Union rules protect pepper-spraying cop from the firing he deserves

By David McElroy · April 20, 2012

After UC-Davis Police Lt. John Pike was shown pepper-spraying peaceful students five months ago, the biggest question on the minds of some people was how quickly the guy would be fired. Due to union rules, though, Pike is still on the job and it’s unlikely he’ll ever be fired.

It was pretty clear to anybody who watched the initial video that Pike was way out of line, but it’s become clear since then that he and the school were even more in the wrong than we realized at the time. In fact, the official investigation into the incident shows that there wasn’t even any legal basis for police or college officials to demand the students leave the school’s quad.

At the time, we all thought the students were engaging in civil disobedience. The actions of Pike and other police that day were clearly excessive, but we assumed that the order to disperse was legal. It turns out that it wasn’t even a legal order. So there wasn’t a legal basis for asking the students to leave and the official report faults Pike with bad judgement and unprofessionalism for the pepper-spraying and other things that day. So why is he still employed?

In California, police unions have negotiated due process rights that ordinary citizens would never be allowed. First, the official report of the incident by the university can’t be used against Pike. The only thing that can be taken into account is an internal affairs investigation done by two former police officers and an attorney. Pike refused to cooperate and his superior likewise refused to be interviewed by the investigators. And the panel isn’t allowed to use any information that it didn’t gather itself.

Their methods are secret. After the report is prepared, it won’t be made public. It will be submitted to a committee to certify that it was conducted properly. Even then, there’s no guarantee that any action will be taken based on what they might find. The public will never have any idea what happens. The only thing we know is that Pike is still employed. It seems unlikely that will change.

It’s ironic that Pike is going to be protected by his union-negotiated rules. Unions are pretty tightly allied with the progressive left agenda of the Occupy movement. Those who advocate for unions don’t seem to understand what they really stand for and how much power they really have, especially among government workers.

It’s theoretically possible that Pike will be disciplined, I suppose, but the rules are set up to protect him and I see no reason to believe he won’t get away with it. The interests of the union is keeping jobs for its members at all costs. Justice and public safety are completely irrelevant — and that’s why this law should be changed and why naive people need to realize that unions aren’t the saintly organizations they believe.

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On a live awards show Sunday night, one man made a joke about a female celebrity. The husband of the celebrity was offended and hit the man who made the joke. Or maybe it was staged for entertainment. Who knows? Who cares? Social media is full of discussion — and even arguments — about this idiocy today. This baffles me. Let’s assume for a moment that the event happened as reported. People have been having such idiotic fights ever since there have been humans. Half the bars in the world see such brief dustups regularly. It simply doesn’t matter. The fact that so many people believe they need to talk about this — or even need to have opinions about it — is more evidence of the bizarre media brainwashing that convinces many to care passionately about brain-dead trivia. Your life will be happier and saner if you focus on yourself, your family and your friends, not on whatever scripted (or spontaneous) bilge that the media wants to pipe into your home.

I’m in the middle of migrating this website to new servers this week. This means you might encounter some unexpected behavior until I get all the bugs worked out. Clicking on my links (including this one) might cause your browser to give you the message that it’s a site without a current security certificate. It’s not actually unsafe, but there’s something which isn’t yet set up for the security certificate. I apologize for any such errors you might encounter while the process is going on. If you notice any problems with content which didn’t migrate properly, I would appreciate you letting me know the details at davidmcelroy@mac.com. Thanks for your patience.

I often wonder what animals think when they look at us and consider the society we’ve created. Yes, I know this is fanciful and unrealistic, but what if they could? Would they be astounded at how we treat each other? Would they be disgusted by the ugliness and pettiness which fill so many of our daily interactions? The truth is that I’m feeling pretty disgusted with humanity tonight. I made the mistake of reading some online interactions that I should have avoided — and it sickened me. The people involved appeared to be vile and stupid and arrogant. I wish I could pretend they’re a tiny minority, but I know better. It’s times such as this when I most need to escape much of “civilization” and disconnect from their world. If humans are going to be worthy of “ruling this planet,” we have a lot of growth to do. And I fear that growth is nowhere in sight. So my buddy Thomas, above, and all of his friends would be right to judge us harshly — and to think, “Why do you folks get to be in charge?”

I should have expected this, but I honestly didn’t. The article I wrote last week about disagreements over treatment for autistic children brought me angry emails. You could almost call it “hate mail.” Of the five emails about it so far, two have been to tell me that I’m wrong to even listen to critics of the most popular therapy for autistic children — and the other three tell me I’m wrong for not condemning the treatment as the “obvious” abuse it is. If you read the article, you know I didn’t take a position on the issue, because I simply don’t know enough to have an opinion. But by talking about the issue, I stepped into a heated controversy. The emails from the two sides convinced me of nothing. But they did give me even more empathy for the unfortunate parents who have to figure out for themselves where the truth lies for their children.

Have you ever had what you thought was a new idea — and then discovered that “old you” had the same idea years ago? I had that experience tonight. And it’s been wonderful. I came up with an idea tonight for a very short satirical film that would be a promotion for a fictitious college. The point is to make the college promote — as good things — everything which is actually terrible about most modern colleges. Then I remembered a fake college that I invented back when I was in college. I had created student recruitment brochures and various newsletters back then, so I decided to call my “new” college by the same name I’d invented years ago: Ochita College. As I searched my computer for any old material I might still have about Ochita from the past, I discovered an email I sent to someone in 2009 — outlining essentially the same idea which I came up with tonight. Since I didn’t remember writing that, it felt like magic. So my next film project just might be this one instead. If all goes well, you might soon see “Ochita College: Your Future Starts Here.” This should be fun.

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