Infamous UC Davis Pepper Spray Cop Given $38,000 in Worker's Comp for His 'Suffering'

It's more than his victims individually get

Video screen capture

Lt. John Pike, the infamous college cop who pepper-sprayed a bunch of college demonstrators right in the face, has been paid off for all his emotional suffering that resulted from people not being very happy about his policing tactics. From the San Francisco Chronicle:

A former UC Davis police officer whose pepper-spraying of protesters gained worldwide notice thanks to a viral video has been awarded more than $38,000 in workers' compensation from the university for suffering he experienced after the incident.

Former police Lt. John Pike, who gained a degree of infamy for his role in the incident, was awarded the settlement Oct. 16 by the state Division of Workers' Compensation Appeals Board. The claim "resolves all claims of psychiatric injury specific or due to continuous trauma from applicant's employment at UC Davis."

His police union claims he received more than 17,000 angry e-mails and 10,000 texts in response to the video of him spraying the protestors going world-wide. The Chronicle notes that the college settled with the protesters to the tune of $1 million split among them all, which means the protesters are getting less each for getting pepper sprayed by Pike than Pike is getting for spraying them.

(Hat tip to Americablog)

Comments

[Metazoan]

Oh, good, I was afraid I'd go to bed happy.

[Andrew S.]

Between this and the Austin cop story, it's a night to get angry on Reason.

[Metazoan]

Oh, I must have missed that. Cool, great... fuck fucking fuck...

[RannedPall]

This always cheers me up when I'm down, so I'll leave this here for you. Enjoy, and clean your face after!
http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=4AZtWGB1Khc

[RannedPall]

This always cheers me up when I'm down so I'll leave this for you. Enjoy, and clean your face after!
http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=4AZtWGB1Khc

[RannedPall]

This always cheers me up when I'm down so I'll leave this for you. Enjoy, and clean your face after!
http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=4AZtWGB1Khc

[RannedPall]

Third time's a charm I guess, fuckin squirrels.

[Metazoan]

hahahahahah it was worth it, thanks

[RannedPall]

A crazy cop with a pepper spray fetish bathes a bunch of statist occupy progs? I'm torn.

[Metazoan]

I understand where you're coming from, but I think having crazy opinions is nowhere near as bad as actually committing the act of aggression.

[Tman]

In context, I'm still torn.

[Killazontherun]

Not about him getting paid worker's comp though. Not torn about that at all.

[Tman]

No, definitely not. Just the incident itself.

Dude shoulda at least been made to pay for the pepper spray. HE WASTED LIKE TWO WHOLE BOTTLES!!!

[Killazontherun]

Lol! The clip I saw looked pretty damning, but there is the claim that the group was preventing people from their rightful concourse, not even letting them take a different route, that I didn't see, but if true, then that is a significant mitigating factor.

[The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc]

Agreed, they have a right to spout stupid slogans in a public place.

[RannedPall]

I hate them both, for different reasons, but I go to UCI, and seeing how fucking bored these uc cops get, I wouldn't be surprised if this dipshit cop really got off on this.

[playa manhattan]

Are you a friend of Serious Man?

[RannedPall]

As of now, I have no clue as to who Serious Man is, although I do recall a conversation with you on a previous article about how Serious Man goes to UCI. Maybe he's in class with me right now...

[playa manhattan]

And you guys posted at the exact same time. Suspicious...

[RannedPall]

Someone's an anonbot here then, and sometimes you just have to roll with the punches

[Metazoan]

What did you do with LardoSardo?!

[RannedPall]

He's been absorbed into the matrix, he rolled too much of that bean footage

[The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc]

Well I've recently graduated, so I'm not in Irvine at the moment.

But nice to see another liberty-loving Anteater. What year are you?

[RannedPall]

Junior, I actually registered for the UCI YAL chapter, but I have class on the days of their meetings, which sucks arse.

[playa manhattan]

God, I love Orange County. I was the only libertarian at Berkeley, to my knowledge.

[RannedPall]

The good ol orange curtain, although I'm an LA native. And that's a pity about Berkeley, but I'm not surprised one bit.

[playa manhattan]

So am I. My name should say it all.

[The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc]

Not necessarily. The Spanish illiterate could take 'playa manhattan' to mean you are a hip, womanizing man from New York City.

[playa manhattan]

That has, in fact, happened. With Paul., I believe.

[RannedPall]

I knew immediately your name was a Spanish translation of manhattan beach, probably because I love taco trucks. But I refuse to believe there isn't any better nightlife in MB other than that shithole sharkeez

[playa manhattan]

Shellback. Q.E.D.

