This is nice:
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.
“Consistent with privacy guidelines established in state law and university policy, I can confirm that John Pike’s employment with the university ended on July 31, 2012,” Shiller said. “I’m unable to comment further.”
Still don’t know why the chancellor still has her job, though.
the Conster
Romney/Pike 2012
Thoughtcrime
Sure you do.
General Stuck
There just wasn’t any way to defend what he did, not only that he did it for people sitting down that didn’t deserve it for some protocol issue via cop ethics But because his body language, lackadaisical, as your neighborhood sadist – living his fantasy.
katie5
She has her job because Boards of Governors love this kind of hardline reaction towards student protestors.
pragmatism
what sort of wingnut welfare will former Lt. Pike receive? Human shield against potential ghey activist bombers at fox news HQ? Security guard in rmoney’s car elevator?
Tonal Crow
@pragmatism:
I’m guessing “national security commentator” on Rush’s show, or possibly even at Faux.
—
Tag: Romney’s like Sarah Palin, but more dishonest.
redshirt
@pragmatism: Koch Bros Goosestepper?
Dennis SGMM
He’ll “write” a book, Regnery will publish it. Then he’ll enjoy a run of Joe the Plumber-type gigs.
trollhattan
Am gobsmacked he was first found to have “acted reasonably” and it took the replacement chief to give him a much-deserved, well-aimed boot.
http://www.sacbee.com/2012/08/02/4684333/uc-davis-chief-overruled-panel.html#storylink=cpy
Lev
I was shocked to learn that guy was making six figures! All for being an incompetent rent-a-cop.
LGRooney
And, you know, he was making over 100K in his job? Campus cop in Davis? Guess I don’t have enough boot stomp in me with my foreign languages, international business experience and advanced professional degree.
trollhattan
Also, too, local Patriots(tm) are stepping over one another to
defendlaud the cretin in comments.Smell the Freedom!
MoeLarryAndJesus
Pike can go on to his new job doing security work for Chick-Fil-A.
Turds of a feather…
Tonal Crow
Pike’s case is one of many examples of why all police must be subject to citizen review boards with the power to fire them and to reduce or eliminate their pensions.
And what the hell, the majority of such boards should legally be required to be filled with people who have been members of the local or state ACLU affiliate for at least 5 years as of the date of appointment.
—
Tag: Romney’s like Sarah Palin, but more dishonest.
Mattminus
He’s probably already got an offer from the Irvine PD. That community will love his approach to policing.
polyorchnid octopunch
Hey, that scapegoat’s not going to throw hisself under that bus, y’know?
Lev
@Mattminus: Funny thing is, that’s where my least right-wing uncle lives.
SatanicPanic
She has a job for the same reason Graham Spanier kept his for so long.
Martin
@Lev: UCPD are sworn law enforcement in California. No different than city police.
@Mattminus: Really? Care to give examples?
I can only think of one IPD incident in the last 10 years.
SatanicPanic
@Martin: Probably thinking of Anaheim
Anne Laurie
Glad you agree with me, Cole!
What I didn’t say on the front page last night — I like to leave some easy pitches for the commentors, because this blog is all about the sharing — is that I hope this jamoke enjoys his 15 seconds in the spotlight, because he’s made himself unemployable in his chosen field. At the age of 39, which is too young to retire and too old to go back to unpaid internships. He’s almost certainly too inarticulate for “wingnut welfare” (which doesn’t require intelligence or education, but does require the ability to stand up on camera and yark out idiocies with conviction), so a minimum-wage job protecting the local Chick-fil-A from rowdy teenagers is probably the best he can hope for in his future.
MattR
How do you cut the next paragraph?
Darkrose
I think my Summary of Accomplishments should include, “Did not pepper spray anyone.”
Words can’t adequately describe how pissed I am about this.
Martin
@SatanicPanic: Anaheim. Costa Mesa isn’t exactly a paragon of civic restraint, either. There’s plenty of examples to go around, and Irvine didn’t have a great reputation 20 years ago, but I can’t find much to complain about in recent history.
MattMinus
@Anne Laurie:
I was joking about irvine (not based on anything about their cops, just my general impression of the place), but this happens all the time.
