California Campus Cop Who Pepper-sprayed Protesters Off Police Force

39-year old John Pike (shown in photo), the campus cop at UC Davis who pepper-sprayed peaceful student protesters, is a former U.S. Marine sergeant who has been honored for his police work on campus, but an alleged anti-gay slur by Pike also figured in a racial and sexual discrimination lawsuit a former police officer filed against the department, which ended in a $240,000 settlement in 2008. Pike was hired onto the University of California, Davis police force in 2001; his annual salary in 2010 was $110,243. UC Davis Police Chief Annette Spicuzza's salary in 2010 was $140,417.



Students are paying tuition (note that the state raised tuition by 32% in 2010, 8% in early 2011, and another 9.6% just eight months later, making it double what tuition was just seven years ago), which is funding the salaries of campus police who are attacking them rather than keeping them safe and secure. This is a college campus and there is no excuse for campus police to be attacking student protesters. If you can't protest on a college campus in America, where can you protest! This is a prime example of the police state that the U.S. has become. We will soon resemble communist China and North Korea.

This is why California is broke and why tuition for the state's higher education system is so high (taxpayers are on the hook for lifetime pensions, healthcare and survivor benefits as well):

• UC Berkeley Head Coach Jeff Tedford's salary was $2,349,038 in 2010
• UCLA Head Coach Intercol. Athletics Benjamin Clark Howland's salary was $2,076,535 in 2010
• UCLA Professor-HCOMP Ronald W. Busuttil's salary was $1,984,858 in 2010
  
• UC Berkeley Head Coach Michael J. Montgomery's salary was $1,859,133 in 2010
• UCLA Clinical Professor-HCOMP Khalil M. Tabsh's salary was $1,783,005 in 2010
• UC President Mark G. Yudof's salary was $560,594 in 2010
  
• UC Berkeley Chancellor Robert J. Birgeneau's salary was $416,596 in 2010
• UC Davis Chancellor Linda Katehi's salary was $382,249 in 2010
• UC Davis Vice Chancellor for Admin. and Resource Mgmt John Meyer's salary was $213,121 in 2010
  
• UC Davis Police Chief Annette Spicuzza'ssalary was $140,417 in 2010
  
• UC Davis Police Lieutenant John Pike's salary was $110,243 in 2010
• Legislative Assembly Speaker John Perez's salary was $107,329 in 2010

California is bankrupt and one of the reasons is its taxpayer-funded education system (at least 40 percent of the state's budget), where employee compensation is out of control.

California faced a $27 billion budget deficit in 2011. To balance the budget, the governor made spending cuts across the board, including secondary education (K through 12 schools). The California Department of Education notes that between 2010 and 2011, the statewide total cost of education equaled $46,278,595,991, which averaged $8,323 per student. Ten years before, in the 2000 to 2001 school year, the total annual expenditure was $36,825,458,699, which came to $6,360 per student. Gov. Jerry Brown has drafted a controversial $9 billion tax hike proposal, which voters will likely see on the November ballot. The Sacramento Bee highlights that schools worry about actually getting the measure to pass, which has led school districts to favor austerity measures and layoffs over budgeting with money that is not yet in their coffers. Although Gov. Brown encourages school districts to factor in the tax hike money, administrators instead ask for permission to "shorten the school year without penalty below the current 175-day minimum." [Source]

Higher education in California also faces budget cuts. The Associated Press notes that the University of California is planning to implement a 6 percent tuition increase in the fall, unless the state supplies $125 million for the 2012 to 2013 school year. In addition, there is talk of a "double digits" mid-year tuition hike, if the governor's ballot measure fails. [Source]

Tuition alone for the California State University systems is projected to be almost $22,000 per year in 2014, which will outstrip any resources the middle class has to put their kids through college. [Source]

As the University of California Board of Regents considered where to cut budgets and whether or not they should increase fees on students, they gave a hefty raise to the new San Diego campus chancellor, Pradeep Khosla. The Regents awarded Khosla a $411,084 base salary, a 4.8 percent increase compared to his predecessor and more than double Governor Jerry Brown's annual salary of $173,987. Increasing administrators' pay amid budget cuts has been a trend over the past decade. Tuition and fees at state schools soared 72 percent from 2001-2011. Yet, Andrew Hacker, co-author of Higher Education? How Colleges Are Wasting Our Money and Failing Our Kids – and What We can Do About It, says salaries of university presidents at public and private universities have roughly doubled since 1991. Gov. Jerry Brown released a "May Revision" of the state budget Monday, announcing the budget deficit had gone from $9 billion to $16 billion, meaning state universities will face steep cuts if an initiative on the November ballot to raise taxes in California isn't approved by voters. The UC Regents will vote in July on whether or not to increase tuition by 6 percent. The AP notes that would mean in-state undergraduates would pay $12,923, nearly double what students paid five years ago. [Source]

California Campus Cop Who Pepper-sprayed Protesters Off Police Force

August 1, 2012

Reuters - The campus police lieutenant captured on video pepper spraying seated Occupy Wall Street protesters last November at the University of California, Davis is no longer on the force, a university spokeswoman said on Wednesday.

The image of a cop pepper spraying seated protesters came to symbolize law enforcement aggression against the movement and sparked multiple investigations.

UC Davis police Lieutenant John Pike remained on the force until Tuesday, said university spokeswoman Claudia Morain. Citing the school's personnel privacy guidelines, she declined further comment.

The Sacramento Bee newspaper, which first reported Pike's departure from the force on Tuesday, said he had been paid while on leave, reporting his 2010 salary at $110,243.

Pike could not be immediately reached for comment Wednesday.

The incident propelled the sedate, generally apolitical UC Davis campus near Sacramento to the forefront of the anti-Wall Street movement near the height of its popularity. Three days after the incident, University Chancellor Linda Katehi apologized to a crowd of jeering students and faculty calling for her resignation. Campus police Chief Annette Spicuzza was soon placed on leave, and later resigned.

In April, a panel investigating the incident released a scathing report that criticized school and police officials. Several of the seated students who were pepper-sprayed have sued the school. The Yolo County District Attorney's office is still reviewing the matter to determine whether criminal charges should be filed, the Sacramento Bee reported.

The incident came days after a pre-dawn New York City Police Department raid of Zuccotti Park last November that cleared out the original Occupy Wall Street encampment.

Read more here and here.