The $38,056 workers’ compensation payout awarded to UC Davis Officer John Pike, the cop made infamous for pepper-spraying a group of seated Occupy Wall Street protesters, won’t set him up for life, as potential disability benefits would have, but it’s a handsome payout. And it’s $8,000 more than the university gave each protester for getting dusted with pepper spray. Pike claimed he suffered depression and anxiety thanks to death threats he and his family received after he became an Internet sensation when footage of him nonchalantly spraying the protesters went viral. The protesters he sprayed sued the school and received settlements of $30,000 each. What lesson can we draw from this? Probably something along the lines of “no such thing as bad publicity.”
