Thu., September 20, 2012 12:00pm (EDT)

No Criminal Charges For 'Pepper Spray Cop' Or Other Officers

By Mark Memmott

Updated: 9 months ago

This may be one of the last developments in the story of the "pepper spray cop" and what happened last November when University of California Davis Police Lt. John Pike infamously blasted some Occupy protesters who were blocking a campus road with some tear-inducing gas:

"The Yolo County District Attorney's Office will not seek criminal charges against the UC Davis police officers involved," reports The Davis Enterprise.

In a statement, Assistant Chief Deputy District Attorney Michael Cabral says his office has concluded "there is insufficient evidence to establish proof beyond a reasonable doubt that the use of force involved in the November 18, 2011, pepper spraying was unlawful and therefore warrants the filing of criminal charges."

The statement notes that while an independent investigation concluded that Lt. Pike's conduct "was not objectively reasonable," it also acknowledged that Pike and other officers "believed that they and their prisoners [the protesters] were surrounded by a hostile 'mob,' and that the pepper spraying was necessary to clear the pathway so that the officers and their prisoners could leave."

Pike is no longer with the campus police. Because what he did was caught on video and posted online, it quickly went viral.


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