US: Pepper spray attack galvanises student crusade

It has become something of an annual tradition on California college campuses: the state makes large cuts in public universities, they in turn raise tuition, and students respond with angry protests, writes Jennifer Medina for the New York Times. But this year, the battle is sharpening. Indeed, the Occupy movement, on campuses at least, is transforming itself into a student-led crusade against increases in tuition.

A video that showed two University of California, Davis, police officers using pepper spray on seated protesters has gone viral, with hundreds of thousands watching what might have been a relatively small encampment compared with the larger protests across the country. The video has led to demands that Chancellor Linda PB Katehi resign. Last week, Katehi said she was putting the campus police chief on administrative leave as a way to rebuild trust on campus.

The attack has galvanised protesters on other campuses. Students at the Los Angeles, Berkeley, Riverside and Davis campuses said that they intended to restart their encampments on Monday night, in part to test whether they will be rousted or arrested in the wake of the pepper-spraying.
Full report on the New York Times site