Santa Monica College Students Pepper-Sprayed: Campus police douse tuition protesters

By: Crimesider Staff
Topics: Daily Blotter

Students are seen in this image running down the hall as it filled with pepper spray vapor.

/ CBS Los Angeles

(CBS) SANTA MONICA, Calif. - Campus police pepper-sprayed a crowd of Santa Monica College students who were angry over a plan to offer high-priced courses and tried to push their way into trustees meeting on Tuesday, police said.

Video posted on the internet showed students chanting "Let us in, let us in" and "No cuts, no fees, education should be free."

Students were angry because only a handful were allowed into the meeting. When their request to move the venue to a larger venue was denied, they began to enter the building, said David Steinman, a Green Party candidate for Congress.

When two officers were allegedly backed-up against a wall and a campus police officer reportedly lost his balance, and they began using force to keep the students out of the room. Steinman said both officers used pepper spray.

"People were choking and gasping," he said.

Santa Monica College spokesman Bruce Smith said he believed it was the first time pepper spray had been used to subdue students on campus.

"It was the judgment of police that the crowd was getting out of hand and it was a safety issue," he said.

Marioly Gomez, 21, said she was standing in a hallway outside the meeting with several hundred other students who wanted to get into the meeting.

"I got pepper-sprayed without warning," she said.

Students began running out of the hall as it filled with vapor.

CBS Los Angeles reports the board was forced to end the meeting and paramedics were called to treat the approximately 30 people affected.

Firefighters were also called to the campus at about 7:20 p.m. Five people were evaluated at the scene and two were taken to a hospital, Santa Monica Fire Department Capt. Judah Mitchell said. Their conditions were not known, but the injuries were not believed to be serious, Mitchell said.

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by wyllyam2 April 4, 2012 2:10 PM EDT: Instead of California find yourself here how about California, it's a gas...pepper gas

Maybe Betty White should pull up in her golf cart and say ... you don't have to go all the way to Auschwitz, we can gas you right here in California.

How about a whole new ad campaign...

We don't have a gas shortage here, just visit Davis or Santa Monica, the police are so friendly they will gas you up for nothing.; Reply to this comment

by m3houston April 4, 2012 12:30 PM EDT

"No cuts, no fees, education should be free."

They deserved to be pepper sprayed.

Reply to this comment


by cbsnews_viewer April 4, 2012 1:21 PM EDT: Would you like to expand on that or are people to just assume its mean spirited?


by SJames6621 April 4, 2012 5:15 PM EDT: FIRST WE'LL TEST IT ON YOUR KIDS.


by Flipsarah16 April 11, 2012 12:59 PM EDT: If they started using force to get in they should have expected consequences...pepper spray is far better than a club.

by tonyrigatoni April 4, 2012 12:14 PM EDT

"Let us in, let us in," protesters shouted on video posted online Tuesday. "No cuts, no fees, education should be free."

Right
Still drinkin that obummer koolaid?
Isn't this the generation that voted for chains?

How's those lies you bought into workin out for ya?

Reply to this comment


by dragontats April 4, 2012 12:43 PM EDT: Uninformed much? If your friends really cared about you, they would tell you to ****. Consider me a friend and ****.


by Comrade_Ogilvy April 4, 2012 12:48 PM EDT: You're blaming an the scope of economic injustice and a failure to educate the people on a generation of kids? And you're sure it isn't you who isn't drinking the koolaid? I think maybe you should have been there demanding a right to education too...you obviously need it.


by dano48 April 4, 2012 3:20 PM EDT: Dragontats, please explain how tonyrigatoni is "uniformed". The students are demanding a "free" education, but nothing is "free". They want the taxpayers to pay for it. Perhaps you should ****, yourself.

Comrade_Ogilvy, tonyrigatoni isn't blaming these kids for "economic injustice and failure to educate the people" he's blaming them for voting for Obama, who's policies have retarded the economy to the point where 25% of college aged people are unemployed. But to be fair these particular kids were too young to have actually voted for Obama. Nonetheless, their generation helped cause the "economic injustice" or chronic high unemployment for years to come. You should educate yourself, instead of worrying about tonyrigatoni.


by SJames6621 April 4, 2012 5:16 PM EDT: WHEN EVER YOU SEE COMMENTS LIKE obummer, you know the KKK is still in existance

Renamed the tea party.


by Flipsarah16 April 11, 2012 1:02 PM EDT: Bush already ruined the economy, Obama never had a chance. Maybe Americans shouldn't have voted for a moron over and over again.


by Belegal4once April 4, 2012 12:11 PM EDT: This would have been funnier had it happened down the coast at "Pepper"dine....; Reply to this comment

by dragontats April 4, 2012 12:05 PM EDT

Q- What is the single most important social responsibility of a government whose goal is to create an intelligent, informed, harmonious society?

A- Educating the populace.

A society that only educates the elites is doomed to fail. Our number 1 goal should be to get everybody in this country educated. But, alas, the mental disorder called capitalism has taken over anything resembling common sense in this country. These people just want more, more, more...at what cost?

Everybody in this country, the wealthiest, most properous nation the world has ever known should have 2 things given by birthright- Education and healthcare. If we, as a society, did not have to worry about going into debt for 20 years for an education, or lose everything to bankruptcy due to medical bills, just think of the things we could accomplish! But, the money-grubbing scum don't like that idea. In my opinion, those people are traitors to the idea of America.

Reply to this comment


by m3houston April 4, 2012 12:30 PM EDT: Sounds like you should move to Greece. You'll like it there!


by cbsnews_viewer April 4, 2012 1:24 PM EDT: m3Huston: Or how about Germany. Where children actually get educated. The businesses did not take bank loans and make a profit and the bankers did not get bailed out like they did by then Representative Obama, the rest of the Congress and then President George Bush. We have a rotten system.


by dano48 April 4, 2012 3:28 PM EDT: dragontats, the most important social responsibility a government has is to ensure its citizens are free. It's not the government responsibility to educate people. If you want an education, you are FREE to get it.

cbsnews_viewer, you are complaining about the lack of education in the US, in the same paragraph where mention Representative Obama. He was a Senator when TARP was passed, try to educate yourself. Besides, many of the banks that took TARP money, were forced to take it by the government. The government did not want to signal which banks were weak by giving them alone a bail out, because it would cause a panic. So they forced even healthy banks to take TARP money as well. Those banks have paid back the money that didn't want in first place, with interest. That can't be said about GM and Chrysler.


by SJames6621 April 4, 2012 5:20 PM EDT: note how M3Housaton conveniently forgets that

1. When clinton left office the govt was running a surplus

2. Wheh Bush left office we were on the virge of the second great repub depression.