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You are here: Home / Organizing & Resistance / #OWS / Fox News and Casually Pepper Spray Everything (Especially Liberals)

Fox News and Casually Pepper Spray Everything (Especially Liberals)

by Imani Gandy (ABL)|  November 22, 201112:19 am| 92 Comments

This post is in: #OWS

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Sheer dumbassery.

Of course Fox News stands with Officer Pepper Spray.

From Gawker:

“I don’t think we have the right to Monday-morning quarterback the police,” Bill O’Reilly said tonight, discussing the appalling use of pepper spray by UC Davis police on Friday. No, God forbid we Monday-morning quarterback the police, especially, as O’Reilly continued, “at a place like UC Davis, which is a fairly liberal campus.”

Indeed: what right do we have to think that Lt. John Pike should probably not have indifferently dusted peacefully sitting protesters with pepper spray from only a few feet away? And, gosh, even if we were going to Monday-morning quarterback the police, shouldn’t we remember, as Megyn Kelly tells O’Reilly, that pepper spray is “a food product, essentially”?

What’s the big deal? It’s just food. And besides, when it comes to policing librulz, anything goes!

Fox News is a parody of Fox News.

By the way? Casually Pepper Spray Everything is a meme now, because of course it is.


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Reader Interactions

92Comments

  1. 1.

    gnomedad

    November 22, 2011 at 12:21 am

    Megyn Kelly tells O’Reilly, that pepper spray is “a food product, essentially”

    It’s a vegetable! Like pizza!

  2. 2.

    TooManyJens

    November 22, 2011 at 12:26 am

    Megyn Kelly tells O’Reilly, that pepper spray is “a food product, essentially”

    In that case, I’m sure she wouldn’t mind eating some carelessly prepared fugu. Food can’t be harmful, right? Maybe some cyanide — that comes from apple seeds and almonds!

    Do they really believe the shit they spew on Fox? Would it be better or worse if they did?

  3. 3.

    BGinCHI

    November 22, 2011 at 12:26 am

    Shorter Fox: fuck yeah cops! Except for salary and benefits.

    Fox Economics: Cops, your benefits and salary will be reduced, but you will be compensated by being encouraged to brutalize the population who make less than 500K per year.

  4. 4.

    AA+ Bonds

    November 22, 2011 at 12:27 am

    O’Reilly knows his audience. Violence is necessary – after all, they’re liberals.

    The average O’Reilly viewer drifts to sleep at night dreaming of bashing some poor kid’s mouth in with a truncheon.

  5. 5.

    AA+ Bonds

    November 22, 2011 at 12:29 am

    @BGinCHI:

    Note his quick train of thought: cops are going to have to use violence on campus because these kids are liberals and, inevitably, the state must hurt and kill liberals

  6. 6.

    piratedan

    November 22, 2011 at 12:30 am

    well no REAL people were affected, just a bunch of know nothing hippie students, so what’s the fuss about? Geez you’d think that they had just been waterboarded or something.

  7. 7.

    The Dangerman

    November 22, 2011 at 12:31 am

    …a food product, essentially…

    Saw it live; after collecting my jaw from the floor, all I could picture was an old SNL sketch about the non-dairy floor wax.

  8. 8.

    BGinCHI

    November 22, 2011 at 12:33 am

    @AA+ Bonds: When you’ve conformed your whole life and whored it out for the man, you are not going to put up with any uppity shit from students or dark people who drive their own cars and know how to peel a carrot.

    Genocides are built one O’Reilly/Limbaugh unit at a time.

  9. 9.

    John Weiss

    November 22, 2011 at 12:33 am

    Don’t the bulls realizing that they’re pepper spraying children? They could be theirs or ours. This sucks. Come pepper spray me but not my kids!

  10. 10.

    BGinCHI

    November 22, 2011 at 12:35 am

    @piratedan: Next on Fox: Liberals afraid of water and pepper! What’s next, capers??!! Rolling wheels of brie??

    I’d really hate for some random person to pepper spray Fox personalities in their everyday lives.

    Just tragic.

  11. 11.

    Dustin

    November 22, 2011 at 12:37 am

    @BGinCHI: Yes… tragic.

  12. 12.

    gnomedad

    November 22, 2011 at 12:38 am

    So when are they going to start talking about this guy as vice-presidential material?

