Dive Brief:
- Former University of California Davis campus police Lieutenant John Pike was awarded $38,000 for psychiatric damage he said he suffered following a 2011 incident in which he pepper-sprayed student protesters.
- The total settlement of $38,055 is the result of a worker's compensation claim filed by Pike in June, though it includes no specifics regarding the psychiatric and nervous system damage he claims to have experienced.
- After footage of the incident spread, the San Francisco Chronicle reported that Pike received 17,000 threatening emails, 10,000 text messages and hundreds of letters.
Dive Insight:
Footage of Pike spraying the peaceful demonstrators in the face was widely broadcast on TV and the Internet, becoming a huge public relations nightmare for the school and a symbol of police aggression against Occupy protesters. Following the incident, Pike was suspended and finally left the school's police in July 2012, and the university settled a $1 million lawsuit filed on behalf of the 21 students last fall.