[RannedPall]

Now the hard part is convincing my friends to try those places out and stop frequenting those douchelord bars in hermosa like American junkie, sharkeez, boogaloos (actually got shutdown), etc

[playa manhattan]

Shellback is a shorts and flip flops kind of place with cheap beer and hot chicks. It never gets old.

After college, I used to live in Hermosa within walking distance of the pier. It got old really quickly.

[RannedPall]

Cheap, good beer is all I need, and preferably no tank tops if it's below 70

[Suellington]

There were two of us if you were there in the early 2000's.

[playa manhattan]

That I was.

[The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc]

That's a pity. I was an officer last year and it's a great organization with some cool guys and gals. We try to do a few events per quarter, plus they table frequently on Ring Road so if you can find the time you can join them for that.

[playa manhattan]

YAL UCI: Now with 75% more Korean BBQ!

[The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc]

Most of our after-meeting social events consisted of going to the campus pub or the In N Out across the street.

[RannedPall]

THERE'S A CAMPUS PUB??!? WITH BOOZE?!? Oh the joys of being a commuter

[The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc]

Oh a communter, the biggest reason why our school has such a tepid campus culture and recruiting is so damn hard.

And yes, the Anthill Pub next to the Student Center and foodcourts have beer. Good beer too, I might add.

[RannedPall]

Sounds about right, I waste no time getting to my car after class but am really getting the feeling that I should explore this school for the obvious hidden gems (BEER) inside, wonder why Irvine is such a commuter school though, probably because all the Asians already live in Irvine.

[The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc]

It's a beautiful campus, but there really isn't much to do. Most people just drive to Newport or Costa Mesa to have fun at the bars.

And UCI is the safety school of choice for a lot of Orange County denizens, including myself. I wanted UCLA but didn't get in.

[RannedPall]

Yeah, my gf lives in Tustin so I know what you mean by large swaths of the OC where there exists nothing fun to do

[Lord Peter Wimsey]

The cop is a dick but I remember this story. The progtards were actually blocking people from leaving their circle of protest. There is no such thing as progtards just showing up to mouth slogans. Coercian is always involved.

Fuck 'em. I hope it still burns.

[John C. Randolph]

The progtards were actually blocking people from leaving their circle of protest.

No, that was just a lie the pigs told to try to justify their attack.

-jcr

[adad]

There's video of the entire incident on Youtube. The protesters were way out of line.

[Marty G]

Actually, there is a video record of the entire event. They blocked the cops and told them they couldn't leave. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hhPdH3wE0_Y

[Rufus J. Firefly]

I've seen progs in action on campus during my days at school. Honestly, their behavior did deserve a sound beating. It's one thing to protest and quite another to get in my face or try and block me. They do try and coerce you into their sphere.

[GamerFromJump]

Indeed. I won't relinquish a single one of my store of f*cks for Prognazi Occutards, but I'm not a fan of the aggressiveness of gargantugov's action arm either.

[adad]

Have you watched the video of the events leading up to the picture? Totally changed my perspective of the incident. The cops there should have been given medals for restraint.

[Fist of Etiquette]

It looks like some of the chemical irritant might have wafted back into the lieutenant's face. Even a fine physical specimen of law enforcement prowess like that man would certainly feel some negative effects. Give him another $10,000 for that.

[mr lizard]

I'm happy that he got inundated with nasty emails. Every statist prick that slips his leash should at least suffer that.

[Metazoan]

The texts are even more annoying. That did give me a bit of pleasure.

[Episiarch]

Behold the wonders of police unions.

[Swiss Servator, O Luzern!]

And the CA Worker's Comp system...the tales I could tell, were I able.

[playa manhattan]

"He left the campus police force in July 2012."

This statement fails to satisfy my curiosity.

[Irish]

I'm still pissed that this guy made me side with Occupy Wall Street.

[The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc]

Well look at it this way: we're morally superior to them because we defend their rights even though they'd just as soon sell ours down the river.

[The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc]

Our favorite Reason unperson engages Tom Watson on Twitter

[Killazontherun]

John Francis Kelly ?@jfkisgr8 7m

@LucyStag, so let me ask you this- as a libertarian, how do you avoid benefiting from things built before you were born? @yashalevine
Expand
Lucy Steigerwald ?@LucyStag 6m

@jfkisgr8 @yashalevine I'm not actually obligated to be a martyr and live in the woods, particularly while I am being taxed.

Greensleeves and Scarborough Fair were songs written centuries before anyone currently living. I suppose we should stop playing them and enjoying them as they do not belong to us.

[Killazontherun]

Tom Watson ?@tomwatson 1h

@LucyStag How can you be against social safety net? Are you *that* pro-capitalism and laissez-faire corporate control?

