# Casually Pepper Spray Everything Cop > Casually Pepper Spray Everything Cop is a 2011 Photoshop meme featuring UC Davis Police Lt. John Pike nonchalantly pepper-spraying Occupy protesters, inserted into famous paintings, historical photographs, and pop culture scenes. Casually Pepper Spray Everything Cop is a Photoshop meme built around a photograph of UC Davis Police Lt. John Pike nonchalantly dousing seated Occupy protesters with pepper spray on November 18, 2011. The image, taken by UC Davis student Louise Macabitas, was cut out and inserted into famous paintings, historical photos, album covers, and pop culture scenes across Reddit and Tumblr within days[1]. The meme became one of the defining protest images of the Occupy era, turning Pike's oddly relaxed body language into a tool of internet mockery that major news outlets, musicians, and Amazon reviewers all joined in on[4]. ## Origin On November 18, 2011, students at the University of California, Davis held an Occupy protest on the campus quad. They formed a human chain by linking arms and sitting on a paved path. When they refused police orders to leave, Lt. John Pike and another officer walked down the line and sprayed them directly with pepper spray[2]. Multiple cameras captured the event from different angles. UC Davis psychology student Louise Macabitas took the photograph that would define the meme. Her low-angle shot captured Pike in mid-stride, head elevated above the crowd, pepper spray silhouetted against the sky[3]. That image was posted to Reddit on November 19, 2011, one day after the incident[7]. By November 20, two Photoshopped versions had already appeared on Reddit. One swapped Pike over Strutting Leo. The second removed Pike from the campus and placed him into John Trumbull's 1819 painting *Declaration of Independence*[7]. That same afternoon, a Tumblr blog called It Makes No Sense dropped Pike into Georges Seurat's *A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte*, pulling over 2,400 notes in a single day[7]. - **Platform:** UC Davis campus (source photo by Louise Macabitas), Reddit / Tumblr (viral Photoshop spread) - **Creator:** Louise Macabitas (photographer), anonymous Reddit users (first Photoshop edits) - **Date:** 2011 ## Overview The meme uses a single photograph of Lt. John Pike, a campus police officer in full riot gear, walking along a line of seated students and spraying them with an orange stream of pepper spray. What made the image stick wasn't just the violence. It was Pike's casual posture, one foot forward mid-stride, like someone watering a garden or spraying bugs in a basement[1]. That disconnect between the severity of the act and the breezy body language gave Photoshoppers a perfect cutout figure to drop into any context. The format is simple: Pike's figure is isolated from the original photo and placed into famous artworks, movie stills, iconic photographs, or everyday scenes. The joke works because his relaxed stance looks absurd no matter where you put him, whether he's spraying the Founding Fathers, God in the Sistine Chapel, or a Sunday afternoon in a Seurat painting[4]. ## How It Spread The meme exploded across platforms during the week of November 20-27, 2011. Compilations appeared on the Facebook community Occupy Lulz, Boing Boing, Washington Post, ABC News, Gawker, and BuzzFeed all within the first 48 hours[7]. Four separate single-topic Tumblr blogs dedicated to the meme launched on November 21[7]. A Redditor named andresmh built an interactive web tool where users could drag Pike around the Trumbull painting and spray pepper spray wherever they wanted[7]. Google News coverage of the UC Davis incident peaked on November 22, 2011[7]. Over the following month, the Photoshop images were covered by CBS News, CNet, The Week, and Scientific American[3]. The Guardian's Xeni Jardin wrote that the meme was "a kind of folk art or shared visual joke that is open to sharing and reinterpretation by anyone," comparing Pike's casual body language to the Abu Ghraib photos of Lynndie England[1]. TIME Magazine ran a piece cataloging Pike appearing in Michelangelo's *Creation of Adam* (replacing Adam and spraying God), Delacroix's *Liberty Leading the People*, and other masterworks[4]. The Week framed the meme as a possible defining moment for the Occupy movement, with one commentator comparing its potential lasting power to the Tiananmen Square tank man photo[5]. ## How to Use The format is straightforward. The Photoshop exploitable typically works like this: 1. Find or isolate a clean cutout of Lt. Pike from the original photo, showing him in his riot gear holding