Did the UC Davis protesters agree to be pepper sprayed?

Occupy protesters hold signs during a demonstration at the UC Davis campus

(Image credit: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

last updated 8 January 2015

The video: The outrage kicked in immediately last week when disturbing footage surfaced of a police officer casually pepper-spraying seemingly passive and peaceful student Occupiers at the University of California, Davis. The hotly debated incident triggered an investigation and became a rallying cry for the Occupy movement. But now, a new video showing four different angles of the spraying calls into question whether the campus police's actions were as egregious as believed. (Watch it below.) In the video, an officer tells an apparent leader of the students that the protesters will be pepper-sprayed if they don't move. "You're shooting us?" the student says. "No that's fine, that's fine." The students are given ample time to brace themselves, apparently willingly, for the spray.

The reaction: There you have it, says Jim Hoft at The Gateway Pundit. These students clearly "agreed to be pepper sprayed." Indeed, this footage should zap any sympathy for these protesters, says Sister Toldjah. The video that went viral last week clearly lacked the proper context: These kids knew what was coming, and had "plenty of opportunity to get up" and avoid it. Well, "I'm not convinced," says Verum Serum. The video shows that the students "knew it would happen well before it did," but I don't hear them "agreeing" to be doused. And nothing changes the fact that both parties would've been better off had police simply started arresting the students instead. See for yourself: