"I see it as the media sees it."

The picture on the right was posted on the wall of a Facebook friend of mine. Let's call him Skippy.

Now, Skippy is a good guy, wife and a kid, Marine Corps, all of that. What you refer to as "one of the good cops." He is now a Detective Sergeant with the West Warwick Police Department, but when we first met he was a Patrolman in the Community Policing Office, running the Police Explorer's program.

Now, at one time, I had flirted with the idea of becoming a police officer (hence my number of years as a Police Explorer, learning the basics, going on ride-alongs, the whole lot), and having had such exposure to them and their line of work, and being associated with them in the minds of many people that know me, I'll occasionally catch flack whenever there are reports in the media about "police brutality."

Take for example the (hilarious, in the "I'm going to burn in hell for laughing" kind of way) picture of the "other point of view" of the UCDavis students being pepper-sprayed by a police lieutenant; Pike, I believe his name is.

No sooner had it happened than it seems everyone and their brother had heard about it, seen the pics (including one naming Lt. Pike, listing his phone number, and urging us to call), and the video of him walking back and forth liberally applying the irritant to the seated students.

Truth be told, I was not as outraged as many of my peers, and as it would seem no where near as outraged as it was expected of me, being the Editor-in-Chief of a student newspaper. I just could not say, with what little evidence I was provided (by a decidedly biased source, that of students at a protest) whether or not I felt the use of pepper spray was appropriate or not.

Now, my determination of what is an appropriate use comes from my time learning under Skippy. The use of force is governed by many things, but the simplest to explain (and it suits our purposes now) is the Force Continuum. In brief (and I really hope I don't bungle this too badly), the least amount of force an officer can exert is his physical prescence, just being there is a deterent. Next would be verbal commands, followed by irritants such as pepper spray, then open-hand strikes and batons, and finally lethal force (applied strikes with a baton or the use of a fire-arm). There is no "starting place" and no proscribed order of steps to follow, the officer must assess the situation and determine which level of force is appropriate. This is a constantly changing dynamic, requiring reassessment, proper training, and a cool head.

From Lt. Pike's demeanor as he sprayed the students, it seemed to me that he was in full application of all three. But I didn't dig too deeply into the events leading up to the incident, it was just easier not to, and frankly, I didn't much care.

None of the students got hurt (that's right, there are absolutely zero lasting or permanent effects from pepper spray. None. Though there may be some complications if an individual suffers from asthma... that's why the police have radios to call for an ambulance, and they are all trained in first aid themselves), they just had a rather bad day.

Now, before you get all huffy, yes, I have been pepper sprayed, numerous times. Part of my training with Skippy involved pepper spray, the same stuff that was used in UCDavis. And I can tell you, it burns like the dickens, and then it stops. Gizmodo.com would have you believe that this is some sort of super-bear-stopping spray and is outlawed by the Geneva Convention and such, that is simply not true. The reason that the officer is supposed to maintain a 6' distance is to limit his exposure due to blowback (kind of hard to cuff a guy when you can't see and have snot running down your face).

So, why did I bother to write this little essay? And what's with the title, kind of ironic for a newspaper-man to take a dig like that, no?

Well, no, not at all. I was poking around a bit on YouTube (at the prompting of another buddy of mine) and found a fifteen-minute compilation of footage from that day that showed the events leading up to the spraying. What it showed (and truth, I did not watch it all, fifteen minutes is too long for a YouTube attention span) was Lt. Pike (who identified himself, by name, numerous times) giving an over abundance of orders to disperse and opportunity for the students to do so.

He then, very calmly, and very carefully, carried out his orders and attempted to restore order (as he is bound to do, whether or not the law he is required to uphold in this matter is debate for another day), with as little conflict as possible. Let me stress that, as little conflict as possible. Remember the Force Continuum? He started with the lowest possible force, presence, then moved to commands, and when that was not enough he (finally, after longer than possibly I would have) escalated to the next lowest amount of force.

Did he have the skirmish lines move in, batons swinging, no. He, alone, went in and employed a chemical irritant, as he was well within the right to do so.

Now, I cannot speak for his personal, private motivations, but I can say, confidently, that I do not disagree with his actions, as shown by the evidence I've discovered.

And really, I suppose that is all I ask, that you do not base your thoughts, ideas, and opinions on barely half-formed information. For in the end, half-formed is all they will be. And half-formed thoughts are the realm of cabbages.