# 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:** 4
**Author:** ![d1a1s1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f6c823/32.png) [@d1a1s1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/d1a1s1)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2013, 2:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/policeman-pepper-sprays-pizza-at-traffic-stop/665241/61 "2013-08-05T02:24:00Z")
> [@Trinopus](#): > > The question still remains unanswered: can pepper spray be sprayed, even in the shortest of bursts, without creating a cloud of odor that would be detected by people in the vicinity? > > We hold our breath (so to speak) for **Musicat** ’s experiment. There are a lot of variables. The stuff we are issued, OC spray, (Navy force protection division) comes out at such a velocity that it can easily reach someone 10 feet away. This is very similar to what the police are issued so, no, I seriously doubt he could spray a pizza without it being detectable. Also, it’s highly improbably that the teens didn’t feel the effects before coming close enough to actually eat it. Of course, this is assuming they used standard issue OC spray. If anyone would like to see the effects of OC spray simply do a YouTube search for “OC spray navy”. It’s wicked stuff. We do weekly sprays for certain qualifications. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2013, 2:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/policeman-pepper-sprays-pizza-at-traffic-stop/665241/62 "2013-08-05T02:28:53Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > [Existing thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=698390). Threads merged. ---
**Author:** ![doorhinge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a5b964/32.png) [@doorhinge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/doorhinge)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2013, 3:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/policeman-pepper-sprays-pizza-at-traffic-stop/665241/63 "2013-08-05T03:04:43Z")
I find it extremely difficult to believe that the driver hadn’t noticed the presence of pepper spray in the car after this alledged incident took place. Let alone drove home with pepper sprayed anything in the car with him. It’s odd that four other people didn’t notice they had burning eyes and were coughing before they ate the pizza. How high do you have to be not to notice pepper spray? ---
**Author:** ![Clothahump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/51bf81/32.png) [@Clothahump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Clothahump)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2013, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/policeman-pepper-sprays-pizza-at-traffic-stop/665241/64 "2013-08-05T03:13:43Z")
> [@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. i’m not gonna be tentative about it. It’s bullshit. No way in hell did he mace a pizza in the back seat of a car and nobody notices it until they get home. Everyone in the car would have been gagging within seconds. ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2013, 3:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/policeman-pepper-sprays-pizza-at-traffic-stop/665241/65 "2013-08-05T03:39:51Z")
> [@doorhinge](#): > > I find it extremely difficult to believe that the driver hadn’t noticed the presence of pepper spray in the car after this alledged incident took place. Let alone drove home with pepper sprayed anything in the car with him. . . . It may be possible for the spray can to have been triggered very gently, so as to produce only a tiny trickle instead of a full jet. I think this was **Hentor the Barbarian** ’s point. This is another reason for hands-on experimentation. > [@Clothahump](#): > > . . . No way in hell did he mace a pizza in the back seat of a car . . . I know you know – probably everyone here knows – but it is still worth pointing out that pepper spray and mace are very, very different substances. ---
**Author:** ![Drunky\_Smurf](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drunky_smurf/32/449_2.png) [@Drunky\_Smurf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drunky_Smurf)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2013, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/policeman-pepper-sprays-pizza-at-traffic-stop/665241/66 "2013-08-05T17:08:09Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > Why not save the snark for something that isn’t true? It would be ridiculous to try to split a pizza amongst five people. At most you split it in half with one other person. If you have more than that, you get pizzas, not just a single pizza. You definitely can’t divide it amongst five people–there aren’t enough slices, and you can’t reliably cut a slice in more than a half piece. > > I find it hard to believe that anyone who went to college wouldn’t know this stuff. I have never in my life eaten half a pizza let alone a whole one. Also in the real world pizzas are cut into more than two slices. ---
**Author:** ![spinky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/59ef9b/32.png) [@spinky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/spinky)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2013, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/policeman-pepper-sprays-pizza-at-traffic-stop/665241/67 "2013-08-05T18:47:25Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > It would be ridiculous to try to split a pizza amongst five people. **At most you split it in half with one other person.