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November 20, 2009: Review, Reflection & Recommendations from the Police Review Board

By Public Affairs

The following is the introduction to and summary of UC Berkeley’s Police Review Board report on the events of November 20, 2009. To see the response from Chancellor Birgeneau, Associate Vice Chancellor Ron Coley and UCPD Chief Mitch Celaya, see the main report page .

Introduction: Setting the Expectations Stage

They say hindsight is 20/20. They’re wrong.

The purpose of this report is not to identify with certainty all the actions by all of the actors who played some role in connection with the demonstrations on November 20, 2009. That is impossible. It would be impossible even if all of the tools of civil litigation were masterfully deployed for years — and then all of the admissible evidence were submitted to a mentally and morally perfect jury. Certainty about the historical facts would be an even greater pretense in a report like this — unsupported, as is appropriate, by use of even the basic tools of civil litigation.

Members of the Police Review Board in 2010