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OWS Pepper Spray Cop Gets Payday

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Doc Savage Fan

Doc Savage Fan

Lifer
http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/...r-spray-20131024,0,619789.story#axzz2j1lDOGXb

UC pays $38,055 to officer involved in pepper-spray incident
By Larry Gordon
October 24, 2013, 5:57 a.m.

A former UC Davis police officer who received worldwide notoriety for pepper-spraying campus protesters two years ago will be receive $38,055 in workers' compensation after claiming he suffered depression and anxiety as result of the public outcry.

John Pike, who had filed for the compensation from the University of California system, also cited the stress he endured from death threats he received after the incident. Pike was fired in July 2012, after being on paid administrative leave for eight months.

“This case has been resolved in accordance with state law and processes on workers' compensation,” UC Davis spokesman Andy Fell said in a statement.

The settlement, first detailed by the Davis Enterprise newspaper, was approved by an administrative law judge last week. A psychiatrist in the case rated Pike’s disability as moderate and said the former officer faced “significant emotional upheavals,” according to the newspaper.

In an online video that went viral, Pike was shown spraying the seated demonstrators close to their faces while they offered no resistance. The Nov. 18, 2011, spraying provoked outrage on campus and around the UC system, and a public task force investigation found that Pike’s action was unwarranted.

Settling a civil lawsuit, the UC system last year agreed to pay damages of $30,000 to each of the 21 UC Davis students and alumni who were pepper-sprayed during the otherwise peaceful protest related to the Occupy movement.

187x105


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VzOTj9axGVs

So the cop who pepper sprays all those kids gets more money than his victims? I can't imagine the depression and anxiety he had to deal with....much less having half the world thinking you're a subhuman pig. Welcome to America....a country where scumbags like John Pike are free to hurt innocents and then work the system to their financial advantage.
 
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Doc Savage Fan said:
It's generally cheaper to settle than fight a WC claim when it's relatively small.
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That doesn't really apply here. Workman's comp laws explicitly ignore fault so the only thing they could fight him on was that he was lying about his condition.

The purpose of workman's comp is that it immunizes the employer from lawsuits by their employers but makes it easier for workers to collect as they don't have to prove negligence. I've always thought there should be some sort of exception for gross negligence on the part of the employee, however.
 
eskimospy said:
That doesn't really apply here. Workman's comp laws explicitly ignore fault so the only thing they could fight him on was that he was lying about his condition.

The purpose of workman's comp is that it immunizes the employer from lawsuits by their employers but makes it easier for workers to collect as they don't have to prove negligence. I've always thought there should be some sort of exception for gross negligence on the part of the employee, however.
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They could've denied his claim on the basis that his injury wasn't serious, that he didn't need time off for his injury, suspicion of fraud, injury was caused by substance abuse, the condition was pre-existing...or the injury can be shown to have been intentionally self-inflicted by the employee...which appears to be the case imo. Also, the claim did not involve physical injury...these are typically denied per the following:

http://www.kentonslawoffice.com/mental-stress-claims.html

Almost all Mental-Mental (Psychiatric or stress claims that do not also involve a physical injury i.e. Mental-Physical) are denied. Most of these cases are also lost at trial due to the good faith personnel action defense.

A Mental-Mental claim that is caused by being the victim of a crime at work, witnessing a sudden violent event, or being the victim of sexual harassment may be a viable mental - mental claims.
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eskimospy said:
That doesn't really apply here. Workman's comp laws explicitly ignore fault so the only thing they could fight him on was that he was lying about his condition.

The purpose of workman's comp is that it immunizes the employer from lawsuits by their employers but makes it easier for workers to collect as they don't have to prove negligence. I've always thought there should be some sort of exception for gross negligence on the part of the employee, however.
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This would mean then that worker's comp would administer the same legal standards to some jack off as it would to a decent person like myself, exercising blind justice instead of emotional judgments to the law. Jesus, this would mean that my opinion about who deserves what wouldn't carry any legal weight at all. I guess I'll have to look on the bright side. If I went around telling people they hate themselves, as only an idiot would, I wouldn't be able to collect a dime if my boss ran me over intentionally after with a Mack truck after threatening me in front of hundreds of witnesses, otherwise.
 
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