Salon.com > UC Davis

$1 million to pepper-sprayed protesters

Wed, 26 Sep 2012 18:07:00 +0000

It's a good news week for pepper-sprayed Occupy protesters. On Monday Salon noted that a young woman famously pepper-sprayed by an NYPD officer is expecting a baby with the medic who helped her stung eyes. Now, the ACLU reports, the University of California will pay out a $1 million settlement to demonstrators doused in pepper spray during a demonstration at U.C. Davis last November. Each of the 21 plaintiffs will receive $30,000, plus an additional $250,000 will go to cover the suit's legal costs.

Images of "pepper-spray cop," campus police officer John Pike, blasting sitting demonstrators with orange pepper spray garnered viral attention. The district attorney determined Pike's behavior "not objectively reasonable," but did not seek criminal charges.

The geeky triumph of Pepper Spray Cop

Wed, 23 Nov 2011 13:00:00 +0000

If you want to vanquish the enemy, render him absurd. Most recent case in point? The viral stardom of University of California, Davis, police Lt. John Pike. A week ago, you didn't know his name. Now, he's Pepper Spray Cop. And Pepper Spray Cop is considerably more entertaining than Lt. John Pike.

Lt. John Pike, as the world was made painfully aware last Friday, is the officer who pepper sprayed a phalanx of peacefully linked protesters who refused to move from the university's quad. The gung-ho Pike, it should be noted, was swiftly joined by several of his similarly pepper-spray-happy cohorts. But it was the image of him and his confident, casual, almost bored delivery of a torrent of orange that ignited outrage -- and then, inevitably, parody.