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Former LAPD chief William Bratton has been tapped by the University of California to lead the official examination of the UC Davis pepper spraying of passive student protesters. Bratton referred to the report into the LAPD's costly 2007 May Day melee at MacArthur Park, when he was chief, saying "I am looking for a similar report that will give a truthful and objective, candid account of the events" at Davis. UC president Mark Yudof said the creation of an outside panel was spurred in part by the Davis chancellor, Linda Katehi, and by Assembly Speaker John Perez, who has already scheduled a Dec. 14 hearing in Sacramento to look into UC police handling of student protests. Katehi visited the Occupy Davis tent city on Tuesday without incident.
The UC police officer who casually sprayed the students last week has been identified as Lt. John Pike, a former Marine sergeant who has a record of heroism on the campus police force but also was cited in a complaint about anti-gay slurs filed by a fellow officer. Meanwhile, another batch of artwork mash-ups with Pike placed in them were posted Tuesday at the Pepper Spraying Cop Tumblr page, some of them reaching, some of them inspired, like the one above. Click to enlarge.