A police officer who pepper sprayed 20 peacefully protesting students at close range is to receive £25,000 compensation for trauma he has experienced as a result of the incident.
This means the policeman is receiving more compensation than the victims of his attack. 21 of them received around £18,500 and another 15 were awarded, £4,100.
Violent footage emerged online of John Pike using unnecessary degrees of force towards Californian students during the protests contesting the Occupy movement. Becoming a symbol of anger and police brutality, Pike has supposedly suffered a level of kick back from the incident that has caused him sever psychological suffering.
Students had linked arms and refused to clear the route in November 2011, resulting in Pike choosing to pepper spray them all in the face His actions were immediately condemned as the footage went viral.
He was fired for his vicious actions after eight months administrative leave, an investigation ruling that, not only was the pepper spray unauthorised, there had been no need to use it against the weaponless students and it had, in fact, been used from an unsafe, potentially blinding distance.
However it has now emerged that the 40 year old, who had been working at the University for 11 years, being paid a salary of $121,680 (£75,120), has since been awarded compensation to the fine tune of £25,000 dollars by UC David.
Claiming to suffer depression and anxiety, he has received over 17,000 angry and threatening e-mails, over 10,000 text messages and a few hundred letters, all berating him for his dangerous conduct. Due to this he has changed his phone number.
A UC Davis spokesperson said, “This has all been resolved in accordance with state law and processes on workers compensation. The final resolution is in line with permanent impairment as calculated by the state’s disability evaluation unit.”
This injustice sends the clear message that police brutality is still an issue in America. Bernie Goldsmith, a local lawyer who supports the students said the message sent here was that, “the next officer nervously facing off with a group of passive, unarmed students: Go on ahead. Brutalise them. Trample their rights. You will be well taken care of’.”
Words by Gemma Clark
Words by Gemma Clark
