Lieutenant Pike, Li Gang, and China's Internet dilemma

[bemildred]

The ecology of the Internet varies little from country to country. The cross border similarities of the Internet were demonstrated the weekend of November 19-20, as the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) feasted on Schadenfreude (joy in someone else's misfortune), courtesy of Lieutenant John Pike of the University of California Davis campus police.

Pike, tasked with clearing a walkway on the UC Davis campus of a seated row of passively resisting Occupy Wall Street demonstrators, strolled down the line and hosed the faces of the protestors with pepper spray with the casual demeanor of an exterminator dealing with a cockroach infestation.

The spectacle of the fitness-challenged Pike, bulging out of his black uniform, armed with an oversized container of pepper spray the size and color of a fire extinguisher, sporting a Darth Vaderish riot helmet, and seemingly relishing the role of bullying small-town cop, confirmed the disastrous optics of the event.

Photos and video of the event went viral and gave the Chinese state media an opportunity to point out that the United States, which has demanded that oppressive regimes (like the People's Republic of China) grant their citizens free expression, is not equally welcoming when local, home-grown anti-capitalist demonstrators threaten the fragile self-regard of the rich, public hygiene in the city center, and downtown shopping in the crucial Thanksgiving-to-Christmas period.

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/China/MK24Ad01.html