  13. 13.

    piratedan

    November 22, 2011 at 12:38 am

    @BGinCHI: if only those kids knew true suffering, like living under the Clinton Presidency…..

  14. 14.

    AnotherBruce

    November 22, 2011 at 12:38 am

    Off topic, but I just watched a Wolf Blitzer interview with Bernie Sanders (Via Hulaballoo). It got me wondering how much of a moron one would have to make oneself into to be Wolf Blitzer. I wonder how many smart people CNN interviewed before they said: “Here is the simpleton we are looking for.”

  15. 15.

    Mike in NC

    November 22, 2011 at 12:38 am

    Every Sunday the local rag runs an O’Reilly article that makes me want to puke. What a maggot.

  16. 16.

    The Dangerman

    November 22, 2011 at 12:40 am

    Also (didn’t watch clip; again, saw live), Ms. Kelly said the color of the spray indicated it was diluted, so not all that bad.

    Given some of the students ended up in the Hospital, sure glad it wasn’t full strength.

  17. 17.

    BGinCHI

    November 22, 2011 at 12:42 am

    @AnotherBruce: Even Buffalo people hate him, and they never eat their own. Except for Jim Kelly, who was a complete and total douchebag. Hey Jim, when did you stop beating your wife? Oh yeah, never.

  18. 18.

    Redshift

    November 22, 2011 at 12:43 am

    as Megyn Kelly tells O’Reilly, that pepper spray is “a food product, essentially”?

    Then I’m sure she wouldn’t mind if someone arranged for it to be “served” in the Fox cafeteria, right?

  19. 19.

    TooManyJens

    November 22, 2011 at 12:44 am

    @The Dangerman:

    Ms. Kelly said the color of the spray indicated it was diluted

    But what are its countertops made of?

  20. 20.

    Baron Jrod of Keeblershire

    November 22, 2011 at 12:47 am

    @The Dangerman: When that kid started coughing up blood after having pepper spray shot directly down his throat, it was just because he was a pussy who can’t handle his spicy foods.

    Goddam these people are miserable.

    These are, of course, the same assholes who can’t imagine a worse torture than a top marginal rate of 39%, but getting blasted in the face multiple times with torture spray ain’t no thang. Sociopaths one and all.

  21. 21.

    Ed in NJ

    November 22, 2011 at 12:50 am

    I’m not a Kelly fan, but in this clip I think she defended the students rights to protest, and only mentioned the pepper spray as a food product when assessing the legality of using it against protesters.

  22. 22.

    Baron Jrod of Keeblershire

    November 22, 2011 at 12:51 am

    Let’s try that again…

    @The Dangerman: When that kid started coughing up blood after having pepper spray shot directly down his throat, it was just because he was a wuss who can’t handle his spicy foods.

    Goddam these people are miserable.

    These are, of course, the same assholes who can’t imagine a worse torture than a top marginal rate of 39%, but getting blasted in the face multiple times with torture spray ain’t no thang. Sociopaths one and all.

  23. 23.

    Baron Jrod of Keeblershire

    November 22, 2011 at 12:54 am

    @Ed in NJ: Corn is also a food product, but that doesn’t make it legal to cram a cob down someone’s throat.

    Unless it’s a cop doing it to a hippie or a black person, naturally.

  24. 24.

    JWL

    November 22, 2011 at 12:58 am

    Here’s the deal: Corporate statists deem everyone not on board with their agenda as domestic enemies. In turn, I unhesitatingly, reflexively, reciprocate their hatred a hundredfold. They are my enemies. The notion that we are all simply patriotic Americans, whatever our political leanings, is worse than hogwash. It’s a bromide for the simple minded. By my lights, the GOP is simply the American fascist party. I will never turn a blind eye, or my back, upon its criminal assaults on my liberty. In that sense, it is my mortal enemy.

  25. 25.

    Spaghetti Lee

    November 22, 2011 at 1:00 am

    I guess the meme thing is an overall plus, keep it visible and all, but can’t anything create genuine emotion and action without being manhandled, picked apart, and pinned to a corkboard by the internet’s meta-bullshit machine?

