Lt. John Pike, the UC Davis campus cop who became a figure of infamy after blasting peace UC Davis Occupy protesters with an industrial-sized canister of pepper spray, has departed university employment and left for parts unknown.
From Howard Blume of the Los Angeles Times:
The UC Davis police officer who pepper-sprayed students during a campus protest last fall no longer works for the university, the Sacramento Bee reported Tuesday.
The employment of Lt. John Pike, who was captured on cellphone video in the act of spraying peaceful demonstrators, “ended on July 31, 2012,” UC Davis spokesman Barry Shiller said.
Shiller would not comment on the circumstances of Pike’s departure, citing privacy restrictions governing the release of such information. Pike declined to comment to the newspaper, saying he wanted to consult an attorney before speaking. Pike had been on paid administrative leave.
His actions Nov. 18 sparked widespread outrage with the dissemination of a video showing him repeatedly spraying the chemical irritant into the faces of seated students. Pike and other campus police officers contended that the spray was the “most appropriate” tool on hand to deal with what they described as an unruly mob that encircled the officers and refused to disperse.
Lt. Pike servced as an exemplar of the University of California’s growing intolerance toward dissent, and inspired a considerable amount of ridicule.
Notably, his actions made him an iconic image, incorporated into at least two Tumblr websites. Some of our favorite images:
