Per the Sacramento Bee, “Officer at center of pepper-spraying incident no longer works at UC Davis“:
Lt. John Pike, the UC Davis police officer who became a focal point of last November’s pepper-spraying incident during a campus protest, is no longer employed by the university, a spokesman confirmed late Tuesday. UC Davis spokesman Barry Shiller said he could not discuss the details of Pike’s departure, but in response to queries from The Bee, he said Pike was no longer employed there as of Tuesday…
Pike, 39, declined to comment when reached by The Bee as he was sitting in a meeting on campus where he said he was being terminated.
Pike’s 2010 salary was listed as $110,243.12. He has been on paid leave since the debacle unfolded last year, sparking worldwide outrage, numerous investigations and calls for the resignation of UC Davis leaders…
Pike’s future had remained in limbo until now, and at one point he faced harassment that included a barrage of 10,000 text messages, 17,000 emails and numerous items being ordered delivered to his home.
That backlash led, in part, to a judge’s order that the names of other officers involved in the incident not be revealed, an order that is currently the subject of a legal battle between the Federated University Police Officers Association and lawyers for The Bee and the Los Angeles Times.
The university, Pike and other officers have since been sued by students who say they were victims of the pepper-spraying. The Yolo County District Attorney’s Office is still reviewing the matter to determine whether criminal charges should be filed.
On the other coast, NYMag reports that Deputy Inspector Tony Bologna won’t suffer alone:
Last week a report from civil liberties experts at NYU, Fordham, Harvard, and Stanford confirmed what anyone who followed Occupy Wall Street had already concluded: Police were far too rough with protesters. Two protesters already filed a lawsuit in February against the city and NYPD Deputy Inspector Anthony Bologna, whose liberal use of pepper spray was caught on film and widely circulated on YouTube. Today three more protesters filed lawsuits, but in addition to monetary damages they’re hoping to force the NYPD to change its policies on the use of force during demonstrations…
Following the initial complaints about Bologna, he offered a questionable excuse, lost some vacation time, and was reassigned to Staten Island. Plus, in what may be the most serious punishment, the city is also letting him pay his own legal fees related to the lawsuits filed in February. (There’s no word yet on whether the same goes for the new complaints.)…
Taylor says that his clients are seeking monetary damages “as anyone would seek if they were wrongfully pepper-sprayed,” but their primary goal is changing the way the NYPD operates. “Ray Kelly isn’t going to do it, the mayor isn’t going to do it, so we’re asking the courts to step in,” says Taylor. They want to see more judicial supervision of the department’s response to protests and held off on filing the suits partially so they’d have the experts’ report to bolster their claim. The city has already ignored numerous calls to create an inspector general’s office to review its policies, but with new suits filed and the report’s authors threatening to ask the Department of Justice to investigate their findings, it seems that the era of asking the NYPD to do a better job of policing itself may be over.
Afferent Input
Jeezus Christus, that doofus made $110K+? I mean, WTF?!?
Just Some Fuckhead
Jesus God, no wonder tuition is so expensive. Are security guards really worth that much fucking money?
No.
Hey, where you goin!? Go ‘head.
Mike G
a judge’s order that the names of other officers involved in the incident not be revealed
Of course, because people who commit violent chemical assaults can always get a judge to consider their hurt fee-fees of privacy and keep their names confidential.
So for his disgustingly exemplary fascist thuggery, Pike got a nine-month paid vacation before he was fired. And Katehi is still running UCDavis with the empathy of a Greek junta.
Cops = Privileged violence.
Mike in NC
All cops are assholes. Period.
Mark S.
$110,000? For a campus cop?
danah gaz (fka gaz)
@Mike G:
Well, at least he’ll run into trouble even finding a rent-a-cop position after this black mark. No company wants an armed liability on their hands.
And as far as Tony Bologna (I can’t say that name without smiling), I hope they successfully sue the pants off of that asshole.
brettvk
I realize I live in a low-wage, cheap-labor state, and I’d starve in California with what I’m living on here, but really – what qualifies a security guard to deserve a six-figure salary (paid out of public revenues, one presumes)? Does CA have the equivalent of MO’s Blue Book, which lists all salaries of all state employees down to the janitors at the state schools? Because I’d love to see what an associate degree in law enforcement will buy you there.
FlipYrWhig
Yeah, I just read that salary figure, and I know that the proper nice liberal thing to do is not to begrudge him his wage and commend his union’s success, but holy fucking shit on a holy fucking stick, that is a lot of money. You can’t tell me that half the salary would buy a twice as bad campus cop.
FlipYrWhig
@brettvk: Virginia has something similar. When I google my own name, it’s always one of the top hits. And I’m nowhere near the Lieutenant Pike Line.
The prophet Nostradumbass
@Just Some Fuckhead: These guys aren’t security guards, they’re bona fide cops in California, like the BART police (shudder).
Roger Moore
@brettvk:
My guess is that “salary” is incorrect; he’s probably being paid wages and put in a bunch of overtime to earn that much. It’s still a hell of a lot, but I can imagine a cop earning that much legitimately.
The Other Chuck
I still can’t get over the name “Tony Baloney”.
Kyle
UC police are a state police agency similar to the California Highway Patrol, undergo a similar level of training and are paid on the same scale.
Entry-level UC cops make about $50k.
Pike was a Lieutenant and so was paid considerably more. Even more reason why he shouldn’t have acted like a thuggish low-wage mall cop.
mclaren
Nobody on this blog seems to realize that cops and prison guards are the new royalty of America. These guys make well over 100K per year. And a police chief? Holy fuck, a police chief typically makes more than a half a million goddamn dollars a year.
The average American makes minimum wage working part-time, while the goon cops who beat them down for protesting their rotten working conditions make hundreds of thousands a year.
Now you understand why the goon cops side with the 1%. They are part of the 1%.
jl
@brettvk:
” Does CA have the equivalent of MO’s Blue Book, which lists all salaries of all state employees ”
I believe it does. Below are all the UC perfesser base salaries.
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA
ACADEMIC SALARY SCALES
OCTOBER 1, 2011
http://apo.ucsc.edu/academic_compensation_and_benefits/original_docs_and_pdfs/scales-crnt.pdf
Note: pdf file.
jl
” The salary range for Police Lieutenant is $80,100 to $138,000 per year. ”
” The First Review Date for this job is: July 25, 2012 ”
From a current online advert for UC Berkeley police Police Lieutenant.
Below are minimum qualifications. Looks like CA campus cops have to be regular CA peace officers, so hiring from same pool as Highway Patrol and municipal cops, sheriffs dept and state police:
Required Qualifications
• Must meet all requirements for peace officers as established by law and the California Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training (http://post.ca.gov/candidate-information.aspx).
• Possess a valid California Driver License.
• Complete a POST certified Management Course within one year of appointment (or currently possess a valid POST Management certificate).
GregB
I know a man who graduated from my high school.
He never got above sergeant in rank for a local police department.
Retired at 47 with over 100K a year pension.
He’s conservative and hates leeches on the system too.
The prophet Nostradumbass
@mclaren: Most cops don’t make that much. Even if they did, they wouldn’t be part of the “1%”. Of course, telling the truth isn’t your strong suit.
jl
From ads looks like entry level UC and State University campus cops start at 55 to 65K. Can get in at entry level with lower level CA Police Officer Standards and Training certificate, doesn’t look like you have to be an official CA peace officer when you are hired.
MattR
@The prophet Nostradumbass: Police cheifs making half a million would qualify as the 1%, barely. But the rank and file cops, nope. According to a WSJ calculator $125K puts you in the 84th percentile. (200K gets you up to the 94th percentile)
EDIT: To be in the top 1% by wealth you need assets of $6 million
trollhattan
Cop: Alright boys, pour out those beers and get back to the frat house.
Dudes: Aw man, alright.
Cop: Gotta go…to the bank and deposit my nearly 10k check.
Dudes: Whoa.
It’s hard out there for a
pimpcop.The Dangerman
Remember, Berkeley (and perhaps Davis; it’s not that far out from The City) will have obscene cost of living adjustments. Not long ago, just north of the Golden Gate Bridge, I was at a fast food place and I saw what they were starting at and, for fast food, it was damned good…
…until you recall what they pay for rent.
trollhattan
@The Dangerman:
FWIW Davis is costy for the area but nowhere near Bay Area prices and the surrounding metro area is downright cheap. (Zillow taunts us with this regrettable fact.) $110k is very good pay, indeed.
d0n camillo
I did not know that Tony Bologna will have to pay his own legal fees. That alone will leave a mark. I’m glad these lawsuits are being pursued. It seems like it might be the only thing we have left to rein these cops in. God knows public shaming doesn’t seem to do anything.
jl
@The Dangerman: Cost of shelter went nuts all over ‘greater bay area’ which includes bright lights and big city places like… Vacaville. I could not believe how rents in places like my old stomping grounds from Tracy down through Merced skyrocketed. Of course, Merced was a mess because of new UC campus.
