Pepper Spray Cop Rewarded $38,000 In Compensation For Emotional Suffering

Police State USA
Oct. 24, 2013

DAVIS, CA — The cop who mercilessly doused peaceful, seated protesters with pepper spray recently claimed he has psychological injuries from the incident and demanded workman’s compensation. And California is granting it to him. The University of California, Davis — a tax funded college — will pay the fired assailant $38,056 to ease his emotional suffering.

The original incident was a memorable one; an iconic image police abuse. Back on November 18th, 2011, student protesters gathered in a protest against corporatism and state violence. A group of them sat huddled in a line on a public sidewalk. Surrounded by cops wearing riot masks and threatening violence, they were attacked — in ironic fashion — with chemical weapons without provocation during their protest.

Lt. John Pike, as well as another officer, used pepper spray canisters the size of fire-extinguishers to drench the peaceful protesters in OC pepper spray. The incident was captured on video (shown below). The police actions drew worldwide outrage and inspired hundreds of internet memes.

“Our line that they pepper-sprayed was … one-person-deep. One of the officers began to remove us physically without the use of weapons. And Lieutenant John Pike ordered them to stop, raising his pepper can and saying … ‘Leave them. I want to spray these kids,’” said an eyewitness named William, according to Davis Wiki.

“I hope I'm not the scapegoat for this one,” Pike was quoted as saying.

Pike ceased to be a UCD employee in July 2012. Pike, whose annual salary was $121,680, collected full pay during the painfully dragged-out 8-month investigation, while he remained on leave. He was effectively given a paid vacation after an unprovoked attack on students. And somehow it took 8 months to determine what was obvious to most people within seconds of watching the video. This is ridiculous.

He remains entitled to retirement credit for his years of service, a UCD spokesperson said at the time, according to the Davis Enterprise.

On October 16th, 2013, Administrative Law Judge Joel Harter ordered the University of California Regents to pay Pike $264.50 per week to reach the total payout, minus $5,700 in legal fees for Pike’s Sacramento attorney.

“This settlement resolves all claims of psychiatric injury,” the stipulation reads.

His actions cost the university $1 million in settlements split between the 21 victims of the attack. And now the attacker will get another reward for his efforts.

Here is raw video of the original incident from 2011.

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Police State USA is a volunteer, grassroots alternative media outlet dedicated to exposing the systemic formation of an American police state.