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UC Davis Spent $175,000 To Bury Search Results After Cops Pepper-Sprayed Protestors (theverge.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Verge: The University of California, Davis spent at least $175,000 to improve its reputation on the internet after images of campus police pepper-spraying protestors went viral in 2011, according to documents obtained by The Sacramento Bee. The money went to public relations firms that promised to clean up the university's search results. One company outlined a plan for "eradication of references to the pepper spray incident," according to the documents, and was eventually paid nearly $93,000, including expenses, for a six-month campaign in 2013. After that, the Bee reports, the university paid $82,500 to another PR firm to create and follow through on a "search engine results management strategy." The latter firm was later given thousands more in other contracts to build a university social media program, and to vet its communications department.
The Streisand effect strikes again. I find it justice that by news outlets reporting that UC Davis paid to cleanse the web of the incident means that people will be reminded of the incident.
Well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it.
Money well spent. Bad news spreads faster than the good variety, and its lifespan is in direct proportion to its infamy.
Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.
Ernest Hemingway
Once it's on the internet, it is there to stay. Even if you delete it moments later. It's like sending a Recall Message request when you send an incorrect email. You're really just giving everyone on the email a heads up that you screwed up, and they'll probably still have the message to read. And people will read it when they otherwise might have ignored it because they see you're trying to hide it. If you made a mistake, own up to it and it will go away faster than any cover up you can possibly come up with.
to bury the burial.
Looks like their investment was worth it, because now the first result on Google is a news article about them trying to clear pepper spray references from the internet.
They could have submitted a "Right to be Forgotten" request to Google. Oh wait, this isn't Europe. Nevermind.
Know what else is great for your reputation? Not acting like a bunch of fucking assholes. And it's free!
We all make mistakes. As a person and as an institution. With the internet the mistakes we take come back to haunt us over and over again.
Never mind the fact that there are a lot of protesters who try to make a martyr out of themselves by walking the line and pushing the peace keepers to their limits, Just to show how bad the people are.
Bad things are easy to explain and gets people's attention. Good things are often complex and boring. So we now live our lives judged bases on our lives at our worst never us at our best.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
... the fact that Davis tried to bury this in the first place, or that they were gullible enough to flush $175K down the toilet for that kind of scam.
I mean, UC Davis trying to wipe their history off the Internet is especially disappointing, considering that University of Calfiornia Davis is an institute of learning.
I'd expect more from UC Davis. The protests were partially in response to tuition hikes in the first place, so where did the money for this come from? Remember the pepper sprayer HIMSELF got $38K in compensation. So add that into the budget.
Oh, UC Davis, how many scholarships could you have created with this money?
For an organization with ~ 500M in revenues that seems pretty low. Obviously they didn't know what to do, so why not ask for advice from the professionals? Their MBA tuition for international students is 50k/year. Invite a few more chines next year - done!
Watch the video. One man may have pulled the trigger, but 5-10+ more stood by and watched.
Brilliance without wisdom, power without conscience. Ours is a world of nuclear giants and ethical infants.
Actually, the "low-paid security guard" was a Lieutenant in the UC Davis Campus police. Likely earning in the US$60-70K region . . .
Hired PR can paper over the effects of an errant email, but if you try to erase a news event, you just spammed Barbra Streisand.
The appropriate response to a lone wolf security guard from a PR standpoint is to issue a statement that it was the act of a single guard, that guard has been sacked, and measures have been put in place to prevent it from happening again. It would have gotten some finger-wagging and ultimately blown-over.
Pursuing a cover-up campaign makes it look a lot more sinister, indicating (right or wrong) that the university supports the behavior, and we get to dig the story back up in the future like we are now. It reinforces the idea that the guard's actions were indeed representative of the university.
"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."
That counts as low pay in California, doesn't it?
Welcome to teh intarWebz, UC Davis!
Your employee's casual callousness has earned you a permanent place in the memeverse firmaminment. Deal with it. Just lie back, relax and wait for the next funny cat video to take the internet by storm.
Sigh.
The fuckers that tried to cover up the facts should be fired.
The fuckers that don't understand th webs should be fired.
