oh internet

This is why we can't have nice things

Summary

On Friday, November 18, 2011, students at University of California at Davis were protesting tuition increases on the campus quad. When ordered to disperse, some students linked arms, and sat down. This is universally seen as a sign of non-violence. Lieutenant John Pike, of the UC Davis police department, waved away his cop buddies so that they would not be injured, and callously pepper-sprayed the sitting students. There were many cameras at the protest, and this act was photographed and videotaped. Soon, the the video went viral, and photographs of the incident were Photoshopped and captioned in humorous or political ways, including depictions of Officer Pike pepper spraying such things as The Constitution, kittens, and so on.

Origins

Occupy UC Davis is aligned with the Occupy Wall Street movement, even though their goals are different. Occupy UCD is a protest against tuition hikes, where OWS is a protest against the amnesty afforded the CEOs of major companies responsible for the economic downturn.

The incident echoes an OWS incident where Officer Tony Bologna pepper sprayed protesters who had been corralled with orange netting, and an incident at Occupy Seattle where an 84 year old woman was pepper sprayed.

The incident came shortly after another video of questionable police tactics at UC Berkeley came to light, where non violent protesters were viciously beaten with billy clubs. UC Davis Chancellor Linda Katehi instructed the officers charged with the dispersion of the crowd at Occupy UC Davis to avoid use of violence, because "we [...] do not want to have another Berkeley."^[1]

Rise to fame

The cruelty of this act against nonviolent students was not lost on old media, or on the millions of people who viewed the incident on YouTube, and, like other incidents, the Internet at large decided to apply humor to the situation, with excellent results. Officer Pike, whether he likes it or not, is now a meme.

Current status

As of November 2011, several specialty Tumblrs are still adding shoops and image macros daily, and the video of the incident is still gaining views.

Lt. Pike is currently on paid administrative leave, along with a fellow officer, and UCD police chief Annette Spicuzza. An Internet petition is being circulated calling for the resignation of UCD Chancellor Linda Katehi, who claims that she ordered the police to refrain from use of force.

Famous Quote

See? I told you.

Images

Yup.	This is the fat face of justice

Videos

Related Pages

Hipster Cop

Occupy Wall Street

United States

External Links

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This article is part of a series on memes.
You can find additional memes here.
Explore our other categories for information on different subjects!