The Young Victoria

Look at this pork dumpling. I mean, just look at him — pear-shaped and slouchy, pug-nosed and stupid looking, sporting a handlebar mustache as if to hide the fact that he might have down’s syndrome.

He’s practically a cartoon of a campus cop, and this picture of him would be little more than silly if it weren’t taken moments before he walked up to a row of peaceful protesters at UC Davis and blasted them in the face with pepper spray so casually you’d think he was watering his fucking lawn.

If ever there were a poster boy for the banality of evil, it would be this guy.

For the record, his name is John Pike and he’s a Lieutenant with the UC Davis Police. Not that his name matters, because he’s unremarkable in every way.

That’s the point, really. He’s just an average schlub working for an average campus police force at an average school in an average town. He is painfully average. This guy spends his days writing reports for stolen bicycles and confiscating open cans of Four Loko. Sure, he’s got a gun and a badge, but who are we kidding? He’s one notch above mall security.

Pathetic men like John Pike are precisely why the banality of evil is such a potent concept, and it’s all those empty heads underneath those ridiculous storm trooper helmets that lead to this kind of normalization of authoritarian violence.

This is the part where I’m supposed to say “fuck the police,” but when tubs of shit like this are making the news, I honestly don’t have any more fucks to give.

At this point, I’ll be surprised if he’s even reprimanded.

(v)