Pepper spray everything, SPORTS, and Short Pump Town Center

Accusation of police brutality at UC Davis, the craziest college football weekend ever, and creepy big-brother tracking is rolled out at Short Pump Town Center. The Week in Review!

November 25, 2011; 11:50 AM • by Ross Catrow

Friday

On Friday #occupiers at UC Davis were pepper sprayed at close range by UC Davis Campus Police officer Lt. John Pike. The (apparently) casual demeanor in which he pepper sprayed the mess out of the protestors has caused outrage and created a meme (Casually Pepper Spray Everything Cop). If you haven’t seen the video (one thing #occupy is good at is documenting everything that happens), take a minute and watch/decide for yourself:

As you can imagine, UC Davis Chancellor is under some pressure to figure what exactly (if anything), needs to be done in respond to the incident. Some faculty are even calling for her resignation. If you want to see an effective protest tactic check out this video of hundreds of protestors silently lining the path from the Chancellor’s office to her car.

Saturday

Did you miss the craziest night in college football in a long time? In one night UVA beat FSU, Baylor beat Oklahoma, Iowa State beat Oklahoma State, and USC beat Oregon. You should watch the highlights, I’m not kidding.

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While we’re talking about sports, the Rams are having a roughish start to the season. After winning their first game, VCU dropped their next two, and won their last two–both against Western Kentucky. The Hilltoppers account for more than half of the Rams’ wins at this point in the season.

VCU basketball recaps and results; RVANews

Tuesday

Short Pump Town Center will be tracking your movements as you shop this holiday season using ominous-sounding hidden sensors. The mall–one of only two in the US–will track your cell signal and use the data in aggregate to analyze shopping behaviors. Get ready for malls laid out like a QWERTY keyboard, with your favorite shops located far far away from each other. Hooray!

Short Pump Town Center Makes National Headlines with Plan to Track Holiday Shoppers’ Cell Phones; Downtown Short Pump

Thursday

Thanksgiving! There were reports that people city-wide overate and then fell asleep in front of the TV.

Friday

Today is Black Friday. A “holiday” built around the concept of annihilating your fellow man if they stand in the way of a sweet deal. It is not entirely unheard of for people to be seriously injured, and even killed, in pursuit of savings. So far today, I’ve only heard of a custom pepper spraying other customers in a Walmart.