** (bolding mine) At **most**? What the fuck is wrong with you? A large pizza is for one person, _maybe_ two? God damn. Did you ever wonder what the “medium”, “small” and “personal” sizes were for? Is “personal” kind of like mini-donuts for you, where you eat them by the handful? For the record, I’m kind of a pig and can eat pizza until I want to explode. I know it’s possible for a single human to, in a gluttonous rage, chow down an entire large pizza. But I also know it’s ridiculous and terrible for me, and when I’m exercising self-restraint, I am capable of stopping myself at, say, a quarter of a large. So the idea that you can’t split a large pizza among more than two people is just completely absurd. Apologies if I’m being whooshed and you’re actually making fun of Lynn’s notion that it’s unbelievable that five teenagers could ever share a single pizza. That is just embarrassing. Even if you don’t believe a fifth of a pizza could be a whole meal for a teenager, have you ever heard of a snack? A side dish? **Not** eating until you’re full? ---
**Author:** ![ruh-roh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ruh-roh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ruh-roh)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2013, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/policeman-pepper-sprays-pizza-at-traffic-stop/665241/68 "2013-08-05T19:16:46Z")
wwwelllll, or maybe, just maybe, they did it themselves, or one to the others, as sort of a Jack-Ass/Cinnamon Challenge kind of stunt. Might even have videoed it figuring to slap it right to You-Tube and become famous. When things went wrong and they got sick the perpetrator(s) decided to blame it on the cops (that had hassled them earlier for no apparent reason except they are teenagers 😉 ). Of course, how many teenagers would even think of such things 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Fenris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fenris/32/498_2.png) [@Fenris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fenris)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2013, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/policeman-pepper-sprays-pizza-at-traffic-stop/665241/69 "2013-08-05T19:31:04Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > Why not save the snark for something that isn’t true? It would be ridiculous to try to split a pizza amongst five people. At most you split it in half with one other person. If you have more than that, you get pizzas, not just a single pizza. You definitely can’t divide it amongst five people–there aren’t enough slices, and you can’t reliably cut a slice in more than a half piece. > > I find it hard to believe that anyone who went to college wouldn’t know this stuff. Among those of us who actually _have_ friends and aren’t Jabba-the-Hutt style basement dwellers, it’s certainly possible to split a pizza among 5 people. This may be a revelation to you but people sometimes only want one slice…I know–the idea that people can eat less than half a pizza is shocking to you, but I assure you, it’s true! So…the question is: are you a land-whale, or just retarded? ---
**Author:** ![drachillix](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/48db29/32.png) [@drachillix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drachillix)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2013, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/policeman-pepper-sprays-pizza-at-traffic-stop/665241/70 "2013-08-05T20:01:34Z")
> [@Musicat](#): > > I like spicy foods. If the pepper spray turns out to be edible, I’ll add it to my spice cabinet. It is edible, a buddy of mine took a “riot control agents” class that rather than spraying students for the “experience” the instructor sprayed pepper spray in a bag of fritos and each tried to eat one. This was like 20 years ago so I do not know if this is common practice then or today. ---
**Author:** ![Cheesesteak](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cheesesteak/32/3694_2.png) [@Cheesesteak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cheesesteak)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2013, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/policeman-pepper-sprays-pizza-at-traffic-stop/665241/71 "2013-08-05T20:27:13Z")
> [@ruh-roh](#): > > wwwelllll, or maybe, just maybe, they did it themselves, or one to the others, as sort of a Jack-Ass/Cinnamon Challenge kind of stunt. Might even have videoed it figuring to slap it right to You-Tube and become famous. When things went wrong and they got sick the perpetrator(s) decided to blame it on the cops (that had hassled them earlier for no apparent reason except they are teenagers 😉 ). > Of course, how many teenagers would even think of such things 😃 I might buy into this, or some other way to suggest that the cop did not spray the pizza at all, as at least a reasonable possibility. However, the DA is charging him. I’m not thinking that a DA is going to charge a cop with a crime on the unsupported allegation of a bunch of punk teenagers. I would hope that charges generally require a bit of proof before they go forward, and I would expect the police to get a smidge of professional courtesy to avoid them having to deal with a constant barrage of bullshit charges from angry douchebags that the cops may have irritated. ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2013, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/policeman-pepper-sprays-pizza-at-traffic-stop/665241/72 "2013-08-05T20:37:48Z")
> [@spinky](#): > > . . . **Not** eating until you’re full? What is this mad idea? ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2013, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/policeman-pepper-sprays-pizza-at-traffic-stop/665241/73 "2013-08-05T20:52:25Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > It would be ridiculous to try to split a pizza amongst five people. **At most you split it in half with one other person.** > [@spinky](#): > > (bolding mine) > > At **most**? What the fuck is wrong with you? A large pizza is for one person, _maybe_ two? God damn. Did you ever wonder what the “medium”, “small” and “personal” sizes were for? Is “personal” kind of like mini-donuts for you, where you eat them by the handful? For the record, I’m kind of a pig and can eat pizza until I want to explode. I know it’s possible for a single human to, in a gluttonous rage, chow down an entire large pizza. But I also know it’s ridiculous and terrible for me, and when I’m exercising self-restraint, I am capable of stopping myself at, say, a quarter of a large. So the idea that you can’t split a large pizza among more than two people is just completely absurd. Well, you have to take into consideration that you’re addressing **_Big_T** , not **LittleT** , or **SvelteT**. Not even **ModeratelyHuskyT**. **BIGT**. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2013, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/policeman-pepper-sprays-pizza-at-traffic-stop/665241/74 "2013-08-05T21:07:57Z")
