Why I Feel Bad for the Pepper-Spraying Policeman, Lt. John Pike

See also this personal essay from Norm Stamper, chief of the Seattle Police Department during the WTO protests in 1999:

"The cop in me supported the decision to clear the intersection. But the chief in me should have vetoed it. And he certainly should have forbidden the indiscriminate use of tear gas to accomplish it, no matter how many warnings we barked through the bullhorn...

My support for a militaristic solution caused all hell to break loose..."

http://www.thenation.com/article/164501/paramilitary-policin...

I haven't seen any articles that condemn Pike without also attacking the system he's in. After all, the students weren't just protesting him. They were protesting all of the brutality in the Egyptian and OWS protests. They aren't calling for him to be beheaded or anything, just fired. And they're calling for his bosses to resign.

I think everyone realizes this already. It's why the incidents in NYC are treated as isolated "bad cop" stuff, compelled by the mayor. While Oakland is seen as a thoroughly corrupt system. People can tell which systems are OK and which systems are broken.

I agree that it's a system problem, but that doesn't really get the policeman off the hook. The policeman doesn't deserve any defense for what he did. He knew what he was doing and he did it. Blame the system, but blame the policeman, too.