The fuckers that squandered taxpayer money covering their asses should be fired.
The fuckers that gave that scumbag John Pike (pepper spray cop) worker's comp should be fired.
That fucker John Pike should be fired. (he was)
Hey, at least they weren't using bullets this time, so we've made progress.
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
Your tuition fees at work. Shouldn't that money be spent on a good education?
bickerdyke
There is no freedom of speech on university campuses even if the country has freedom of speech.
Totalitarianism on campus.
The fact that a no-name college felt it had $175K to burn on PR tells you everything you really need to know about college affordability: there's plenty of fat at the top. Cut that first and maybe people can start buying their education with proceeds from their summer job (and have a little left over for beer) again.
They behave the same.
That counts as low pay in California, doesn't it?
Unless you live in SF or Palo Alto or something that is fine, and you can live on it. There's plenty of communities outside Davis where you can live nicely on that. It might be a little tight for a family in Davis.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
"According to a database of state worker salaries, he earned $119,067 in 2011, the last year for which figures are available."
He received $38,000 in workman's compensation for the suffering he experienced after the event, which isn't included in the salary figure.
http://www.sfgate.com/politics...
Lt John Pike of UC Davis received $38k in compensation for the trauma he suffered which was 8k more than the protesters he assaulted.
And the winner of the annual competition for the Streisand effect trophy is!!!
Elok
Stories have a way of being buried once people move on. You don't need to bury anything. Just don't acknowledge it anymore than you have to, and focus your efforts on doing things that are actually positive. Universities love to give awards to their students and faculty. They love to talk up any big grants they get or interesting research findings. The story would have been buried on its own without spending anything to explicitly do that.
I work at the University of Nebraska. I'm posting anonymously for reasons that will soon be obvious. I'm a postdoc and I do research in the physical sciences. If I said precisely what work I do, I'd give up my anonymity, and I'm not prepared to do so. I enjoy doing research, but I don't want to teach because I had a miserable experience when I did. It's unlikely I'd ever experience such a situation again, but the one experience destroyed my interest. It's not that I'm not welcome to teach again, but I just don't think I could bring myself to do it again. I do good research, and I'm happy to work hard. My research is used to bring additional grant money to the University. I've written proposals that include funding for undergrads, grad students, and even summer funding for my boss. Despite this, I'm always under threat of losing my job because there might not be funding. It pisses me off every time I see wasteful spending around the university. They recently spent $10 million on the so-called Love Library Learning Commons. The purpose was to put a lounge and Dunkin Donuts in the library while removing books. Of course, the recently renovated student union is a couple hundred feet away and serves that very same purpose. It's a waste of money, which could have been spent on so many more productive things.
It makes my blood boil when I see so much money wasted in academia. The $175,000 was a total waste, and it's actually relatively small compared to some of the waste that I see.
And who pays for this sort of thing? The students, and all the taxpayers in the US. When you get a federal grant, you have F&A costs, which are the overhead of the university. Typically they're a little over 50% of the direct costs. I'd bet that some of the $175,000 came from indirect costs in external awards. And believe me, this sort of thing isn't uncommon and really isn't that large as university waste goes.
Even if you don't live in California a good percentage of the money UC has is from Government grants. You not only paid for the officer pepper spraying people who were sitting and completely peaceful, but you paid for the huge amount of Government propaganda surrounding the incident _and_ the coverup. That you paid for it all should really really piss you off.
-The wise argue that there are few absolutes, the fool argues that there are no probabilities.
The appropriate response to a lone wolf security guard from a PR standpoint is to issue a statement that it was the act of a single guard
Hey, Junior, RTFM. It wasn't a "security guard", it was a fucking cop. It wasn't just the school that paid this guy's salary, it was all of us.
Pursuing a cover-up campaign makes it look a lot more sinister, indicating (right or wrong) that the university supports the behavior
They do. That's why their own personal police department (and schools very much do set the tone for their PDs) is hiring people who think that pepper spraying peaceful protesters is a good idea.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
Islam sounds like a great idea until a retarded full of money buys the cops and your parents to make You marry another suicidal retarded without self respect.
