# Policeman pepper sprays pizza at traffic stop. **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [August 3, 2013, 1:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/policeman-pepper-sprays-pizza-at-traffic-stop/665241 "2013-08-03T13:21:52Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![not\_what\_you\_d\_expect](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/not_what_you_d_expect/32/3246_2.png) [@not\_what\_you\_d\_expect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/not_what_you_d_expect)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2013, 1:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/policeman-pepper-sprays-pizza-at-traffic-stop/665241/1 "2013-08-03T13:21:52Z")
> **[OC Deputy Is Accused of Pepper Spraying Teen's Pizza](https://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/local/oc-deputy-accused-pepper-spraying-teens-pizza/1956816/)** > > An Orange County Sheriff’s deputy is facing jail time after being accused of pepper spraying a teen’s pizza without his knowledge during a traffic stop last year, the OC District Attorney’s Office announced Friday. Juan Tavera, a six-year veteran of... This guy carries a gun. ---
**Author:** ![Uber\_the\_Goober](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/58956e/32.png) [@Uber\_the\_Goober](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Uber_the_Goober)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2013, 1:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/policeman-pepper-sprays-pizza-at-traffic-stop/665241/2 "2013-08-03T13:29:30Z")
Douchebag acts in a douchey manner. News at 11. This is why I automatically assume all cops are douchebags, and I wait for them to show me otherwise. I don’t talk to them, I don’t look at them, I don’t want anything to do with them. It takes a special kind of asshole to even want to be a cop in a suburban neighborhood with statistically negligent crime levels. I don’t even know what kind of fantasies the cops who operate in crime ridden areas have that draw them to the profession. And then there’s traffic cops. Fuck da poleece. Unless somebody’s robbing me, then they better get off their asses and come help me! 😉 ---
**Author:** ![bobkitty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/c67d28/32.png) [@bobkitty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bobkitty)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2013, 1:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/policeman-pepper-sprays-pizza-at-traffic-stop/665241/3 "2013-08-03T13:29:33Z")
HOW do you pepper spray something without anyone noticing? Even if he took the kid out of the car to do a search so the kid couldn’t visually notice, the smell of pizza is NOT going to mask the smell of pepper spray. And it would mean the cop used the spray in a small enclosed area, where he likely would have been effected as well. I’ll have to ask the CBRN Marine boyfriend whether you could eat enough pepper sprayed pizza to make you sick, but I’m tentatively calling BS on the story. ---
**Author:** ![Ferret\_Herder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e47774/32.png) [@Ferret\_Herder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferret_Herder)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2013, 1:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/policeman-pepper-sprays-pizza-at-traffic-stop/665241/4 "2013-08-03T13:36:16Z")
What **bobkitty** said. [The choking clouds caused by pepper spray inside a club in Chicago](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2003_E2_nightclub_stampede) caused a deadly stampede, so I cannot believe you wouldn’t notice it inside a car. Plus I’m about 90% sure that some of my husband’s (postal worker) coworkers have used their pepper spray as a condiment dispenser before. ---
**Author:** ![Neidhart](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Neidhart](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Neidhart)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2013, 1:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/policeman-pepper-sprays-pizza-at-traffic-stop/665241/5 "2013-08-03T13:53:47Z")
Isn’t pepper spray just capsaicin? It’d be like someone soaked the top of the pizza in Dave’s Ultimate Insanity sauce: you’d be able to smell it long before getting a piece close enough to your mouth, and even if you did bite off a piece you’d spit it out instantly and go running for the milk. It wouldn’t make you sick. ---
