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Stop UCPD's Abuse of Human Rights
  1. Signatures
    95 out of 1,000
    Petitioning
    1. Chancellor, University of California, Santa Barbara (+ 11 others)
      Petitioning
      close
      • Chancellor, University of California, Santa Barbara (Henry T. Yang)
      • Chancellor, University of California, Los Angeles (Gene Block)
      • Chancellor, University of California, Santa Cruz (George R. Blumenthal)
      • Chancellor, University of California, Merced (Dorothy Leland)
      • Chancellor, University of California, Riverside (Timothy P. White)
      • Chancellor, University of California, San Diego (Marye Anne Fox)
      • President, University of California (Mark Yudof)
      • Regents of the University of California
      • Chancellor, University of California, Berkeley (Robert Birgeneau)
      • Chancellor, University of California, San Francisco (Susan Desmond-Hellmann)
      • Chancellor, University of California, Davis (Linda P. B. Katehi)
      • Chancellor, University of California, Irvine (Michael Drake)
  2. Created By
    Sam Kimbrel
    San Francisco, CA
About this Petition Petition Letter Petition Updates
Why This Is Important

The University's police department's mission is to protect the campus community and individual rights, not to cause unnecessary physical harm to peacefully protesting students.

Tell the UC you will not be donating any funds to it until those responsible have been fired and the University issues a full apology.
Why People Are Signing
Recent Signatures

Stop UCPD's violent abuse of students

To President Yudof, the Board of Regents, and all UC Chancellors:

We, the undersigned, are graduates of the University of California. We have always been proud to be UC alumni, but as of last week we are ashamed to be associated with the University. You and your administration are the ones who should be ashamed, though, as you have failed in your duties to protect the University's students.

The University of California Police Department's mission statement sets forth the goals of "[facilitating] the achievement of the academic, research, and public service missions of the University" and "the protection of individual rights". This is a far cry from UCPD's actions last week at Berkeley, where an arrested student asked about his Miranda rights and was told to his face "You don't have any rights", and this week at Davis, where a group of students sitting quietly on campus grounds were doused with pepper spray at point-blank range.

As University alumni, we can no longer remain silent on this issue. Forty-seven years ago, almost to the day, the Free Speech Movement began at Berkeley, inspiring an entire generation with the ideals of free speech and open political debate. These ideals still inform the actions of students today at all the University's campuses; ineed, Berkeley's legacy as the home of the FSM is a large selling point to prospective UC students. UCPD's actions effectively mean the University has reneged upon this heritage of political activism.

As University alumni, we are grateful to the institution that made us what we are today. We have often thanked the University for its influence on our lives by donating to our respective campuses or to the UC as a whole. As of today, however, we can no longer in good conscience make such donations, knowing that they go to support an organization that no longer believes in the ideals of free speech and peaceful political activism. We are therefore withholding our donations to the University until such time as UCPD and the University admit their wrongdoing and issue a full apology to all students and other members of the campus communities they have harmed, and until a full investigation of how these events happened has taken place and those responsible are no longer in the employ of the University or any position of authority over students, faculty, or staff.

Signed,

[Your name]