





The "Casually Pepper Spray Everything Cop" meme takes center stage in Know Your Meme's latest episode. In the video, Internet scientist Forest Gibson unravels the short but eventful history of the meme, which caught fire in November and attracted substantial attention thanks to the Occupy Wall Street movement.

Gibson's 165-second breakdown begins with the Nov. 18 incident in which a campus police officer doused students with pepper spray at the University of California, Davis, during a local Occupy protest. The video then highlights some of the moment's media attention, viral spinoffs and parodies (see the gallery below for more examples).

Gibson signs off with a poignant question: "Does the quick spread of these images serve to raise awareness of the alleged police brutality or do they turn the situation into a joke, lessening its impact?" We pose that same question to you, does the meme help or hurt the cause? Sound off in the comments after watching the video and flipping through the gallery.