**Author:** ![Hamlet](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hamlet/32/2818_2.png) [@Hamlet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hamlet)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2013, 1:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/policeman-pepper-sprays-pizza-at-traffic-stop/665241/6 "2013-08-03T13:56:31Z")
> [@Uber\_the\_Goober](#): > > Douchebag acts in a douchey manner. > > News at 11. > > This is why I automatically assume all cops are douchebags, and I wait for them to show me otherwise. I don’t talk to them, I don’t look at them, I don’t want anything to do with them. It takes a special kind of asshole to even want to be a cop in a suburban neighborhood with statistically negligent crime levels. I don’t even know what kind of fantasies the cops who operate in crime ridden areas have that draw them to the profession. > > And then there’s traffic cops. > > Fuck da poleece. Unless somebody’s robbing me, then they better get off their asses and come help me! 😉 You’ll fit right in here at the SDMB. Well, except for the “fighting ignorance” part. ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2013, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/policeman-pepper-sprays-pizza-at-traffic-stop/665241/7 "2013-08-03T14:00:40Z")
> [@Neidhart](#): > > Isn’t pepper spray just capsaicin? It’d be like someone soaked the top of the pizza in Dave’s Ultimate Insanity sauce: you’d be able to smell it long before getting a piece close enough to your mouth, and even if you did bite off a piece you’d spit it out instantly and go running for the milk. It wouldn’t make you sick. It depends what you consider ‘sick’. If you took a few bites of your pizza and suddenly your mouth was burning, your eyes were watering, your nose was running, you were coughing etc…and you remembered that cop was messing with your pizza and you kinda thought he might have sprayed it with his pepper spray, maybe this might be a good time to run down to the ER with the pizza and tell them you’re having some kind of ‘allergic reaction’ so everything gets on file. They’ll probably be able to diagnose it pretty easily as a reaction to something spicy, but if you just ordered a cheese pizza, that wouldn’t make sense. Maybe it wouldn’t be a terrible idea to file a police report (hopefully you’re in a different jurisdiction) because someone tampered with the pizza. It’ll be interesting to see how it plays out. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2013, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/policeman-pepper-sprays-pizza-at-traffic-stop/665241/8 "2013-08-03T14:29:11Z")
> [@bobkitty](#): > > HOW do you pepper spray something without anyone noticing? Even if he took the kid out of the car to do a search so the kid couldn’t visually notice, the smell of pizza is NOT going to mask the smell of pepper spray. And it would mean the cop used the spray in a small enclosed area, where he likely would have been effected as well. > > I’ll have to ask the CBRN Marine boyfriend whether you could eat enough pepper sprayed pizza to make you sick, but I’m tentatively calling BS on the story. Yeah, this story makes no sense. Having been on a city bus where some high school sprayed pepper spray into it, even if you’re on the other side of the bus, that stuff is _nasty_. You can’t miss it. Second, I guess I’ve never eaten food that’s been pepper sprayed, but wouldn’t you notice it? I mean, the active ingredient is capsaicin. Wouldn’t you or your four other friends notice the pizza being noticeably spicy? Third, how do you jump from a conclusion of, oh, five people got sick eating this pizza, clearly what happened is that cop that pulled us over secretly spritzed our pizza with pepper spray, even though we didn’t actually see him do so or notice any evidence of pepper spray being deployed in an enclosed space? Why couldn’t it be some jackass at the pizza place messing around with you? Wouldn’t that be more likely? I mean, seriously, how fucking stupid is this story? There had better be more to it, because it doesn’t make any sense as written. ETA: **JoeyP** ’s possible scenario is a plausible one. I hope the story is something more like that, and I hate news reports that don’t even address simple basic questions like the plausibility of this all. It looks like all the reporter did was re-write a DA’s press release. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2013, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/policeman-pepper-sprays-pizza-at-traffic-stop/665241/9 "2013-08-03T14:29:28Z")
…mmmmm… incapacitating… ---