the pepper spray canister at arm's length 2. Place him into a famous painting, historical photograph, movie scene, album cover, or any image where his presence would be absurd or pointed 3. Optionally add the orange pepper spray stream directed at figures in the target image ## Cultural Impact The meme crossed from internet in-joke to mainstream political commentary almost immediately. Coverage appeared in The Guardian, TIME, The Week, NPR, Scientific American, CNN, CBS News, The Wall Street Journal, and The New York Times within the first week alone[1][2][4][5]. USC academic Jennifer Lee wrote a paper analyzing the meme's role in what she termed "slacktivism," arguing that while the Photoshops kept the issue alive in public consciousness, the viral one-sided framing limited critical assessment of the full incident[17]. Her paper noted that a longer video showing officers warning students before deploying the spray never achieved the same virality as the shorter clips[17]. The meme also fed back into physical protest. Students at UC Davis printed out Photoshopped images as posters and carried them to demonstrations at the exact spot where the spraying had occurred, creating a loop where internet mockery and real-world activism reinforced each other[1]. Pike's background added another layer. CBS News reported he had previously been honored twice for meritorious service, including a 2006 incident where he decided *against* using pepper spray on a hospital patient threatening colleagues with scissors[11]. He was also named in a discrimination lawsuit involving an alleged anti-gay slur, which settled for $240,000 in 2008[11]. ## Fun Facts - The photograph that launched the meme was taken by Louise Macabitas, a UC Davis psychology student. Scientific American analyzed why her specific angle won out over dozens of other photos and videos of the same event[3]. - UC Davis spent at least $175,000 on reputation management firms to try to erase the incident from Google results. The cover-up attempt was exposed in 2016 through a California Public Records Act request and generated its own wave of mockery[13][16]. - Pike received $38,059 in workers' compensation for psychiatric injuries from post-incident harassment, roughly matching the $30,000 each of his 21 student victims received in their federal lawsuit settlement[10][15]. - Pike was a retired U.S. Marines sergeant who had been with the UC Davis police force since 2001. His 2010 salary was $110,243[11][12]. - The development of the meme was so fast that students printed out the Photoshopped images and brought them as protest signs to the same campus quad where the original spraying happened, all within the same week[1]. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### What is Casually Pepper Spray Everything Cop? It's a Photoshop meme based on a photo of UC Davis Police Lt. John Pike casually pepper spraying seated student protesters during an Occupy demonstration on November 18, 2011. The meme involves cutting Pike's figure out and placing him into famous paintings, photos, and pop culture images[1][7]. ### Where did Casually Pepper Spray Everything Cop come from? The source photograph was taken by UC Davis student Louise Macabitas on November 18, 2011, and posted to Reddit the next day. The first Photoshop edits appeared on Reddit on November 20, placing Pike into John Trumbull's *Declaration of Independence* and Seurat's *A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte*[3][7]. ### What does Casually Pepper Spray Everything Cop mean? The meme mocks Pike's nonchalant body language while committing an act of police violence against peaceful students. It became a form of satirical protest, branding Pike's behavior as excessive and turning internet humor into a tool of political commentary[1][5]. ### How do you use Casually Pepper Spray Everything Cop? Isolate Pike's figure from the original photo and Photoshop him into any image. The best results come from famous artworks, historical moments, or beloved cultural scenes, where his presence and pepper spray stream create an absurd or pointed contrast[4][7]. ### Is Casually Pepper Spray Everything Cop still popular? The meme's peak was November-December 2011. It is now a classic example of political Photoshop protest memes from the Occupy era, occasionally resurfacing during discussions of police militarization, but no longer generating new content at scale[5][8]. ### Who was the pepper spray cop? Lt. John Pike, a UC Davis campus police officer and retired U.S. Marines sergeant who had been with the department since 2001. He was placed on paid administrative