Friday, April 13, 2012
Lt. John Pike pepper sprays Andrew Wyeth's Christina
There was plenty of blame to go around for the pepper-spraying incident last November 18 at the University of California Davis.
According to a task force that reviewed the demonstration, the spraying of protesters “should and could have been prevented.”
On November 17, 2011, students at UC Davis, building on longstanding protests against rising tuition and fees, and inspired by the spread of the more recent Occupy movement, set up tents on the central Quad at the university. Chancellor Linda Katehi and her Leadership Team ordered campus police to dismantle the encampment the following afternoon, claiming that it would attract non-student agitators, although, in the words of The Reynoso Task Force Report, “these concerns were not supported by any evidence.”
At fault were Katehi and her subordinates for not communicating better and Chief of Police Annette Spicuzza for poor leadership. The report accused Katehi of “failure to communicate her position that the police operation should avoid physical force.” Spicuzza, among other transgressions, was deemed “responsible for numerous deviations from best police practices both before and during the operation.”
The task force also concluded that officer John Pike, captured in photos dousing seated, non-violent demonstrators with pepper spray, “bears primary responsibility for the objectively unreasonable decision to use pepper spray on the students sitting in a line and for the manner in which the pepper spray was used.” The image of Pike spraying the students inspired numerous creative memes.
-David Wallechinsky, Noel Brinkerhoff
To Learn More:
Police Union Tries to Block Portions of Report on Campus Pepper-Spray Incident (by Noel Brinkerhoff and David Wallechinsky, AllGov)
Pepper Spray Developer Denounces Use by UC Davis Police (by Noel Brinkerhoff, AllGov)
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