    Or maybe that is how people express genuine outrage these days (I’m often behind the times when it comes to stuff like that) but to me it’s coming off as “Oh right, the pepper spray thing, let’s photoshop it onto some album covers and famous photographs, oh, how witty.”

    Billo, Kelly, and the rest are of course mendacious shitheads. That goes without saying.

  26. 26.

    Cluttered Mind

    November 22, 2011 at 1:03 am

    I wonder if the bitch thinks mustard gas is a “food product” too.

  27. 27.

    BGinCHI

    November 22, 2011 at 1:05 am

    @Cluttered Mind: Um, it’s a condiment gas, genius. It only hurts you on the side.

  28. 28.

    Redshift

    November 22, 2011 at 1:07 am

    @Ed in NJ:

    I’m not a Kelly fan, but in this clip I think she defended the students rights to protest, and only mentioned the pepper spray as a food product when assessing the legality of using it against protesters.

    How does that make it any less of a lie? Is there any police department in the country that doesn’t consider it a nonlethal weapon, and (at least theoretically) train their personnel accordingly?

  29. 29.

    gocart mozart

    November 22, 2011 at 1:07 am

    @gnomedad:
    They still use it on Godfather’s Pizza. This is why it still tastes like shit.

  30. 30.

    gocart mozart

    November 22, 2011 at 1:11 am

    @BGinCHI: I’m stealing your line. hope you don’t mind.

  31. 31.

    trollhattan

    November 22, 2011 at 1:11 am

    @Cluttered Mind:

    The idea of French mustard gas as a librul condiment has possibilities. Davis officer Pepper’s gigantic tank ‘o spray seemed odd to me, but not if he was threatened by grizzly bears.

    http://counterassault.com/catalog/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=1&products_id=11

    Just gets better and better.

  32. 32.

    BGinCHI

    November 22, 2011 at 1:13 am

    @gocart mozart: Put a quarter in the jar. Someday we hope to own a one bedroom on our two professors’ salaries.

  33. 33.

    celticdragonchick

    November 22, 2011 at 1:17 am

    Actually, Conor Friedersdorf at The Atlantic has writtern one of the best pieces on pepper spray cop I have read yet.

  34. 34.

    Joseph Nobles

    November 22, 2011 at 1:18 am

    Pardon me, but do you have any Grey Poupon mustard gas?

  35. 35.

    MacKenna

    November 22, 2011 at 1:19 am

    Officer Pepper Spray Pike has a blog and a meme.

    Enjoy.

  36. 36.

    John T

    November 22, 2011 at 1:19 am

    If the protests take a turn for the violent, I mean if the protesters start fighting back against the violent cops with violence, they can use the excuse that their molotov cocktails were filled with grain alcohol everclear, which is just a food product, essentially.

  37. 37.

    sharl

    November 22, 2011 at 1:20 am

    Pepper Spraying Cop gets the Tumblr treatment.

    (Via long-time itinerant intertubes commenter pseudonymousinnc over in TBogg’s comments.)

  38. 38.

    Odie Hugh Manatee

    November 22, 2011 at 1:21 am

    If pepper spray is a food product I can’t wait until Republicans pass a bill that approves it as a food for school lunches.

    I’m sure that parents across the nation will make sure that their kids get their daily serving.

  39. 39.

    celticdragonchick

    November 22, 2011 at 1:21 am

    @AA+ Bonds:

    The average O’Reilly viewer drifts to sleep at night dreaming of bashing some poor kid’s mouth in with a truncheon.

    The folks at Fox Nation and RedState have been fapping over the possibility of Kent State meets My Lai for weeks now. They don’t want billy clubs…they want 150 grain .30 cal FMJ rounds at 750 rpm cyclic into a crowd of protestors.

  40. 40.

    Speedy

    November 22, 2011 at 1:23 am

    @gocart mozart:
    Are you sure they don’t use actual shit on a Godfather’s Pizza?

  41. 41.

    BGinCHI

    November 22, 2011 at 1:24 am

    @celticdragonchick: They are truly the Foghorn Leghorn to the chickenhawks who spray and beat defenseless protesters.

    What would the Founders do?

  42. 42.

    Joseph Nobles

    November 22, 2011 at 1:25 am

    @celticdragonchick: Yes, he’s right on. “Shooting an Elephant” is a rather apt piece to read right about now.

