A half-dozen people occupied the Humanities 2 building at UCSC last night, leading to a confrontation with campus police that resulted in a pepper spraying and one arrest.
A half-dozen people occupied the Humanities 2 building at UCSC last night, leading to a confrontation with campus police that resulted in a pepper spraying and one arrest.
According to a university spokesman, five or six people—officials say they aren’t certain the individuals were students—barricaded themselves inside the building following a party in the Social Sciences/Humanities courtyard. Student Affairs staff reportedly saw people moving rocks and a Dumpster into the middle of Hagar Drive and called campus police at about 9pm. When campus police arrived to investigate, they found three people carrying a table toward the building. According to an official statement released by the university earlier this afternoon, the three “cursed at an officer and defied multiple requests to stop. Pepper spray was used to subdue them.” One was arrested and the other two ran off. That was at about 10:30pm. The students occupying the Humanities building left at around 3am.
Students say police didn’t follow due process. Late last night following the incident, the student group that occupied the Commons building several weeks ago issued a message to media. “All the police said to the students was, ‘Hey folks, let’s go, this is vandalism,’ after which they sprayed mace on them,” the statement says. “At no point did the police warn the students that they were about to be sprayed, nor did they ever instruct the students to desist.”
Attempts to reach representatives of the student group were unsuccessful.