I haven’t kept track of what is going on in Merced, but foreclosure mess has kept houses empty and jacked up rents all over the place. Unbelievable. I do not know how ordinary working stiff in Central Valley make it, though have not checked rents over last couple of years, so maybe they came down.
Regarding salaries, people forget that labor was in very short supply during the housing boom. Because it was a boom. Any organization public or private that is large enough to have a corporate style salary structure is going to have downward rigidity in nominal wages.
During the boom it was difficult to hire paramedics, cops and firefighters in SF Bay area. School teachers, of course, being nothing in this society, always got their March pink slips and spent the summer worrying, at least everyone except the long timers.
Edit: don’t know if drill is same in other states, but in CA mass pink slips go out to school teachers in Spring, and they get to wait around and wonder what chances are there will be enough money to rehire them in Fall.
Martin
@The Dangerman: Yeah, that’s crap. UC doesn’t do cost of living adjustments. Salaries at UCSF are the same as Riverside or Merced. If they did adjustments by location, I’d be earning a LOT more as my campus has a much higher cost of living than Davis and matches Berkeley.
$110K is pretty high, though. Yeah, they’re regular police here in CA – and respond to incidents off campus as needed, but shit, half of our faculty don’t earn that. I have no problem with them earning decent money, because the job has risk potential (I’ve needed campus police to disarm students in my office before) but I’ll never earn anywhere near $110K, even with a relatively high level position.
tech98
Cops aren’t part of the 1% in pay scale, but it’s made very clear to them that they work for, identify with and protect the interests of the 1% if they want to keep being cops.
The Pale Scot
reassigned to Staten Island…
Send him to Detroit!
NO! NOT DETROIT! AHHHH….
..Just gotta deal with the Snookis and Tonys for 3 years, I can do it, I can go it…. NO! Pleez.. AHH…Send me to Detroit!!
what movie?
James E. Powell
Police departments, like Wall Street and NFL linebackers, are not capable of policing themselves. The idea that they can is just an excuse to keep other people from even so much as examining how they work or what they do.
We are in an age of no accountability for the most powerful and potentially life-threatening institutions and organizations in our society. Far too few people care enough to notice.
jl
@Martin: Martin is correct, that UC campus cops are supposed to patrol not only campus and whole University neighborhood. I read in news a few months ago that UCB and UCSF campus cops made critical busts in a series gang murders. The gang honchos liked to hang out around campus, and the campus cops spotted them. Not sure what UCSF campus it was, since those are spread out all over town from poor to wealthy neighborhoods.
Martin
@jl: It’s pretty easy to hire campus cops at UCs. It’s a cush job compared to city police. UC pension is worse than CALPERS though.
jl
@Martin: I wonder who patrols SF General Hospital and immediate vicinity? Some of that is run by UC, some not. That would not be a cushy area to patrol, but it is an exception.
Martin
@jl: And many of the UCs have hospitals attached which are the backbone of the state public hospitals, which campus police also cover. There’s some pretty hairy stuff going on there. Plus the system have other campuses spread out all over which campus police sometimes also cover. Campuses like UCLA and Cal are barely even campuses – they’re so small and are really mashed up with the city around them – so campus police are tend to be pretty well integrated with city police. Those campuses are only about 100 acres. Most of the others are 1000 or thereabouts. Merced is kind of insane at 12,000 acres. It’s geographically the size of Santa Monica.
bemused senior
Remember that a police Lt. is a fairly high level position, not like the rank of lt. in the army or other military services.
Zagloba
@d0n camillo:
I’m actually quite surprised that the police union isn’t paying for his representation because it’s an on-the-job charge.
I know if I got charged with something on the job as an NYC teacher and the UFT wasn’t representing me (like I was contractually obligated to) I’d be throwing a shitfit.