  43. 43.

    celticdragonchick

    November 22, 2011 at 1:27 am

    @Joseph Nobles:

    Grey Poupon mustard gas?

    This last Veterans Day at Guilford Courthouse Battlefield I was doing volunteer work as a Rev War militia soldier, and there were re-enactors from all across American hisotry with weapon and clothing displays for the public. A retired Army major was in full WW I doughboy regalia and had a bunch of WW I artifacts, including gas masks. Somebody had tried one of the masks on (he showed me which one) and the mustard gas residue reacted with his sweat and burned the shit out of his neck…

    I can’t imagine trying to explain that one at the Cone Hospital ER.

    “I got mustard gas chemical burns from a 90 year old mask that was used in WW I….”

  44. 44.

    celticdragonchick

    November 22, 2011 at 1:29 am

    @Joseph Nobles:

    Yes, he’s right on. “Shooting an Elephant” is a rather apt piece to read right about now.

    Yeah. I thought it was the most interesting bit I have read yet about the matter.

  45. 45.

    Bethanyanne

    November 22, 2011 at 1:29 am

    Thinking about the meme… I may have to fire up Photoshop tomorrow to make a pic of Pike spraying Boehner in the orange face, making him cry.

  46. 46.

    Cris (without an H)

    November 22, 2011 at 1:34 am

    lol@ “Sgt. Pepperspray”

  47. 47.

    gocart mozart

    November 22, 2011 at 1:44 am

    @sharl:
    I like the Where is Waldo Being Pepper Srayed.
    http://s3.amazonaws.com/data.tumblr.com/tumblr_lv1gf21YZO1r6m1z5o1_1280.jpg?AWSAccessKeyId=AKIAJ6IHWSU3BX3X7X3Q&Expires=1322030473&Signature=%2FVOd1WucODgMPGFbyg3KT97Bmng%3D

  48. 48.

    Jenny

    November 22, 2011 at 1:48 am

    I drink Dr. Pepperspray and I’m proud.

    I’m part of an original crowd.

    I’m a pepper, you’re a pepper, wouldn’t you like to be peppersprayed, too.

  49. 49.

    Comrade Luke

    November 22, 2011 at 1:53 am

    Pregnant Woman Blasted with Pepper Spray by SPD Says She Miscarried.

    It’s a food product.

  50. 50.

    Martin

    November 22, 2011 at 2:01 am

    @Redshift:

    How does that make it any less of a lie? Is there any police department in the country that doesn’t consider it a nonlethal weapon, and (at least theoretically) train their personnel accordingly?

    Maddow had a really nice segment on that, arguing that had it not existed, the police wouldn’t have shot the protestors, so the nonlethality of pepper spray didn’t introduce a safer element, but a more dangerous one – and in most use cases, that’s generally true.

    But I’m reasonably certain that UC will ban the use of pepper spray and other nonlethal options for the purpose of crowd control due to this. I suspect they’ll only be usable when a demonstrated physical threat is presented either to the officer or another individual (I think this might be policy on some campuses due to how the campus police often serve as a substation of the city police). The student at UCLA being tazered 2 years ago isn’t exactly forgotten (plus it cost the university a quarter million dollars to settle).

  51. 51.

    Martin

    November 22, 2011 at 2:02 am

    @Comrade Luke: So, if that Mississippi law had passed, who would have been charged with murder in this case?

  52. 52.

    Martin

    November 22, 2011 at 2:13 am

    @Bethanyanne: You need to adjust the color in Boehners face, making him look less tan. The pepper spray is roughly Boehners color now, so that Pike is painting him orange.

  53. 53.

    willard

    November 22, 2011 at 2:17 am

    Ricin is made from the castor bean and therefore practically a food product. Maybe the police should switch to spraying that? /snark

  54. 54.

    Triassic Sands

    November 22, 2011 at 2:21 am

    A common phenomenon for long-running television programs is self-parody. Typical prime time dramas may begin with reasonably plausible plots and characters, but after a few years these programs seem to double back on themselves, straining plausibility to the breaking point.

