Pepper-Spraying Cop John Pike Is Still Employed at UC Davis
Late Monday, I called UC Davis to follow up on the case. To my chagrin, though not to my surprise, Lt. Pike remains on paid leave. The internal affairs process is “a lot more inexorable than anyone realized at the time,” a university spokesman told me. “I don’t know when that’s going to get resolved.” Think about that for a minute. This incident happened eight months ago! In five months’ time, two independent bodies managed to complete an exhaustive investigation into every aspect of the incident. Yet even after an additional three months, the internal affairs process — the investigation, the hearings, and perhaps the appeals — is still not completed for one single individual, whose actions are on videotape. Nor is there any word about when they’ll be complete. As I wrote back in April, can there be any doubt that this system prioritizes the job security of campus police officers above the safety and well being of students, or the need to hold abusive officers accountable? Lt. Pike is still collecting a paycheck after committing the most public of indefensible acts. Imagine the effect of these same job protections on officers whose misdeeds are not captured on videotape…
Read full article [here].
by Conor Friedersdorf, The Atlantic.