Supply in L.A. Area," March 2: How come a person needs to obtain training in order to purchase pepper spray but anyone can purchase a lethal weapon (gun) without so much as a blink of an eye? ESTHER KRISMAN Los Angeles On the subject of pepper sprays for self-defense, the American Civil Liberties Union is right: Do more research first. Yes, it is a defensive weapon. I quote David Boyd, director of the National Institute of Justice: "A person sprayed will be forced to the knees."

Matthew Lopez went to the Wal-Mart in Porter Ranch on Thursday night for the Black Friday sale but instead was caught in a pepper-spray attack by a woman who authorities said was "competitive shopping. " Lopez described a chaotic scene in the San Fernando Valley store among shoppers looking for video games soon after the sale began. "I heard screaming and I heard yelling," said Lopez, 18. "Moments later, my throat stung. I was coughing really bad and watering up. " Lopez said customers were already in the store when a whistle signaled the start of Black Friday at 10 p.m., sending shoppers hurtling in search of deeply discounted items.

Three months after being pepper sprayed or allegedly roughed up by UC Davis campus police during an Occupy demonstration, 19 students and alumni Wednesday filed a federal lawsuit claiming that their free speech and assembly rights were violated in the controversial incident. The suit names Chancellor Linda Katehi as a defendant, along with other campus administrators and police officers. It details allegations against campus police Lt. John Pike, who the suit says sprayed the seated or crouching protesters at close range, causing pain to their eyes and faces.

UC Davis announced Thursday that it has appointed a new chief to head its campus police force for at least a year and to help guide it past the controversies stemming from last November's pepper-spraying of student demonstrators by its officers. Matthew Carmichael, who has been acting chief since November and a lieutenant on the campus force for a decade before that, was sworn in for a yearlong term, UC Davis officials said. The school said it would launch a national search later for a longer-term chief.

Anybody who watched last fall's viral videos of campus police officers blasting orange pepper spray into the faces of seated protesters at UC Davis could have figured out that something had gone very wrong on the Central California campus. But it took two reports on the incident by an independent university panel and paid consultants to spell out the scope of the screw-ups, which indict not just the officers holding the spray canisters but the entire campus police force, its chief, a team of university leaders and Chancellor Linda Katehi.

UC Davis police violated policy and used poor judgment in pepper-spraying student demonstrators in November, while school leaders badly bungled the handling of that campus protest, according to a highly critical report released Wednesday. "Our overriding conclusion can be stated briefly and explicitly. The pepper spraying incident that took place on November 18, 2011 should and could have been prevented," said the report by a university-appointed task force chaired by retired state Supreme Court Justice Cruz Reynoso.

The University of California's investigative report into the controversial pepper-spraying of student protesters by UC Davis campus police is expected to be released publicly Wednesday — with most officers' names removed. After a monthlong legal battle delaying the release, UC and its police union reached a tentative legal settlement Monday that would allow the public disclosure of most of the report about police tactics and UC Davis administrators' roles in the November incident.

The head of California's community college system on Wednesday asked Santa Monica College to put on hold a controversial plan to offer higher-priced courses this summer while the legality of the program is determined. Chancellor Jack Scott said he made the request in a call to college President Chui L. Tsang during which he also expressed concern about a student protest in which several people suffered minor injuries when a campus police officer discharged pepper spray at a Board of Trustees meeting Tuesday evening.

About 100 students protesting a plan to offer high-priced courses at Santa Monica College this summer tried to storm into a meeting of the college's Board of Trustees on Tuesday evening. A handful of protesters suffered minor injuries as campus police tried to prevent dozens of chanting students from disrupting the meeting during a public comment period. Several were overcome when pepper spray was released just outside the meeting room as officers tried to break up the crowd. Two people were taken to a hospital.

OAKLAND — A judge Wednesday rejected nearly all attempts by a campus police union to block release of portions of a report on the November pepper-spraying of UC Davis students by university officers. Alameda County Superior Court Judge Evelio Grillo disagreed with assertions that large chunks of the report — designed to scrutinize the day's events and craft new policy — should be sealed because they contain the same kind of information as in officer personnel files compiled for disciplinary purposes.

An Alameda County Superior Court judge Tuesday temporarily blocked the release of a University of California investigative report about the controversial pepper-spraying of UC Davis student protesters by campus police in November. Judge Evelio Grillo's ruling in an Oakland courtroom came at the request of the UC police union. The Federated University Police Officers Assn. contends that state law forbids public disclosure of such information as the names of UC Davis campus police officers involved in the spraying incident and personnel information garnered from interviews with them.