The Right Honorable Member for, the Very Reverend Mother, Her Duchal Serene Highness. Dr. Hortense Sussudio Fuuckerfaaster
this place is still a castrato choir even mitt romney would love. has this site ever had anyone with a bass voice ever even apply for membership?
no wonder the place reads like a sad-ass parody of a totebagging lifestyle liberal/aarp modern maturity mash up.
this place is the intellectual equivalent of a surround sound system with no woofers.no wonder so many hear never intellectually evolved past “love me do-do”
PeakVT
@Zagloba: The FOP may see Bologna as a lost cause already. I wouldn’t blame them, given the video evidence.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Martin:
UCLA is the smallest UC campus by area and is a bit over 400 arces.
Yutsano
@The Right Honorable Member for, the Very Reverend Mother, Her Duchal Serene Highness. Dr. Hortense Sussudio Fuuckerfaaster: Your concerns are duly noted and your comments will be treated with the urgency they deserve.
Jewish Steel
@Yutsano: I gather from his comment he is looking for rough trade?
Here let me add my whistle of amazement and appreciation for Mr 110K campus cop. Damn.
Older_Wiser
Cops making six figures in CA? Maybe the whole state should just start over.
geg6
@mclaren:
As usual, you have no idea what you are talking about. Other than the city cops in Pittsburgh, there are no cops or even chiefs in my vicinity who make $100k, let alone a half million. At my campus, the campus police are required to have the equivalent education of state troopers. They not only patrol our campus, but provide services to the surrounding commmunity. They start at about $30k. Our chief makes about $50k. All except our chief work part-time for other towns to make ends meet. I am also friends with numerous municipal cops in my area and they, too, make so little that they often work two or three jobs in various towns to make ends meet. With the exception of the state troopers of my acquaintance, I don’t know a rank and file cop who doesn’t work at least two jobs, often putting in full 24 hour shifts between all their jobs. Our local chief makes $100k, but has been chief for over 20 years, so I would guess he deserves that after all this time and the good job he’s done.
I have no sympathy for these well-paid cops who torture and assault innocents, but you are clueless about what the work life and pay of your average cop is like. But that doesn’t stop you from spouting utter and complete nonsense about shit you know nothing about.
Marc
@Afferent Input: Just think about what most of the UC Davis professors (not to mention the adjuncts) make in comparison to Lt. Pike. What’s the university for again?
Downpuppy
@Marc: For the personal enrichment of Linda Katehi & friends, of course! Lest we forget, the entire operation that Pike was carrying out was illegally ordered by Katehi & ineptly controlled by Chief Spicuzz.
Yet Katehi still has her job, & there are more senior managers than full time faculty on the payroll.
handsmile
Re Anthony Bologna
Tony Baloney’s “reassign[ment] to Staten Island” was hardly a punishment: he lives in the borough, only a few miles from the command headquarters to which he was transferred in October to serve as “special projects coordinator” at no reduction of salary or benefits. At the time of his pepper-spray assault on law-abiding OWS protestors, he actually had a longer commute to work: serving as Deputy Inspector at the Patrol Borough Manhattan South headquarters.
Also, I am extremely skeptical of the unsourced, unattributed claim in the New York Magazine article that “the city is also letting him pay his own legal fees.” (I have been so far unable to find another source to verify this claim.) As an active-duty high-ranking police official, Bologna should be entitled to legal representation provided through his union, the NYC Captains Endowment Association.
Judas Escargot, Acerbic Prophet of the Mighty Potato God
Damn. I know engineers with PhD’s from MIT who make less than that.
No wonder the Chinese are kicking our ass in tech these days.
Sly
No fucking shit. Ray Kelly was giving almost daily addresses to the local media saying how Occupy was threatening the police budget and causing spikes in crime in other boroughs because he just had to station an army of paramilitaries in downtown Manhattan. If anything, he worked to incite the heavy handedness on the part of the NYPD.
JR (Not the other JR)
@The Other Chuck: Seriously! His parents must have known he was going to be an asshole the second they saw him.
HyperIon
@Just Some Fuckhead wrote /a>: Jesus God, no wonder tuition is so expensive.
My thoughts exactly.
We are doomed.
Another Halocene Human
@Zagloba: The police union in NYC is as corrupt as the police. Either way, if you sign up to be a cop in NYC and you aren’t a dirty cop douchebag, you’re signing up to get roached. So much for the good guys.
Darkrose
So Officer Pike makes more than twice what I make, working at the same place.
And I don’t even get to pepper spray anyone.