Saturday, November 19, 2011

Modern America

"...where at least I know I'm free..."
Today at Occupy Davis, a police officer approached a group of students sitting in a line peacefully on the ground, walked up and down the line and pepper-sprayed them directly in the face—as one would spray pesticide on weeds.

(pic via Atrios)

More here.

9 comments:

Privatize the Profits! Socialize the Costs! said...

Fire. Him. Now.

Privatize the Profits! Socialize the Costs! said...

Joshua Holland(of Alternet) ...the direct contact information for that thug cop is as follows:

Lt. John Pike.

530-752-3989

japikeiii@ucdavis.edu

Apparently the local paper out there (The Davis Enterprise) has already outed the cop. Sadly, I'd get a link to that but it appears we crashed their site.

Please be respectful in your condemnation of this act of brutality.

res ipsa loquitur said...

Do you see the way Lt. John Pike pirouettes with the canister of pepper spray held aloft before he sprays them? That is sadism.

Also, what the hell is with the UCA regent who whines that they had "credible intelligence that there would be vandalism and violence"? "Credible intelligence"? Does she think she's CIA? Or Army Intell?

I thought NYPD was the only militarized police force in the country. I was wrong. Jesus Christ Almighty.

pansypoo said...

i bet it is far worse in the hinterlands.

can't WE bring some pepper spray? tit for tat?

Montag said...

And we're now finding out that much of this police violence was coordinated through a private police group (PERF) with some of the most ham-fisted police chiefs in the country at its helm.

For more than twenty years, I've been tracking, off and on, police training that encourages cops to think of citizens as the enemy, just to see if that explains some of the changes in policing, and we're seeing that attitude in spades this week.

Michael said...

That is just wrong on every level!
No justification for it all, but watch Faux News try to spin it. It makes me sick to see this going on.
After watching the tea party try to pass itself off as a grassroots movement we finally get a real one and it's quickly assigned enemy status by the powers that be, that is called irony I believe. What a country...

AKjah said...

I hope officer Pike is in chains as we speak. If not why?

Grung_e_Gene said...

You say Freedom! I say OC!
Freedom! OC!
Freedom! OC!

You will learn after the ridiculous internal investigation that Pike and Katehi followed all policies extactly and thus they are innocent.

Now suck this Spray!

Raoul Paste said...

In Chicago this weekend, some protesters stopped traffic, and the local news reported that EVERYONE behaved well- the cops respectfully moved people, and the protesters were not nasty and violent.

That's doing it right.