I’ve seen countless stories where a cop gets dismissed from one pd for brutality or somesuch and another one immediately get hired elsewhere. I suspect there’s an element of “there but for the grace of god…”involved. I’m sure some peckerwood sheriff somewhere thatd love to hire him just to piss off a liberal.
Now,if he had reported another cop for brutality or dui, then he’d never work again.
Jim Pharo
Don’t know if this is repetitive of better comments up-thread, but why do we care this guy lost his job? Isn’t justice here this guy in jail?
I wonder if James Holmes has been fired yet…
NCSteve
@pragmatism: Fox News education correspondent.
LanceThruster
It must incense cops to no end that in the age of ubiquitous visual media, it’s just not as easy to lie your way out of the bullsh!t you’d usually get away with.
If it were just eyewitness testimony (reporters included), he would most likely still have his job. How sad is that?
Up your nose, with a rubber hose, d-bag (probably something he and the boys at the station have tried on a commie radical or three)!
LanceThruster
@Jim Pharo:
True, it was an assualt under the color of authority but I suppose the extenuating circumstances were that he thought he was doing his job, no?
You can get away with an awful lot of nonsense under the ruse that you were in fear for your safety.
folsom ca
The on campus cops are there to protect the students, not harm them. My son went to UC Berk. and the campus was fully staffed with police. I am not sure why this guy felt the need to assault students who are sitting down, peacefully. It is not an image a young student needs to learn, ever.
West of the Rockies (formerly Frank W.)
Were those actual comments, trollhatten @ #9? (They sound like what I encounter when braving the comments forums of a lot of blogs.)
It is strange to me how we all (liberals and conservatives) have the same DNA, grew up in the same nation, largely attended similar schools, watched the same stupid TV shows, and such, and yet have such astoundingy different views on things. There are truly knuckleheads who believe Obama is a Marxist, that sexually-active unmarried women are all sluts, that polar bears make good rifle targets, that global warming is a bunch of nonsense….
Was it the parenting that led to such views? Is Rush Limbaugh and company largely responsible for so much misinformation? Can we blame it on conservative churches? Too many Twinkies and Tom and Jerry cartoons?
Frell, there are a lot of stupid people in the universe.
Evolving Deep Southerner
@Anne Laurie: Mr. Cole, sometimes I think that I read this blog more often than you do. This is one of those times. And they’re not all that infrequent.
It’s your blog, though. Hell, I don’t mind taking another run at it. If Anne Laurie’s pissed, though, I can’t really blame her.
Evolving Deep Southerner
@West of the Rockies (formerly Frank W.):
It’s all in the amygdala, or so I’m told.
trollhattan
@West of the Rockies (formerly Frank W.):
Copied & pasted intact, I sweah. I try to avoid online newspaper comments because I quickly lose what’s left of my faith in humanity.
Anne Laurie
@MattMinus:
Well, keeping Those People (poor whites and all non-whites) in Their Place is merely a faux pas. But Pike’s gotten his employers’ insurance carriers into a world of hurt by abusing white kids whose parents have the social status to make their complaints felt, and that’s why he’s unlikely to work as a LEO elsewhere. It’s not a coincidence that Kent State and the Chicago convention remain media touchpoints, while all the other civil rights protesters killed or injured by the police in the same era have been forgotten beyond a vague ‘Black Muslim Panther looters throwing molotov cocktails at hard-working white people’ phastasm.
West of the Rockies (formerly Frank W.)
I had to look up “amygdala”, Evolving Deep Southener, but not that you mention it, I do recall hearing stories of late about how brain chemistry really is a big determining factor in our political allegiences and such. Curious….
I keep telling myself, trollhatten (@ #34) to stop poking around the comments section (of NPR, Mediaite, Politico, etc.). The comments really can erode my faith in humanity (though NPR does run pretty heavily liberal among its listeners, based upon the number of “thumbs up” comments liberal posters get compared to far-right trogs).
daverave
@trollhattan:
Well trollhattan, it appears that as a fellow denizen of the Great Central Valley, you should be well-versed that this place is more Iowa than California on many levels.
ETA: on second thought, make that more Oklahoma… sorry Iowa ;-)