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.

Comments

A world where we will never be forgiven.

[jellomizer]

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.

Re:A world where we will never be forgiven.

[squiggleslash]

I don't know if you saw the picture, but the protesters here were sitting down with linked arms, not in any way threatening the "peace" officer or pushing him to his limit. So while your point may be justified in some contexts, this isn't one of them.

What I find interesting is that this case highlights the university's complicity with the violent act meted out upon peaceful protesters. Fifty years down the line, without these attempts to scrub the world clean of "that photo", it would have been linked to one bad officer whose employer's fault is giving him the job in the first place. But by trying to whitewash the incident, the university is effectively saying "Actually, this was us, employing violent thugs is policy, not an accident, and we abhor peaceful protest. We believe this so strongly we're willing to spend $175k on rehabilitating the reputations of those we employ to harm others."

Which is... revealing.

Re:A world where we will never be forgiven.

[TheReaperD]

One of the earliest things we pushed for on international human rights treaties was a ban of collective punishment. Which was exactly the actions that the UC Davis campus police did. One protester got out of line and they used that as an excuse to punish every protester there. Pepper spray is extremely painful and when used in this manner, could be considered as a form of torture, another practice banned by international treaty and most US laws. When the actions of the police came out, the campus head's response was to cover it up and cover her ass to protect her job. It's no surprise that she is under investigation again when she doesn't care about rules or laws, only her own self-interest.

Re:A world where we will never be forgiven.

[harrkev]

Wow. You have insulted me. I did not think of that approach to winning an argument. Clearly, you must be right, with your superior knowledge of swear words. I yield to the superior mind.

In that video that YOU linked, did you notice how they are blocking the path that students are supposed to use to get to class? All they had to do is to move so that they are not blocking the students that have paid their money to addend classes! Do you think that this was impossible for them? Do you believe that students do not have a right to attend their classes?

Right around the 9.57 mark, you can SEE the police apparently surrounded. Students in front of them, behind them, and to the left of the screen. I cannot fully see to the right because the frame is cut off, but that pretty much looks like they are surrounded to me. And, wow, the students behind them look like they are standing!

So, who am I to believe? You, or my own eyes in the video that you linked?

Re:Who is "The University?"

[Salgak1]

Actually, the "low-paid security guard" was a Lieutenant in the UC Davis Campus police. Likely earning in the US$60-70K region . . .

Re:In other news, we need "free college"

[drinkypoo]

The fact that a no-name college

It is not a fact that UC Davis is "no-name", neither literally nor figuratively.

felt it had $175K to burn on PR tells you everything you really need to know about college affordability

does it?

there's plenty of fat at the top.

While you are correct, this story tells us nothing about that.

Re:Irony

[Anonymous Coward]

Everything and everyone is for sale.

Despite the fact that every C-suite critter masturbates furiously over every report published by Gartner, their work is often total shit and sold to the highest bidder. They do this Magic Quadrant shit where they "rate" software, processes, companies, Lego building blocks, etc. You have the opportunity to "buy" your way up to better rankings, depending on how much you "contribute" to the "study." Then when it's best and final offer time... they get more bold and they will come at you with stuff like "Yeah, despite your software actually working as promised, we're rating you a 2 in Category X. For $25k, you can buy your way up to a 3"

So it's all a big sales game and ultimately the companies with deep pockets can buy their way to the top of the recommendation list. Nothing new there. Pretty much business as usual, actually.

Lt John Pike of UC Davis

[Martin S.]

Lt John Pike of UC Davis received $38k in compensation for the trauma he suffered which was 8k more than the protesters he assaulted.