“Casually Pepper Spray Everything Cop” is my meme of choice because of it’s relevance to me being a student as well as hard-working noble citizen in a country that prides itself on its freedom. The sarcastic undertone of the meme caption reading “Don’t mind me, just watering my hippies” laid over the evidently serious photo of a police officer pepper spraying defenseless students contributes heavily to its popularity upon first glance. Students, more so student activists, have the reputation to be very active in the world wide web so it’s a no-brainer that a photo where student protesters appearing to receive false treatment blew up quickly. When you’re dealing with an incident that resulted in such actions as law-suits and media criticism to reports in the British press, the time-frame for the popularity of the meme increased immediately from the date it was taken on November 19th, 2011. The surfaced photo of officer Lt. John Pike walking down the line of students linked at arms spraying pepper spray due to their refusal to vacate the area was instantly photoshopped onto other culturally popular photos and settings implying the exaggerated brutality on innocence. Examples of such photos include Officer Pike laid over such figures like Martin Luther King Jr., Ghandi, and General Grant to exaggerate the brutality of innocence.
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