California college apologizes over pepper-spray

The chancellor of the University of California at Davis apologized to a jeering crowd of more than 1,000 demonstrators on Monday for the use of pepper spray last week by campus police on protesters.

"You may not believe anything I say today. It's my responsibility to earn your trust," Chancellor Linda Katehi told the crowd on the campus located outside the state capital Sacramento, drawing scattered boos and jeers.

Katehi earlier on Monday put the campus police chief on administrative leave while the university probes officers' use on Friday of pepper spray on students passively protesting. The incident was captured on video and circulated widely on television and the Internet.

The incident, which also led to suspensions of two officers, has thrust the campus to the forefront of anti-Wall Street "Occupy" protests nationwide.

Several student leaders and faculty members addressing the rally called for Katehi to resign, saying her mishandling of the school's response to campus protests led to excessive use of force by campus police.

Katehi, made to wait in line behind a parade of speakers openly criticizing her, took to the stage herself about an hour into the rally, telling the crowd: "I'm here to apologize. I really feel horrible for what happened on Friday."

When Katehi added, "I don't want to be the chancellor of the university we had on Friday," she was answered by cries of "Resign!"

She left the stage after about a minute, looking shaken, and was hustled by security personnel to a waiting car, followed by a throng of media and a cluster of students yelling, "Don't come back!"

The demonstrations at the university had focused on issues such as economic inequality, education cuts and tuition hikes.

But Monday's rally was spurred by last week's pepper-spray dousing of protesting students who were sitting on the ground, and an earlier confrontation at the University of California at Berkeley in which police jabbed students with night sticks.

Katehi asked the Yolo County District Attorney's office to investigate the use of force by campus police and said she would create a task force to conduct a campus review and report recommendations in 30 days.

In Oakland, a hot spot of anti-Wall Street activism in recent weeks, police in the largely working-class city on the east bank of San Francisco Bay swept away the last of the town's protest camps early on Monday.