    Fox (more of a sit-com than drama, I suppose) seems to be following the same pattern. The disappearance of Glenn Beck from Fox may have been a major setback, as his show was probably the most ridiculous of all, but Roger Ailes seems more than able to keep escalating the absurdity, apparently in an effort to satisfy the widely held belief among TV executives that long-running shows need to enter the world of pure fantasy to remain interesting. Reminding Ailes that Fox News is supposed to be “news” would obviously be pointless, since reporting real news in a “fair and balanced” way has never been a goal of Fox.

    I am pleased to say that I have never watched even a single Fox News program in its entirety. My exposure to their poisonous product has been limited to video clips provided by political blogs on-line. That has been more than adequate, thank you.

  55. 55.

    Ruckus

    November 22, 2011 at 2:25 am

    @Baron Jrod of Keeblershire:
    That’s Fucking Asshole Sociopaths

    GOP=FAS

  56. 56.

    Comrade Luke

    November 22, 2011 at 2:32 am

    @Martin: Nah, I’m sure the cops felt they were in danger.

  57. 57.

    MikeJ

    November 22, 2011 at 2:34 am

    @Martin:

    So, if that Mississippi law had passed, who would have been charged with murder in this case?

    The “mother” for endangering the “life” of her fetus.

  58. 58.

    Yutsano

    November 22, 2011 at 2:39 am

    OT: Oh for fuck’s sake Willard.

    (warning: Hufflepuff link)

  59. 59.

    Xenos

    November 22, 2011 at 4:03 am

    The point about Fox being self-parody is pretty telling. Like the GOP lunacy it helps generate, look for it to get more extreme as it continues to fail. Unfortunately that failure could take a while. Once Murdoch passes, someone is going to liquidate the empire, as it really does not make long-term financial sense.

    Eventually we will see a farcical repeat of the Hearst/Patty Hearst dynamic. And a new generation will ask ‘WTF was that about?”

  60. 60.

    pete mack

    November 22, 2011 at 4:34 am

    O’Reilly Lt. Pike was sitting in a bar and he goes to the bar tender
    “You see that church over there? I built it with my bare hands but do they call me Pike the church builder? Nooo!
    You see that school over there? I taught there for 30 years but do they call me Pike the educator? Nooo!
    But you fuck one goat pepper spray ten students….”

  61. 61.

    The Snarxist Formerly Known as Kryptik

    November 22, 2011 at 4:57 am

    A “food product”. That’s like calling Fox News “journalism”.

    Also, fuck, 6 am flight running on a shot of 5 hour energy. Why do i do this to myself?

  62. 62.

    JGabriel

    November 22, 2011 at 5:09 am

    @celticdragonchick: Thanks for linking that. I’m not a Conor fan, per se, but Friedersdorf has his good moments and that’s one of them. It was worth reading.

    .

  63. 63.

    JGabriel

    November 22, 2011 at 5:15 am

    @Martin:

    But I’m reasonably certain that UC will ban the use of pepper spray and other nonlethal options for the purpose of crowd control due to this. I suspect they’ll only be usable when a demonstrated physical threat is presented …

    UC doesn’t need to take any special measures to do that. California already bans the use of pepper spray against non-violent protesters.

    Every one of those pepper-sprayed students has grounds for a legitimate civil suit complaint, and probably a legitimate criminal complaint as well — though I’m not as certain about the latter as I am about the civil grounds.

    .

  64. 64.

    Rick Taylor

    November 22, 2011 at 5:16 am

    Davis is a liberal campus? Not when I last went there, not in comparison with the other UC campuses.

  65. 65.

    JoeShabadoo

    November 22, 2011 at 5:32 am

    I think the Pepperspray Everything meme is good.

    This sends a message to cops that when they do something they will not only be remembered but be FAMOUS for it. I can’t imagine Pike is having a good time since all his neighbors can see him doing something horrible.

    Pretty soon regular beat cops are going to start hesitating to do this shit because while they may not feel particularly bad about it, they won’t want to be the face that is beating some kids head in or casually pepperspraying kids all over the internet.

  66. 66.

    Triassic Sands

    November 22, 2011 at 5:44 am

    @Rick Taylor:

    Davis is a liberal campus? Not when I last went there, not in comparison with the other UC campuses.

    The standard is “moderate” Regence U. and by that standard Davis is probably Stalinist.

    Note: there may be no universities in “godless” America today that qualify as truly conservative. That is a standard that could only be met if the Baby Jeebus were the school’s president. And we know that isn’t likely, since the Baby J is too busy making a killing on Wall Street. After all, he is part of the 0.0000000000000000000000001%.