That fucking pig who pepper sprayed the peaceful protestors needs to be introduced to the "Black Bag" effect.
What's that you may ask, although I'm sure you're already guessing where I'm going with this...
First you get to know this pig's routine, then when he's most vulnerable, have a few people approach him from the front
and when he's unaware, have someone from behind slip a black bag over his head with a draw string and attempt to
choke the life out of him while at the same time, the other people join in on the shit kicking of that fucking pig's
life. Beat that fucker to an inch of his life, then tell him it's for the pepper spray incident. Also, let him know if
he pulls that shit again, he's dead. I think if more pigs are introduced to the "Black Bag" effect, they will become
more civil, maybe even human.
You'd think they would shoot the messengers first after this.
For those with a short memory or foreigners, here's the Wikipedia page about the incident.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
Especially funny is the following fact:
"In October 2013, a judge ruled that Lt. John Pike, the lead pepper sprayer, would be paid $38,000 in worker's compensation benefits, to compensate for his psychological pain and suffering."
Which also means he was acting on orders from superiors.
There are two types of people in the world: Those who crave closure
Multiple officers pepper sprayed the students. And not one officer stopped the incident.
Well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it.
There's also that little First Amendment thingy.
They need to get their money back. I started to type "UC Davis ..." into a search engine and auto complete filled in " ... pepper spray".
Have gnu, will travel.
Meet Barbara Streisand.
Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
Yo, internet tough guy, you one of those who piss their pants when they see a mall cop, hunh?
Well, it was a campus police officer which is in the gray area. The reason it's a "cop" instead of a "security guard" is because the institution is run by the government instead of a private organization. Otherwise it's the same as a security guard. "Who pays" for that "cop" is a matter of how you think about the funding of public colleges -- and remember that private colleges get a lot of "public" money, too. I think you've made a distinction with no difference.
It's probably a good idea to link to some references about the University of California, Davis pepper spray incident.
http://peppersprayingcop.tumbl...
The truth is somewhere in the middle.
UC Davis motto: "Let There Be Light." As long as, you know, it doesn't reflect poorly on us or give donors and student cash-cows pause...
1st page links = SEO optimization ads. Happened w/ APK Hosts File Engine - Better vs. inferior competitors & I've yet to be proven validly technically wrong & many liking my ware.
Doesn't happen?
See https://news.slashdot.org/comm...
BIG MONEY DOES IT ALL THE TIME!
Spin, Lies, Damage Control, Frame a discussion, control a narrative & contain a situation tactics. It's not about facts or truth, it's about controlling perception (via deception).
Arstechnica's ZontarTheMindless sockpuppet lies https://it.slashdot.org/commen... ).
Trolls attack a messenger but never disproving facts in the message https://news.slashdot.org/comm...
(Advertisers + webmasters & inferior competitors do it in MY case- I've busted JustAnotherOldGuy & AndyMadigan in it & their motives as webmaster + marketer)
Trying to say AV call my ware a 'malware' they retracted it as wrong https://it.slashdot.org/commen... /.'s owner whipslash tried stopping me BRAGGING HE DID (wrong). Ask nicely. I would.
APK
Multiple students had the chance to leave and not be pepper sprayed, and not one of them stopped what they were doing.
Agent K: A *person* is smart. People are dumb, stupid, panicky animals, and you know it.
How long until protesters always show up wearing eye protection and gas masks to begin with? As the Boy Scouts motto states, "Be Prepared!"
I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
and routes around it."
deleting the extra space after periods so i can stay relevant, yeah.
The students also had the police officers surrounded, had been asked and ordered to move. Had been shown the pepper spray and told what would happen if they did not move to allow the police officers through. The students were blocking a main thoroughfare of the campus, and preventing the officers from doing their jobs, heck the officers were surrounded they were even being prevented from leaving the scene.
In short the students had every chance to avoid it. They deserved what they got. The School needs to grow a pair and back their officers who acted appropriately. They could have pulled out their billy clubs and started beating on the students.
Yes I back the actions of those officers.
ARE YOU A PAID SHRILL?
