Call it the douse of pepper spray heard 'round the world.
The UC-Davis police officer caught on camera shooting a bright red stream of highly concentrated, gaseous chili pepper onto a docile group of student protesters has inflamed a fiery national debate over just how harmful pepper spray can be.
Instead of dispersing the tension at the usually placid Northern California campus near Sacramento, Lt. John Spike's pepper spray cannister has fueled the controversy into a growing encampment and spurred plans for a major general strike Monday with sympathizers streaming in from across the state. There are now a geodesic dome and nearly 100 tents, donated from as far away as Egypt -- with more on the way.
"We've doubled in size, and we can double in size, again," said Geoffrey Wildanger, 23, of Los Altos, who was one of the students sprayed Friday in what's become a touchstone moment for the Occupy movement.
And suddenly, pepper spray is the focus of a national conversation, fomented by Fox News, MSNBC and Photoshopped images of Lt. John Spike dousing the Declaration of Independence. While to one side it's a chemical weapon, to the other it's as y harmless as the sauce poured on chicken wings.
Wildanger said he even still felt the burning four days later when he stepped into a hot shower.
"My eyes burned. The steam seemed to activate it," said Wildanger.
Another protester vomited blood, he said. Others felt burning on their hands for a day, and two were treated at the hospital.
Pepper spray is almost ubiquitous in California, legal for purchase by anyone, and easily found on the Internet. Mountain View Surplus sells a canister, called The Jogger, for $11.99. For the fashion conscious, a stylish pink canister, with a "Fight Breast Cancer" logo, costs only $9.99.
"But it should be used for people, as a defense," said Chris Gordon, sales associate at Mountain View Surplus.
"That's the opposite of what I saw -- it was used against the people. It was reminiscent of a police state. People don't consider that could happen here."
There's another difference: the civilian sizes are small, only 2.5 ounces -- holding just a fraction of the spray that UC-Davis police cannisters unleashed.
Known as oleoresin capsicum or OC, pepper spray is made from the same naturally-occurring chemical that makes chili peppers hot, but at concentrations much higher.
University of California-San Francisco researchers have discovered that the startling "hot" sensation is caused when the chemical binds directly to proteins in pain- and heat-sensing neurons.
Its defenders say it is a temporary irritant that can prevent far greater harm. In an interview with Fox News' Bill O'Reilly, attorney Megyn Kelly called it "a food product, essentially."
Its effects can include temporary blindness, coughing and skin irritation. The most serious problems occurs when pepper spray is inhaled, because capsicum inflames the airways, causing swelling and restriction -- a real threat to anyone with respiratory problems.
"Even from a distance, 20 to 30 feet away, it got in my eyes and brought me immediately to my knees,'' said former UC-Berkeley student George Ciccariello-Maher, now a professor at Drexel, who was sprayed during a 2001 rally in Canada.
"The immediate reaction is to force your eyes shut," he said. And my nostrils poured mucus all over my face."
There is near universal agreement on this: Pepper spray is a tool to preserve peace, not break up peaceful protests.
That's why many were outraged by Pike's seemingly casual posture, photographed by psychobiology student Louise Macabitas.
That photograph has been parodied throughout the Internet, with a pepper-spraying Pike Photoshopped into more than 1,000 images by famous painters -- from Wyeth to Picasso and DaVinci. Even Julie Andrews, atop a mountain in "The Sound of Music," got zapped.
Half a dozen law enforcement officials interviewed for this story agreed that the use of pepper spray at UC-Davis did not appear to be appropriate or reasonable. All agreed that the incident would not likely have happened at their agencies. Most said they had been sprayed as part of their training and described it as extremely painful.
"Our policy is that we do not use pepper spray or Tasers or batons against passively resisting people," said Santa Clara County Assistant Sheriff Peter Rode.
"It's a public safety issue. If they are blocking an intersection, then of course you have to move them. But if they aren't, then you might want to let them sit out there and get tired and go home. You go the path of least resistance."
To Ernie Burwell, a retired force expert and longtime deputy in the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department, the UC-Davis incident could have been avoided.
"You've got a passive group of people. They are not threatening anybody. They are not trying to flee," he said. "What kind of country have we become where we are starting to use force on passive protesters?"
San Jose Police Sgt. Jason Dwyer said he has only used pepper spray once in his 13 year career -- to break up a violent fight between two women who were kicking in stiletto heels.
"On some people -- sometimes intoxicated or angry -- it can tick them off even more," he said.
On a grand scale, that appears to be exactly what happened at UC-Davis.
Y'all know that police officers don't take kindly to us peons not asking "How high?" when they tell us to jump, don't you?
Please. The casualness of it all shows the cop wasn't thinking he was in danger....he carefully shook the can of spray and sprayed those kids like he was applying hairspray.