  67. 67.

    RSA

    November 22, 2011 at 6:13 am

    @BGinCHI:

    Next on Fox: Liberals afraid of water and pepper!

    Liberals have been afraid of water since it was sprayed at protestors in the civil rights marches. You know, the way kids stay cool in the summer!

    And attack dogs? They’re probably someone’s pets.

  68. 68.

    Baud

    November 22, 2011 at 6:17 am

    Pretty soon, Sean Hannity will claim that being pepper sprayed is no big deal and volunteer to get pepper sprayed for charity…and then will never follow through.

  69. 69.

    xian

    November 22, 2011 at 6:19 am

    @JGabriel: I don’t think that’s true. are you talking about the redwoods/q-tip case?

  70. 70.

    harlana

    November 22, 2011 at 6:31 am

    that nice cop was just “feeding” hungry kids!

  71. 71.

    WereBear

    November 22, 2011 at 7:00 am

    What’s wrong with “Pepper Spray Cop” turning into a meme? How long can we look at such cruelty directly? It’s like staring into the sun.

    What memes do, is travel. People who have no clue about Marxist theories of property or fascist tactics will get a nerve thrum from seeing it… and then understand it on a visceral level.

    That is a meme weakness… and its beauty.

  72. 72.

    SensesFail

    November 22, 2011 at 7:52 am

    Pretty soon, Sean Hannity will claim that being pepper sprayed is no big deal and volunteer to get pepper sprayed for charity…and then will never follow through.

    This.

    I wonder if Keith Olbermann still reminds Hannity about the waterboarding-for-charity thing.

  73. 73.

    El Cid

    November 22, 2011 at 8:17 am

    __

    Fox News is a parody of Fox News.

    And it’s a Platonic ideal, and it’s also a parody, and for its inhabitants and visitors it’s also a cherished land of refuge from the modern world, and it’s also a dessert topping.

  74. 74.

    magurakurin

    November 22, 2011 at 8:49 am

    @JoeShabadoo: I agree. It’s a modern day version of the stocks.

  75. 75.

    magurakurin

    November 22, 2011 at 8:49 am

    @JoeShabadoo: I agree. It’s a modern day version of the stocks.

  76. 76.

    Jay in Oregon

    November 22, 2011 at 8:57 am

    @Bethanyanne:
    Someone already beat you to it; there are at least two pictures like that in the Casually Pepper Spray Everything article ABL linked to.

    http://knowyourmeme.com/photos/204039-casually-pepper-spray-everything-cop

  77. 77.

    chopper

    November 22, 2011 at 8:58 am

    then i’m sure kelly wouldn’t mind eating a big spoonful of botulism toxin, which after all is only a ‘food product’.

  78. 78.

    SenyorDave

    November 22, 2011 at 9:08 am

    I truly am starting to wonder whether the Fox crew are human beings. Were they created in a laboratory?

  79. 79.

    PIGL

    November 22, 2011 at 9:15 am

    @celticdragonchick: Absolutely, this. I have been spatting with very confused “Liberals” over at GOS who claim to believe there is some magical line between the pepper spray incidents we have seen, and simply shooting kids in cold blood with automatic weapons. Why is there a line? Apparently the reason is “USA!!! USA!!”.

    He who would pepper spray like that would kill without hesitation, and the same people would be cheering it.

  80. 80.

    Seitz

    November 22, 2011 at 9:16 am

    Megyn Kelly tells O’Reilly, that pepper spray is “a food product, essentially”?

    One squirt and your south of the border! Mmmm. Incapacitating.

  81. 81.

    gnomedad

    November 22, 2011 at 9:17 am

    pepper spray is “a food product, essentially”

    So is ricin.
    @chopper:
    Also, too.

  82. 82.

    bjacques

    November 22, 2011 at 9:37 am

    That George Orwell essay certainly explains how a cop might behave, as a representative of the Law, in front of an audience of civilians (or colonial subjects).

    But as justification, I’m not buying it. On that day, in that place, he was the Empire (and had a gun), and could have done whatever he liked. He could have declared he would not kill the elephant as it was no longer a danger, ordered someone from the crowd to go fetch its owner to lead it away. (The owner’s liability might have extended to killing the elephant anyway, but that’s not mentioned.)