leave after the incident and left the university on July 31, 2012[9][11]. ### What happened to John Pike after the incident? Pike was placed on administrative leave, then left UC Davis employment on July 31, 2012. A task force found his use of pepper spray "not authorized by policy." He later received $38,059 in workers' compensation for psychiatric injuries from the backlash he faced[6][10]. ### How much were the pepper-sprayed students compensated? UC Davis settled with 21 student plaintiffs for $1 million total in September 2012, paying each student $30,000. An additional $250,000 went to their attorneys through the ACLU[15]. ### What did Megyn Kelly say about the pepper spray? On November 21, 2011, Kelly appeared on Bill O'Reilly's show and described pepper spray as "a food product, essentially," which generated its own advice animal meme series and a Change.org petition challenging her to consume it on air[7][18]. ### Did UC Davis try to cover up the pepper spray incident? Yes. In 2016, it was revealed through public records that UC Davis had spent at least $175,000 on consultants to suppress negative search results about the incident and Chancellor Linda Katehi. The effort largely failed[13][16]. ### Who took the famous pepper spray photo? Louise Macabitas, a UC Davis psychology student, took the photograph from a low angle on the west side of the blocked path. Scientific American analyzed why her specific image became dominant among the many photos and videos captured that day[3]. ### What paintings was Pepper Spray Cop Photoshopped into? Among hundreds of edits, notable targets included Trumbull's *Declaration of Independence*, Seurat's *A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte*, Michelangelo's *Creation of Adam*, Delacroix's *Liberty Leading the People*, Picasso's *Guernica*, and Pink Floyd's *Dark Side of the Moon* album cover[4][7]. ## References 1. [Know Your Meme's 'Casually Pepper Spray Everything Cop' captures public ...]() 2. [Meme of the week: Casually Pepper Spray Everything Cop – Hoyden About Town]() 3. [The Rise of the Casually-Pepper-Spray-Everything Cop]() 4. [Casually Pepper Spray Everything Cop - Know Your Meme]() 5. [UC Davis pepper spray incident]() 6. [A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte]() 7. [Declaration of Independence (painting) - Wikipedia]() 8. [The pepper-spraying cop gets Photoshop justice | Xeni Jardin | The Guardian]() 9. [As if that weren't enough, now the cops are casually pepper spraying great worksof art! - CultureMap Austin]() 10. [Meme Alert: The Casually Pepper Spray Everything Cop | TIME.com]() 11. [U.C. Davis Calls for Investigation After Pepper Spraying - The New York Times]() 12. [Pepper Spraying at UC Davis Leads to Police Suspensions - WSJ]() 13. [Fox News On Pepper Spray: "It's A Food Product, Essentially"]() 14. [10 Occupy protesters arrested in UC Davis quad - Education - The Sacramento Bee]() 15. [The 'Pepper Spray Cop' meme: Silly, offensive, or important? | The Week]() 16. [Officer at center of pepper-spraying incident no longer works at UC Davis - Occupy Protests - The Sacramento Bee]() 17. [Lt. John Pike, UC Davis Pepper Spray Cop, No Longer Working At University | HuffPost College]() 18. ['Pepper Spray Cop' Is No Longer On UC Davis Police Force : The Two-Way : NPR]() 19. [Why One Pepper-Spraying Cop Image Dominates | Scientific American]() 20. [Pepper-spraying policeman departs U.C.-Davis | CNN]() 21. [Judge Orders UC To Release Officers' Names In Davis Pepper Spraying - CBS San Francisco]() 22. [UC Davis pepper spray cop once lauded - CBS News]() 23. [The UC Davis Pepper-Spraying Cop Gets a $38,000 Settlement - The Atlantic]() 24. [Archive blogs - Los Angeles Times]() 25. [UC Davis' 'Pepper Spray Cop' Wins $38K In Workers' Comp : The Two-Way : NPR]() 26. [Ex-campus cop who pepper-sprayed protesters awarded $38K]() 27. [UC To Pay Nearly $1M To Pepper-Sprayed Occupy Protesters - CBS San Francisco]() 28. [UC Davis Tried Really, Really Hard to Erase That 2011 Pepper Spray Incident From the Internet]() 29. [Ballad of the Pepper Spray Cop by harryshearer on SoundCloud - Hear the world’s sounds]() 30. [Spray It Aint So - Worst of the UC Davis Pepper Spray Cop]() 31. [The Pepper Spraying Cop Meme]() 32. [EAT MY SPRAY!]() 33. [Slacktory]() 34. [Lt. John Pike, UC Davis Pepper Spraying Officer, Now out of a Job - San Francisco - News - The Snitch]() 35. [UC Davis Spent $175,000 To Suppress Pepper Spray Incident, Negative News Online - CBS Sacramento]() --- Source: https://meme.com/memes/casually-pepper-spray-everything-cop Published by meme.com — The Internet Meme Library