Casually Pepperspray Everything Cop

7/29/2019 Casually Pepperspray Everything Cop

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Casually Pepper Spray Everything Cop

Kanutte Roestad

The event - UC Davis Occupy Protest

On November 18th 2011, an Occupy protest was held by a group of students at the

University of California Davis as they formed a human chain by linking their arms

together. When they refused to comply with the police request to leave, UC Davis

Lieutenant,John Pike and another ocer walked across the group, administering

orange pepper spray straight down the unmoving students. (knowyourmemes.com)

Below is the video of the incident:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=6AdDLhPwpp4

Little did Lt. John Pike know that a photograph of him peacefully pepper spraying

demonstrators would spread around the world and become an internet meme, as

people inserted the pepper spray photo into famous works of various art and popular

culture. This is the original picture taken by Louise Macabitas:
http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/casually-pepper-spray-everything-cophttp://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=6AdDLhPwpp4http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=6AdDLhPwpp4http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/casually-pepper-spray-everything-cop


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The photoshop Meme

On 20th of November, 2011 , two photoshopped versions of the image appeared on

Reddit. The rst image featured the meme Strutting Leo, photoshopped over Lt.

Pike. The secondplaced The UC Davis Ocer in the 1819 painting Declaration of

Independenceby John Trumbull.The same afternoon, Lt. Pike was placed in Georges

Seurats A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte(1884) on a Tumblr

blog, here the image where received over 2400 notes in a day. (knowyourmeme.com)

The spread of The Pepper Spray Cop meme

The incident itself was quickly picked up by nearly all major U.S. news media outlets.

The meme reached its peak on November 22nd, this only four days after Lt. Pike

showed o his pepper spray skills on the US Davis campus this is visualized below

through Google Trend:
http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/strutting-leo-leo-struthttp://knowyourmeme.com/memes/strutting-leo-leo-strut


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The next days after the event dierent photoshopped images of the meme began

appearing on dierent social media. According to knowyourmeme.com 20th of

november additional images were posted on Washington Post, ABC News, the Metro,

Gawker and Buzzfeed.Four separate single topic Tumblrs were also created that day.

It was also created an interactive Pepper Spray Cop where users can take the

exploitable cop and shoot pepper spray throughout the Trumbull painting.

During the next month, Casually Pepper Spraying Everything Cop images were

shared and discussed on many major U. S news media outlet.


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A selection of the Pepper Spray Cop meme pictures:


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For more examples, visit: http://peppersprayingcop.tumblr.com

The eects of the memeThe eects were many, but this text will take base in the eects that happened rthe

same week as the event to emphasize the short time information needs to spread

across the internet.

The Campus police in UC Davis came in for their share of criticism, including

specically the police ocer who has become notorious from the the event, as well

as the various memes created from of the original picture. Both he and the UC Davis

police chief remain on paid administrative leave after the spread of the incident over

internet and media.

On November 19th, Anonymous hackers in support

of the Occupy Movement released contact information,

home address and salary records of the UC Davis police

ocer Lt. John Pike, which was quickly picked up by a

number of outlets on Twitter and Tumblr. As a result

of the controversy, Pike has reportedly received more

than 10,000 text messages and 17,000 emails

critiquing his actions (knowyourmeme.com).
http://peppersprayingcop.tumblr.com/http://peppersprayingcop.tumblr.com/http://peppersprayingcop.tumblr.com/http://peppersprayingcop.tumblr.com/


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Something that are mentionable in conjunction to the Pepper spray meme is when

Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly appeared on political commentator Bill OReillys

talk show The OReilly Factor to discuss the UC Davis pepper spray incident on

November 21st,. In discussing the incident, Kelly described pepper spray as a

food product:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Qrx6DDgTH_w

The same day dierent social media picked up the interview where up Kelly claiming:

Its like a derivative of actual pepper. Its a food product, essentially. In

response an advice animal image series featuring M. Kelly emerged on the

internet the very same day captioned with dismissive phrases downplaying the

eects of various human rights abuse. The dismissive statements were also

downplaying chemical weapons, war crimes, torture tactics etc. Here are some

examples:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Qrx6DDgTH_whttp://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Qrx6DDgTH_w


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Meanwhile, a fake Pepper Spraying Cop Twitter account, @PepperSprayCop

(https://twitter.com/PepperSprayCop) was made to provide satirical commentaries

on in relation to the photoshop meme.

As early as the same week as the incident various songs was released on dierent

social media channels, both tributes, mocking and satirical kinds. Maybe you can call

them meme songs, not theme songs?

https://soundcloud.com/lelink/ballad-of-the-pepper-spray-cop

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mzTE0WGyjSI

At November 22th a parody was made showing a subtitled scene form the movie Der

Untergang (200f) on how Hitler responding to the viral rise of the Pepper Spray Cop

meme:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=iU7y81FBxu4

Why did the meme become so big?

The incident it self looked quite notorious, and something that exacerbated the

event even more was previous episodes involving the police use of pepper spray

against Occupy protesters. The meme became a big hit partially because of its topics

relevance.
https://twitter.com/PepperSprayCophttps://soundcloud.com/lelink/ballad-of-the-pepper-spray-cophttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mzTE0WGyjSIhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=iU7y81FBxu4https://twitter.com/PepperSprayCophttps://soundcloud.com/lelink/ballad-of-the-pepper-spray-cophttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mzTE0WGyjSIhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=iU7y81FBxu4


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When you add those facts together with Lieutenant Pike casually pepper spraying

various historical events and milestones in civil rights, ranging from the signing of

the U.S. constitution to Picassos famous anti-war painting Guernica, the meme got a

great impact.

This meme is a very good example on how powerful the internet can be, and how

extremely fast information can spread. Since the internet is a place were you can stay

anonymous and sanctions are hard to give, the socially acceptable boundaries are

more likely ti be crossed, and the Pepper Spray Cop meme is a example on this kind

of humor or memes that is touching up on what is nat socially acceptable. The many

images produced in the Pepper Spray Cop meme can be perceived in the range from

very oensive, absurd, random or humorous something that gave this meme a

extra level of attention.

At the same time the internet is also a place were anonymity is hard to keep, and Lt.

John Pike got this experienced only one day after the incident when all of his

personal information got spread over the internet, together with the pictures of him

pepper spraying students as if he were casually watering his plants on a late sunday

afternoon.


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The best recipe for the Pepper Spray Cop meme:1. Find something that is socially unacceptable to joke about

(religion, historical events or in the category offensive will giveyou a hit guarantee)

2. Place Lt. John Pike and his notorious pepper spray in a pictureof it, and let him bite the dust (even more)

Sources:

Google Trends: http://www.google.com/trends/explore#q=pepper%20spray%20cop

(Retrieved: 02.23-13 )

Knowyourmeme.com: http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/casually-pepper-spray-

everything-cop (retrieved: 02.15-13)
http://www.google.com/trends/explore#q=pepper%20spray%20cophttp://knowyourmeme.com/memes/casually-pepper-spray-everything-cophttp://knowyourmeme.com/memes/casually-pepper-spray-everything-cophttp://www.google.com/trends/explore#q=pepper%20spray%20cophttp://knowyourmeme.com/memes/casually-pepper-spray-everything-cophttp://knowyourmeme.com/memes/casually-pepper-spray-everything-cop

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Casually Pepperspray Everything Cop