Justice in the U.S.A

Cop who pepper-sprayed 

student protesters awarded 

$38,000 for ‘psychiatric 

damage’

Toronto Star,

12 December, 2013

LOS ANGELES-A former University of California policeman who stirred public outrage by pepper-spraying peaceful student protesters has been awarded $38,000 in worker’s compensation for psychiatric damage he claimed to have suffered from the 2011 incident, the university said on Wednesday.

Police pepperspray students in ‘chilling’ video

Then-campus police Lieutenant John Pike came to symbolize law enforcement aggression against anti-Wall Street protests at the time when video footage widely aired on TV and the Internet showed him casually dousing demonstrators in the face with a can of pepper spray as they sat on the ground.

Pike was suspended from his job at UC Davis and ultimately left the force in July 2012, but university officials did not disclose the circumstances of his departure.

s Station

A scathing 190-page report on the incident found that university officials and UC Davis police used poor judgment and excessive force in the confrontation. And the incident was widely mocked in satirical messages posted on the Internet in which still photos of Pike wielding his pepper spray were inserted into famed works or art or pop culture images.

The university last fall agreed to pay $1 million to settle a lawsuit brought on behalf of the 21 students who got sprayed and later reported suffering panic attacks, trauma and academic problems as a result.

In June of this year, Pike himself filed a worker’s compensation claim with UC Davis over the incident, saying he suffered unspecified psychiatric and nervous system damage, though the document did not explain how he claimed to have been harmed, records show.

On Oct. 16, the state Division of Workers Compensation Appeals Board agreed to resolve his claim by paying him a settlement totaling $38,055, UC Davis spokesman Andy Fell said on Wednesday.

“This case has been resolved in accordance with state law and processes on workers’ compensation,” Fell said in a written statement. “The final resolution is in line with permanent impairment as calculated by the state’s disability evaluation unit.”

Fell said he was not at liberty to elaborate on Pike’s claim or the circumstances behind it.

The San Francisco Chronicle reported that Pike had earned more than $110,000 from his job in 2010, citing a database of state worker salaries from the last year for which figures are available.

The newspaper said he had received more than 17,000 angry or threatening emails, 10,000 text messages and hundreds of letters after the video of the pepper-spraying went viral.

UC Davis Chancellor Linda Katehi had asked prosecutors to look into possible criminal charges against the police officers involved in the pepper-spraying. But the Yolo County District Attorney’s office determined there were no grounds on which to bring a case.

Updated: Teen Kills 4; Judge 

LITERALLY Lets Him Off 

Because He is Rich!

Daily Kos,

11 December, 2013

I wish this was a snark.  But this is so shocking it makes me ill.

16-year old Ethan Couch was driving drunk at THREE times the legal limit and had Valium in his system.  He plowed into four people going 70 miles per hour in a 40 mile per hour zone, killing them.  Other victims are severely injured; one has severe brain damage.  Even after he killed and maimed those people, he was uncooperative and combative with the emergency services and walked away from the police saying "I'm outta here".

He pleaded guilty, of course.  But Ethan's parents are very wealthy. (We are talking the 1%.)  They hired an attorney that brought on a psychologist to say Couch was "a product of wealth" and was used to getting "whatever he wanted".  Because he was so affluent and accustomed to never having consequences, the attorney argued that he should get therapy as opposed to jail.

This was the argument, mind you, used in the defense:

He said Couch got whatever he wanted. As an example, Miller said Couch's parents gave no punishment after police ticketed the then-15-year-old when he was found in a parked pickup with a passed out, undressed 14-year-old girl.

Miller also pointed out that Couch was allowed to drive at 13. He said the teen was emotionally flat and needed years of therapy. At the time of the fatal wreck, Couch had a blood alcohol content of .24, said Tarrant County Sheriff Dee Anderson. It is illegal for a minor to drive with any amount of alcohol in his or her system.

Prosecutors tried to get 20 years.   The Defense argued for therapy and probation.

Texas State District Judge Jean Boyd bought the inane "I'm too rich for consequences" defense and actually sided with the Defense and gave him probation:

(Video of the breaking news report.  Includes talk with a victim's family member.)

The kid is not remorseful in the slightest.  I'm sure he always expected to get off. 

 He always has before. Meanwhile, the victim's families are devastated.

Tell me again how there are NOT two Americas and two sets of rules.  

Look at this lady, this young man, and this poor kid.   Notice a theme?  

Does anyone for a second think if this kid was poor and black he would not be facing death row?

After all, Texas executed this guy even though he was mentally retarded.  Yet that's never been a legitimate defense in Texas.  

But apparently, if you are white and superich, "affluenza" now is.

Disgraceful.