The university’s ‘support’ for law enforcement runs hypocritical and short-sighted
I first heard about a UC Davis professor who thinks cops should be killed late in Fall Quarter. There were murmurings in the newsroom about his in-class discussions, and rumors of how the professor had given an interview that advocated for violence against law enforcement. It bothered me, but I assumed that what I heard was typical hearsay and likely exaggerated. I wasn’t shown anything concrete; there were no words to read, no sound-bites to parse over. The story seemed too extreme to be believed, because only the intellectually dishonest would even broach such blanketed and violent sentiments — certainly not a highly-regarded professor at a top public university. But I kept the rumors at the back of my mind.
The killing of Natalie Corona changed everything. Corona, an up-and-coming Davis police officer who was gunned down last month, was the type of person who makes labelling all law enforcement as “bad” a simple exercise in fallacy. By all accounts, she was a kind and considerate person who cared deeply about the community she served. She was
pictured giving a bag of must-haves to a former resident of Paradise over the holidays. She
reportedly gave a man she arrested a few dollars so he could buy a meal when he was released. Corona embodied the moral imperatives enshrined in our campus Principles of Community, the idea that “a climate of equity and justice demonstrated by respect for one another” is not only important, but necessary.