>The reasonable outcome would not have included the pepper spraying of unarmed, seated, peaceful protesters in the eyes.
You're right. Like most crimes, it would have been better if it hadn't been committed. I was thinking specifically about UCD's response, which I still think was reasonable, and timely. Pike lost his job, that's about all that the Uni has the power to do to him, and about all they ought to have the power to do to him. I am disappointed (but not surprised) that the DA didn't charge Pike with official oppression, or something (I'm not a DA, so I don't know what charges would be appropriate or winnable.) But police brutality is a serious problem everywhere in the US, not just the UCD campus. It is difficult to get police to find fault in the behavior of police, and also difficult to get DA's to charge police with a crime. Maybe we should expect more from UCD, but I think the responsibility lies elsewhere. I don't like it when organizations (such as UCD) are able to bring substantial pressure on law enforcement organizations for direct action. I also think it is worth mentioning that less than a year passed between the incident and the settlement, which is crazy fast. UCD could have opted for the ever popular wait-them-out strategy, in which case we'd all forget about it before anything useful happened.
You're right. Like most crimes, it would have been better if it hadn't been committed. I was thinking specifically about UCD's response, which I still think was reasonable, and timely. Pike lost his job, that's about all that the Uni has the power to do to him, and about all they ought to have the power to do to him. I am disappointed (but not surprised) that the DA didn't charge Pike with official oppression, or something (I'm not a DA, so I don't know what charges would be appropriate or winnable.) But police brutality is a serious problem everywhere in the US, not just the UCD campus. It is difficult to get police to find fault in the behavior of police, and also difficult to get DA's to charge police with a crime. Maybe we should expect more from UCD, but I think the responsibility lies elsewhere. I don't like it when organizations (such as UCD) are able to bring substantial pressure on law enforcement organizations for direct action. I also think it is worth mentioning that less than a year passed between the incident and the settlement, which is crazy fast. UCD could have opted for the ever popular wait-them-out strategy, in which case we'd all forget about it before anything useful happened.