Because I see the fruits of the Great Society every day I am downtown. It destroys initiative and drive and turns those who were merely poor into something that is impoverished, loathsome, almost inhuman and can barely speak the English language. That was not common among the poor a few generations ago, but it is becoming the norm.

[Killazontherun]

Julien Devereux ?@jndevereux 20m

@yashalevine @LucyStag Not fair! Some Libertarians have a pure passion for toadying to power and defending everything rich people do.

How can someone have such a burning hatred of wealthy individuals and not realize their expression of this emotion makes them sound like they have the mentality of an eight year old?

[Metazoan]

Not fair! Some Libertarians have a pure passion for toadying to power and defending everything rich people do.

Projection much?

[Killazontherun]

Their heroes earned power and wealth the old fashion way, theft.

[Irish]

Dude, Yasha Levine is in that conversation. Of course it's retarded.

I challenge you to read anything Yasha Levine or his psychopathic fellow traveler, Mark Ames, have ever written without laughing hysterically or crying at the state of humanity.

Mark Ames is especially horrible.

And Ames's treatment of Russian teenage girls is documented with frightening glee. In the book he recounts one evening with an expat investment banker pal and what he thought were three 16-year-old girls:

"When I went back into the TV room, Andy pulled me aside with a worried grin on his face. 'Dude do you realize...do you know how old that Natasha is?' he said.

"'Sixteen?'

"'No! No, she's fif-teen. Fif-teen.' Right then my pervometer needle hit the red. I had to have her, even if she was homely."

After they do it, she tells him she has a three-month-old baby.

"It was hard to imagine that Natasha had squatted out a baby," Ames writes. "Her cunt was as tight as a cat's ass....I'd slept with mothers before--they're a lot wider. Sex with them is like probing a straw in a mildew-lined German beer mug."

When these are the sort of people you're arguing with, you're probably on the right side of the issue.

[Killazontherun]

I'm not familiar with Ames but my heal would like to get to know his throat.

[Irish]

There actually is a funny Reason connection with Mark Ames. I forget who it was, but a writer for reason was on HuffPo Live with someone who used to write for Mark Ames' Russian magazine, The Exile. The Reason writer mentioned that the teacher's union in California had allegedly threatened to have Mexican parents deported if they voted against union interests. This is hardly a conspiracy theory. Even the New York Times reported that parents in that district had claimed that this happened.

Anyway, Ames, Levine and some other shitheels that they know lost their minds on twitter talking about how evil libertarians are for saying mean things about the Grand and Glorious People's Teacher's Union.

I bring this up because I think it's hilarious that someone could have such a skewed sense of morality that they could write the above excerpt but somehow think that saying something negative about the teacher's union is beyond the pale.

[The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc]

Someone called her a "fatcat cartoon".

[DK]

Yeah, it was the guy whose avatar is a cartoon cat.

[Archduke von Pantsfan]

Lucy Steigerwald
?@LucyStag
Aaauaaaaagh. RT @phoneyman @LucyStag a prog friend at work told me prison was libertarian because might makes right.

[Hugh Akston]

Mr. Pike, let's be real about something. Great as all that money is, we both know that it will do nothing to quiet your tormented soul. How can a mere $38 large erase the torment of a full inbox, and the dreaded ping of all that texting, texting, TEXTING! You'll have to carry the burden of people calling you a pig, a fascist, and any number of other derogatory names for the rest of your life.

We both know where this is going. There's only one real escape from the tortures those writhing, screaming kids and their unamerican defenders inflict upon you. Only one way for you to find peace.

Don't forget to put up a tarp first. No need to leave a mess, after all.

[Pathogen]

I recommend... clean, efficient, Anti-freeze.. The one sane choice in an insane world.

[Pathogen]

I suppose these deputies will retire with full benefits as well. Shooting dogs must have gotten boring...

[Ken Shultz]

Has the whole world lost its mind?

[Pathogen]

If Pike doesn't go home and slam a gallon of anti-freeze, then I would say... yes.

[Archduke von Pantsfan]

THE WORLD HAS INDED LOST ITS MIND

Five Winnipeg grocery stores will soon be up for sale, thanks to a Competition Bureau ruling that ordered Sobeys to sell the spots before it takes over Safeway.

But officials with the Consumers' Association of Canada say Winnipeggers should still be concerned.

If the locations are sold to grocers that already exist in the area, it will mean fewer options for shoppers and could lead to higher prices.

"We might lose some choice of products. We might see higher prices. We might see less stores, particularly in neighbourhoods where it's important to have stores ? maybe not right now but over time," said Gloria Desorcy of the Consumers' Association of Canada.

[Killazontherun]

You Canadians have a strong constitution. You can handle communism. A whiff of it hear, I feel like I'm fucked.