    Lt. Pike, as a cop, even a “campo,” has the full force of state law at his or her back and a range of options up to and including deadly force. Time was on his side as well, and the protesters would be dealt with in due time.

    Pike should be fired. If his actions were in line with school policy, those who made or implemented the policy should be fired, because something like this is inevitable. QED. whatever the case, the University administration must make sure this can’t happen again.

    To paraphrase the great Stan Lee, the one with the greater power has the greater responsibility, for both the use *and misuse* of that power.

  83. 83.

    Bullsmith

    November 22, 2011 at 9:39 am

    Personally I hope that “only a food product” line haunts Ms. Kelley for many years. It’s a perfect encapsulation of how to dehumanize the suffering of others. Which is, after all, Fox’s main reason for being.

  84. 84.

    slippy

    November 22, 2011 at 10:03 am

    Pepper Spray, according to our military:

    The US Army concluded in a 1993 Aberdeen Proving Ground study that pepper spray could cause “[m]utagenic effects, carcinogenic effects, sensitization, cardiovascular and pulmonary toxicity, neurotoxicity, as well as possible human fatalities. There is a risk in using this product on a large and varied population”

    It sounds like “non-lethal” alternatives to violence, which are themselves violent, are no real alternative.

    Pepper spray should be banned for police use. Along with tasers and rubber bullets. It seems like too many cops just have a savage streak running through them that suppsedly “non-lethal” weapons enable, rather than inhibit excessive violence and unnecessary force.

    In other words, let them go back to their guns, which have real and unavoidable consequences, require them to file a report if rounds are fired, and can be traced back to them if used improperly.

    Obviously if we give these irresponsible kids other noisy toys, they just abuse them and hurt people.

    I despise the police in this country. They have earned it, too.

  85. 85.

    tjmn

    November 22, 2011 at 10:10 am

    @SenyorDave:
    I truly am starting to wonder whether the Fox crew are human beings. Were they created in a laboratory?

    Calling Dr. Roger Ailes Frankenstein, Abby Normal is on line One.

  86. 86.

    Joseph Nobles

    November 22, 2011 at 10:16 am

    @bjacques: I don’t think “Shooting the Elephant” is meant to justify either Orwell or Pike. Orwell takes one of his worst moments and dissects it ruthlessly. Time will tell if Pike possesses this level of introspection, but should he do, he would find the essay a worthy guide.

  87. 87.

    bubba

    November 22, 2011 at 11:06 am

    Castor beans are a food product…….essentially.

  88. 88.

    agrippa

    November 22, 2011 at 12:10 pm

    Yes, youth should be in revolt.
    I was born in 1945, graduated from college in 1968. Tuition was low and the dormitory with a 20 meal per week contarct was $450 a semester. I had no serious difficulty paying what I needed. I worked for the same ( auto) company for 30+ years.

    Fot younger people it is much different and much more difficult. One of the reasons for that ( there are other reasons as well) was the philistine attititude of many in my age group.

  89. 89.

    Catsy

    November 22, 2011 at 12:12 pm

    @JoeShabadoo:

    Pretty soon regular beat cops are going to start hesitating to do this shit because while they may not feel particularly bad about it, they won’t want to be the face that is beating some kids head in or casually pepperspraying kids all over the internet.

    Never appeal to a man’s “better nature.” He may not have one. Invoking his “self—interest” gives you more leverage. –Lazarus Long

  90. 90.

    Commenting at Ballon Juice since 1937

    November 22, 2011 at 5:39 pm

    @gnomedad: Its a vegetable, like Megyn Kelly

  91. 91.

    fitley

    November 25, 2011 at 1:08 pm

    I think it’s hilarious that Bill O’Reilly pretends he doesn’t know what pepper spray is, like it was invented yesterday. “Kelly what is this, pepper spray?” “Well Bill you ignorant POS, it’s vegetable spray”.

  92. 92.

    MALT Lymphoma Symptoms

    December 3, 2011 at 1:57 pm

    Terrific paintings! This is the kind of information that are supposed to be shared around the internet. Shame on the seek engines for no longer positioning this publish higher! Come on over and visit my web site . Thanks =)

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