The University of California in Davis has put two police officers on administrative leave after they pepper sprayed protesters a demonstration aligned with Occupy Wall Street.at the campus last week.
Videos of the encounter showed two police officers in riot gear dousing the protesters with pepper spray as they sat on a sidewalk with their arms entwined.
Reflecting widespread anger over the police behaviour, the university chancellor, Linda Katehi, said last night she would insist an investigation of the matter be completed within 30 days.
Meanwhile, students and others affiliated with the Occupy UC Davis movement scheduled new protests today and tomorrow.
A Facebook page for the protests asked attendees to call for Ms Katehi's resignation and to "show solidarity and support to the students who were beaten and sprayed by UC Davis police in riot gear."
The Facebook page also suggested a way for sympathiders to donate tents and pizza for the protests.
The use of pepper spray came after students and other protesters set up tents on campus in a show of support for the Occupy movement and in solidarity with earlier protests at the University of California, Berkeley.
The reactions to it - cries of police brutality and pledges to reconvene protesters on a larger scale - seemed to mirror the reactions in New York, Seattle and elsewhere when the police quelled recent protests with force.
As police officers moved to take down the tents at Davis on Friday afternoon, some protesters on a sidewalk on the campus quad linked arms and refused to stand.
In one of the many YouTube videos of the incident, bystanders chant, "Don't shoot students" before an officer shakes a red pepper spray canister and walks before a line of seated protesters, spraying them. The protesters' faces and clothes are quickly covered in the orange-tinted spray.
Some protesters are heard screaming and crying as they are arrested.
Eleven protesters were treated at the scene after being sprayed, two of them were then sent to the hospital.
Ten protesters were arrested on charges of unlawful assembly and failure to disperse and later released, according to the university.
After the episode, a police official suggested that the officers felt threatened and encircled by the protesters. The videos show no evidence of threats from the protesters.
New York Times