UC Davis Sued Over Use of Pepper Spray

Seventeen students and two alumni have sued police officers and administrators of the University of California at Davis over being subjected to pepper spray during a peaceful protest last year, The San Francisco Chronicle reported. The suit charges excessive force and suppression of free speech. "When the cost of speech is a shot of blinding, burning pepper spray in the face, speech is not free," said a lawyer in the case, Michael Risher of the American Civil Liberties Union. A spokesman for the university declined to comment on the specifics of the suit, but said that officials have been talking to the lawyers for the plaintiffs.