UC Davis Police Officer Lt. John Pike pepper sprays peaceful protesting students at close range. Call him!

In case you haven't heard UC Davis Police Officer Lt. John Pike pepper sprayed students participating in in a non-violent Occupy protest at the UC Davis campus. The Friday incident occurred as students sat silently in a row on the ground. The students were sprayed at close range and one was taken to the hospital as they suffered severe chemical burns.
 

And whadday know! The lieutenant has contact information. Make his day and give him a call or send him an email.

UC Davis Chancellor Linda Katehi announced a taskforce to investigate the incident:

The use of pepper spray as shown on the video is chilling to us all and raises many questions about how best to handle situations like this.
To this effect, I am forming a task force made of faculty, students and staff to review the events and provide to me a thorough report within 90 days. As part of this, a process will be designed that allows members of the community to express their views on this matter. This report will help inform our policies and processes within the university administration and the Police Department to help us avoid similar outcomes in the future. While the university is trying to ensure the safety and health of all members of our community, we must ensure our strategies to gain compliance are fair and reasonable and do not lead to mistreatment.
[...]
Through this letter, I express my sadness for the events of past Friday and my commitment to redouble our efforts to improve our campus and the environment for our students.

After the students were sprayed the surrounding protested chanted "Shame on you!". The chants were interspersed with other exclamations such as, "You're supposed to protect us!" and "Our University!"

Watch the events unfold below.



Sickening to see isn't it? I think police men (and I haven't seen any footage of women police officers at these protests) at the protests are immediately looked at as the enemy. I understand why police officers are there. They are indeed needed. If for some reason or another protestors were to become violent against others or if the protestors were to be inflicted with violence from others, policemen and women can be useful.

Unfortunately, the officers who are supposed to serve and protect have been doing a lot more harm than good. In the end the police officers backed down. They were surrounded by students but maintained their straight faces. Students repeatedly chanted "You can go!" Eventually the officers did and it was a beautiful sight. It almost brought tears to my eyes. Direct action!