**Author:** ![TokyoBayer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tokyobayer/32/13989_2.png) [@TokyoBayer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TokyoBayer)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2013, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/policeman-pepper-sprays-pizza-at-traffic-stop/665241/10 "2013-08-03T14:32:59Z")
> [@bobkitty](#): > > HOW do you pepper spray something without anyone noticing? Even if he took the kid out of the car to do a search so the kid couldn’t visually notice, the smell of pizza is NOT going to mask the smell of pepper spray. And it would mean the cop used the spray in a small enclosed area, where he likely would have been effected as well. > > I’ll have to ask the CBRN Marine boyfriend whether you could eat enough pepper sprayed pizza to make you sick, but I’m tentatively calling BS on the story. Googling it provide a number of hits. > [@](#): > > NEWPORT BEACH (AP) — A Laguna Hills teen got the wrong topping on his pizza, and ended up sick, after a sheriff’s deputy allegedly covered the pie with pepper spray during a traffic stop. > > Orange County prosecutors said Friday that 30-year-old Deputy Juan Tavera is charged with spraying the slices after a 19-year-old was pulled over by a different officer for a traffic infraction. > > Tavera sprayed the pizza without the teen’s knowledge, so when the teen took the pizza home to his four friends, they all ate it and got sick. > > The teen notified police after becoming suspicious of the deputy. > > The charge of misdemeanor assault or battery by an officer carries a maximum sentence of a year in jail. > > Tavera is due for arraignment Monday. > > He has been put on administrative leave. Maybe he took the pizza out of the car before spraying it? As the other officer was the one who was doing the ticket, maybe he could have done it without the guy noticing it. It seems to be in too many sources, such as LA Times to be BS. ---
**Author:** ![Ferret\_Herder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e47774/32.png) [@Ferret\_Herder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferret_Herder)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2013, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/policeman-pepper-sprays-pizza-at-traffic-stop/665241/11 "2013-08-03T15:12:03Z")
I think the point was that the BS part is not whether the teens claim illness, the cop’s been accused, etc., but whether the cop actually did it. I’d be willing to put money on someone at the pizza place dabbing Dave’s Insanity Sauce into the pizza sauce used on this pizza (or taking it into the back alley and spraying it), or a douchebag friend somehow doing it, much more easily than “the cop who pulled us over deployed pepper spray onto our pizza without us noticing the fumes inside the car or him physically removing the pizza from the car, spraying, closing the box and returning it.” Plus, seriously, how do 5 teens get sick from eating it? You notice that shit from the first bite. Did all 5 decide to roll up their pizza slices into pizza rolls and swallow them whole simultaneously? Because the first capsaicin-infused bite would have tipped one of them off and you’d think they’d put down the pizza pieces. ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2013, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/policeman-pepper-sprays-pizza-at-traffic-stop/665241/12 "2013-08-03T15:22:48Z")
Keychain-sized sprayers exist, & one might be “confiscated” by a copper. This could explain how the “seasoning” was achieved. ---
**Author:** ![DCnDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dcndc/32/2842_2.png) [@DCnDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DCnDC)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2013, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/policeman-pepper-sprays-pizza-at-traffic-stop/665241/13 "2013-08-03T15:26:02Z")
> [@TokyoBayer](#): > > It seems to be in too many sources, such as LA Times to be BS. I don’t think **bobkitty** is questioning the veracity of the news story, but rather the plausibility of the alleged act itself. ---
**Author:** ![Zebra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/c0e974/32.png) [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2013, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/policeman-pepper-sprays-pizza-at-traffic-stop/665241/14 "2013-08-03T15:38:02Z")
Do we know what kind of car the kid was driving? Maybe it’s a convertible? Is there a dash cam from the cruiser? ---
**Author:** ![Lynn\_Bodoni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e47c2d/32.png) [@Lynn\_Bodoni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lynn_Bodoni)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2013, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/policeman-pepper-sprays-pizza-at-traffic-stop/665241/15 "2013-08-03T15:57:34Z")
> [@Ferret\_Herder](#): > > I think the point was that the BS part is not whether the teens claim illness, the cop’s been accused, etc., but whether the cop actually did it. I’d be willing to put money on someone at the pizza place dabbing Dave’s Insanity Sauce into the pizza sauce used on this pizza (or taking it into the back alley and spraying it), or a douchebag friend somehow doing it, much more easily than “the cop who pulled us over deployed pepper spray onto our