[Killazontherun]

A whiff of it hear Synesthesia is not always the sweet essence of being you read about in druggie books. Sometimes its just the basis of a pathetic homophone.

[Archduke von Pantsfan]

ugh.
seen on the facebook:

Large corporations merging or buying out others to become larger is almost always bad for consumers in the long run. Just look at Bell or Rogers.

[Tman]

Was that from the "I Don't Understand Economics" page?

[The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc]

Well he/she invoked Bell, so probably the "I Don't Know Shit About History" page.

[Archduke von Pantsfan]

He is a frequent lefty commenter on the community page. Bell here refers to Bell Canada.

[Ted S.]

And yet these are the people who want the CBC to have a more prominent role in the media landsacpe.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

What a fucking idiot that person is. Bell and Rogers operate in a monopolized system protected by government.

[Sevo]

"If the locations are sold to grocers that already exist in the area, it will mean fewer options for shoppers and could lead to higher prices."

Well, yes, along with terminal stupidity.

[Ted S.]

Every time you see somebody called a consumer advocate, think "government advocate" instead.

[Archduke von Pantsfan]

More insanity

Inmates in several federal prisons across Canada are on strike after the government began deducting their pay as part of a move to recover costs under its Deficit Reduction Action Plan.

[The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc]

Are the Boston Red Sox fielding a team of Civil War re-enactors?

[Pathogen]

It's because of... Shutdown?

[Archduke von Pantsfan]

At least their beards are making hipsters shave

[Tman]

Sometimes you have confused, sometimes you have delusional, sometimes you have in denial, sometimes you have unconsciousness, and then you reach this level.

Pelosi: We Didn't Lose in 2010 Because Of Obamacare

[Ken Shultz]

Remember that video of UC Davis Chancellor Katehi walking to her car past the protestors after they'd been abused?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8775ZmNGFY8

That video is better than any perp walk I've ever seen. All the students just sitting there in silence just staring at her--students who just as easily could have been the ones that were...

Pike's gone from UC Davis, but she's still the chancellor.

[Warrren]

So since this seems to be the overnight thread and I want to ask this before the booze makes me forget...

For you programer types and those that have overseen projects of the coding sort....

The ACA site cost 645 million and took two years.....

That's six.two mil a week......

And it's rumored to have 500 lines of code.......

Which is 1.3 mil a line........

I mean, is that even possible........?

[Ken Shultz]

Where did you hear it only has 500 lines of code? Do you have a link for that?

[Snark Plissken]

I seriously doubt the 500 lines of code thing. The bootstrap stylesheet alone for a default Joomla template has like 5000.

[Snark Plissken]

Happen to have it open, right now, bootstrap.css 6207 lines. Although I'm pretty far from an actual programmer type.

[Warrren]

Sorry I'm drunk. 500 mil lines of code

or $1.3 per line. Okay that seems okay but the 6.2 mil a week seems excessive.

[Snark Plissken]

Yeah, I think there's a programmer adage about that. That's why a few really good programmers can often make something so much better than an army of mediocre ones.

[John C. Randolph]

Thug attacks people with a chemical weapon, and HE gets paid because he got a bunch of e-mails?

WHAT THE FUCK? Why isn't he in JAIL?

-jcr

[Swiss Servator, O Luzern!]

Forget it, jcr, its Californiatown.

[Ken Shultz]

UC Davis is just outside of Sacramento.

The cop's a government employee.

Somebody has to pay.

...and obviously it can't be the government employee.

[adad]

When I saw that image I experienced the same outrage that petty much everyone else did. It was about a week later I saw the video of the events leading up to it. Now, I think the cop as well as the other cops present, should be given a medal for the restraint they showed. I would have been crushing skulls way earlier.

[JSebastian]

I stand by what I said all along that the victims need to extract some personal consequences from their tormentor. Perhaps that consequence should be financial, perhaps it should be simple revenge. They could all individually go find Lt Pike and pepper spray him. Or whatever punishment they deem appropriate...really.

[JSebastian]

And now that the settlement is final, I think that this community should locate Mr Pike and send him as many emails and texts advising him of his status as a horrible person and demanding that he make payments asap to return both the $1M and the $38K to the taxpayers of California. Justice will not have been served until he personally has defrayed the cost of his own actions.

[JoeyJMiller]

They surrounded the cops and said if their fellow protester was released form arrest they would "let" the cops go. They were also warned before the spray was used. This cop got punished because the picture upsets hippies, in reality it was a justified use of force and those students who were sprayed should have served jail time for threatening the police.

[Marty G]

Two sides to every story:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hhPdH3wE0_Y

That said, getting $38k for a couple of hours of doing his freaking job is ridiculous. Clearly he had union representation on this one.

[Response]

This is called a win-win situation for both the police officer and the protestors.