Multiple students had the chance to leave and not be pepper sprayed, and not one of them stopped what they were doing.
Yes blaming the victim. "Multiple people had the chance not to be shot by not working for San Bernandino county." "Multiple students at UT Austin had the chance not to be shot by a sniper by staying home." I believe the 1st Amendment says something about allowing people "peaceably to assemble." Do you have another point?
Well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it.
If you have every opportunity to remove yourself from a situation, and don't, that doesn't make you a victim. And you cheapen what it means to be a REAL victim.
Agent K: A *person* is smart. People are dumb, stupid, panicky animals, and you know it.
Untrue. There are plenty of private colleges and universities out there whose campus police force is deputized within the city or town where they are located and are full-fledged cops with full police powers within that entire jurisidiction. That's way different than a "security guard."
If you have every opportunity to remove yourself from a situation, and don't, that doesn't make you a victim. And you cheapen what it means to be a REAL victim.
"If you have every opportunity to remove yourself from being assaulted while exercising your Constitutional rights by dressing provocatively, it really is your fault." Do you say that to rape victims? The right to protest is the 1st Amendment. Not 356th. 1st Amendment. Sitting on the ground does not give anyone the right to be assaulted. And by the way, have you ever been pepper sprayed? It's painful and you lessening someone's pain cheapens your arguments.
Well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it.
"lone wolf? Under direction of university staff?"
The Cossacks work for the Czar.
Ya, every single time... That's so funny, you should do stand up comedy for a living.
And to the fucktard who thinks it's trump supporters who cause the violence, it's the BLM
and Bernie/Killary supporters. But please don't believe me, keep believing the MSM.
As to the idea that violence is the solution to every problem, not always, but in this case,
the fucking pig who thinks he can be violent as he was to peaceful protesters, yes I do.
Some animals only learn not to do something when they will get hurt very badly if they do
something they shouldn't do. And this animal needs to learn that lesson very badly...
... fat lot of good it did them.
Gotta love the Streissand Effect.
There are 35,000 students enrolled at UC Davis, that comes to about $5/student - I wonder if there's anything else the campus could have spent that money on that might have actually benefited the students?
Ken
> And by the way, have you ever been pepper sprayed? It's painful and you lessening someone's pain cheapens your arguments.
I have, and its terrible. For about 20 or so minutes.
As as student at UCD (Go Ags!) during that incident, I was more annoyed that the protesters around the time kept blocking roads/freeways and keeping us Physics/Engineering students from getting to class! I understand their right to protest, but knowing that a chunk of them spent their settlement money on pot farms in Northern Northern California (Redding area) kinda pissed me off after the fact. I would've spent it on the darn expensive tuition. Also, it should be known that the officers involved had very poor communication with their leadership, and that probably helped lead to the less than stellar handling of the situation. Of course, this is all a single opinion, and this will be disputed, but that was my take. As some have said, it is kind of funny that they spend so much money to hide it and it pops up again BECAUSE they spent to much. Serves them right in that sense. Done rambling. Thanks for your time.
Big surprise, you're anti-peaceful-protest.
At least your fascist ideology is consistent, Michael.
I understand their right to protest, but knowing that a chunk of them spent their settlement money on pot farms in Northern Northern California (Redding area) kinda pissed me off after the fact. I would've spent it on the darn expensive tuition.
Sounds like you need to go business school. I wouldn't put that money back into that community, either.
Also, it should be known that the officers involved had very poor communication with their leadership, and that probably helped lead to the less than stellar handling of the situation.
Bullshit. Their leadership has obviously communicated to them that it's okay to treat students like cattle. Worse than, actually. We try not to scare cattle on their way to the hydraulic hammer. It's inconvenient.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
Yes, they had the chance to stop exercising their First Amendment rights and chose not to. They totally deserved to be assaulted. That'll teach them. The next time they want to make a point, they should load a couple of pickups with their Second Amendment rights, seize the place, and dare the authorities to shoot them.
Were they really students? ;-)
Did anyone check their student IDs or did everyone ass/u/me that they were students because they were there. If they were actually students, I hope they were expelled!