pizza without us noticing the fumes inside the car or him physically removing the pizza from the car, spraying, closing the box and returning it.” > > Plus, seriously, how do 5 teens get sick from eating it? You notice that shit from the first bite. Did all 5 decide to roll up their pizza slices into pizza rolls and swallow them whole simultaneously? Because the first capsaicin-infused bite would have tipped one of them off and you’d think they’d put down the pizza pieces. I think that the tampering was far more likely to happen at the pizza place. I also think that it’s odd that none of the five tasted anything odd. What really strikes me as unbelievable, though, is five teens sharing a pizza. Unless there is more than one pizza involved. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2013, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/policeman-pepper-sprays-pizza-at-traffic-stop/665241/16 "2013-08-03T16:00:12Z")
This happened in September. Assuming the kid reported it then, they’ve been investigating this since then and only now are charging him. So I don’t doubt the veracity of the story even if some of the details aren’t clear. ---
**Author:** ![Hentor\_the\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/8edcca/32.png) [@Hentor\_the\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hentor_the_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2013, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/policeman-pepper-sprays-pizza-at-traffic-stop/665241/17 "2013-08-03T16:07:42Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > This happened in September. Assuming the kid reported it then, they’ve been investigating this since then and only now are charging him. So I don’t doubt the veracity of the story even if some of the details aren’t clear. I wouldn’t have doubted it either, until I heard from all the experts here at the SDMB on pepper spray and its ingestion here. ---
**Author:** ![Nzinga\_Seated](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/b5ac83/32.png) [@Nzinga\_Seated](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nzinga_Seated)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2013, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/policeman-pepper-sprays-pizza-at-traffic-stop/665241/18 "2013-08-03T16:26:46Z")
> [@Uber\_the\_Goober](#): > > …Fuck da poleece. Unless somebody’s robbing me, then they better get off their asses and come help me! 😉 No need to include this. I figure you threw it in there to head off shouts of “OH, I BET YOU’LL CHANGE YOUR TUNE IF YOU ARE ROBBED! YOU’LL BE CALLIN’ THEM THEN!” But the truth is, they aren’t going to help you if you’re robbed. Most likely, they will come and look around or whatever, but the chances are if you get robbed, you just get robbed. If you ever see your stuff again, it will be the pure luck of the robber getting in some other kind of trouble that interested the police. ---
**Author:** ![TokyoBayer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tokyobayer/32/13989_2.png) [@TokyoBayer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TokyoBayer)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2013, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/policeman-pepper-sprays-pizza-at-traffic-stop/665241/19 "2013-08-03T16:34:26Z")
> [@Zebra](#): > > Do we know what kind of car the kid was driving? Maybe it’s a convertible? > Is there a dash cam from the cruiser? According to [this TV report](http://losangeles.cbslocal.com/2013/08/02/oc-sheriffs-deputy-accused-of-pepper-spraying-teens-pizza-during-traffic-stop/), the police department wouldn’t say if there was a dash cam or an audio recorder used as evidence. Not much additional information in the report. It sounded like that said that the officer pulled of pizza “off” (out of? from?) the back seat and then strayed it. That would go along with my guess. Also that the kids felt “extreme discomfort.” It’s possible that the officer didn’t spray directly onto the pizza with the whole amount. ---
**Author:** ![Bozuit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/edb3f5/32.png) [@Bozuit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bozuit)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2013, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/policeman-pepper-sprays-pizza-at-traffic-stop/665241/20 "2013-08-03T16:43:50Z")
Presumably the pizza or its box were tested for signs of pepper spray. If it were just one guy’s theory that a police officer did it, why has a deputy been charged? Can we not fairly safely assume there is a reasonable amount of plausibility to charges brought against a police officer, especially when accused by a teen he/his colleague stopped? [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/policeman-pepper-sprays-pizza-at-traffic-stop/665241.md?page=2)