Former New York City Police Commissioner William Bratton has been tapped to lead the official outside panel investigating last week's pepper-spray incident during an Occupy event on a California campus.
UC Davis campus police officers were caught on tape appearing to use pepper spray on nonviolent, seated Occupy protesters during a Friday event.
The incident sparked uproar throughout the local and national communities. The school's chancellor repudiated the police, insisting they defied her orders to peacefully remove tents or equipments, and, if the situation got heated, to back off.
Bratton, also a former Los Angeles Police Chief, is expected to report his findings within a month,according to the Los Angeles Times
. The probe will be sponsored by the university.
Bratton has often been tapped as a consultant to investigate and or help diffuse volatile situations. In August, he was hired to try to control the rampant gang violence in Britain.
Bratton was New York City police commissioner to then-Mayor Rudy Giuliani from 1993 to 1996, overseeing Giuliani's crime-fighting efforts during a time when murders and other violent crimes plummeted.