With a typical sprayer, what comes out for the first foot or so is essentially a stream of liquid - like a squirt gun - before the liquid vaporizes. So if you sprayed a pizza from a few inches away, you’d basically be soaking down the pizza with liquid and you won’t get very much spray in the air. But heat will then cause the liquid to vaporize. So if you sprayed a hot pizza, it would quickly start giving off the spray into the air. If the pizza was in a box that would probably hold the air inside. But as soon as you opened the pizza box, you’d get a faceful of pepper spray and there’s no way you wouldn’t notice it. ---
**Author:** ![Cheshire\_Human](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/5f8ce5/32.png) [@Cheshire\_Human](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cheshire_Human)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2013, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/policeman-pepper-sprays-pizza-at-traffic-stop/665241/75 "2013-08-05T21:12:11Z")
> [@Fenris](#): > > So…the question is: are you a land-whale, or just retarded? Why can’t it be both? ---
**Author:** ![Malacandra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Malacandra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malacandra)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2013, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/policeman-pepper-sprays-pizza-at-traffic-stop/665241/76 "2013-08-05T21:13:06Z")
> [@Fenris](#): > > Among those of us who actually _have_ friends and aren’t Jabba-the-Hutt style basement dwellers, it’s certainly possible to split a pizza among 5 people. > > This may be a revelation to you but people sometimes only want one slice…I know–the idea that people can eat less than half a pizza is shocking to you, but I assure you, it’s true! > > So…the question is: are you a land-whale, or just retarded? Why can’t he be both? ---
**Author:** ![Fenris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fenris/32/498_2.png) [@Fenris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fenris)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2013, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/policeman-pepper-sprays-pizza-at-traffic-stop/665241/77 "2013-08-05T21:52:04Z")
MALACANDRA AND CHESHIRE HUMAN ARE EITHER SOCKS OR POD-PEOPLE! :eek: But yeah, “both” works too. And since he’s so super-dooper allergic to cheese that he’ll throw a screaming fit if his mommy brings some into his presence, you gotta wonder what he really knows about pizza anyway. ---
**Author:** ![doorhinge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a5b964/32.png) [@doorhinge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/doorhinge)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2013, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/policeman-pepper-sprays-pizza-at-traffic-stop/665241/78 "2013-08-05T22:07:56Z")
> [@Trinopus](#): > > It may be possible for the spray can to have been triggered very gently, so as to produce only a tiny trickle instead of a full jet. I think this was **Hentor the Barbarian** ’s point. This is another reason for hands-on experimentation. It’s been awhile since I’ve actually sprayed pepper spray but the stuff is nasty. Eyes water and they hurt, nose runs and it hurts, there are coughing fits, your throat hurts, and it’s difficult to breath. And I was the one holding the pepper spray canister. We sprayed it into the wind as a group test and only suffered from the blowback. It wasn’t fatal or even near-fatal but you would sure as heck know someone had used pepper spray. Pepper sprays are under high pressure. They’ll shoot a stream over 10 feet. While it “may” be possible to produce only a tiny trickle with a more complicated valve system, self-defense, bear, and police/military pepper sprays aren’t equipped with fancy valves. You would find it difficult just to sit in a car with someone who had been recently pepper sprayed. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2013, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/policeman-pepper-sprays-pizza-at-traffic-stop/665241/79 "2013-08-05T22:21:45Z")
It says he took the pizza out of the car. Let’s say it was a half hour stop, and he had the pizza for 20 minutes while he “checked it for contraband” or whatever. More than enough time for the fumes to dissipate. It doesn’t sound very plausible to me, either, but the PD seems to have accepted the story as true. It’s not like they’re in a hurry to give officers the boot. ---
**Author:** ![11811](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/1/9d8465/32.png) [@11811](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/11811)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2013, 12:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/policeman-pepper-sprays-pizza-at-traffic-stop/665241/80 "2013-08-06T00:20:10Z")
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > \It’s not like they’re in a hurry to give officers the boot. Nearly every story I have seen about police misconduct sets the hurdle for dismissal much higher than this. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/policeman-pepper-sprays-pizza-at-traffic-stop/665241.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/policeman-pepper-sprays-pizza-at-traffic-stop/665241.md?page=5)