Rocketboom

Last Friday video and photo evidence captured University of California, Davis Police Lt. John Pike using pepper spray at point blank range to remove UC Davis student protesters sitting peacefully, occupying the quad. The story blew up over the weekend: “UC Davis Pepper Spray” was the #2 “hottest” topic on Google Trends’ Hot Searches on Saturday, an eye-witness video of the incident shot past the 1 million views mark on YouTube in a matter of days, the image of the officer with spray can in hand has become the subject of countless tumblr blogs/reblogs, and practically every major news source has reported on the incident. Lt. Pike, welcome to meme-dom.

With all the visibility and furor, what impact will the incident at UC Davis have on Occupy protests going forward? An article in the The Atlantic suggests a big one, comparing images of the incident to other popular protest-memes of sorts: grainy black-n-whites of Civil Rights era Alabama, the Tank Man at Tiananmen Square, etc. These historic snapshots have reached iconic image status. How far will PepperSprayingCop’s legacy reach?