"Casually Pepper Spray Everything Cop" by Laljeet Mann

1.) When did this begin to become popular/famous on the Internet and why? Provide a context and offer an analysis of why you think this became so popular (if no obvious reason presents itself). 

The Casually Pepper Spray Everything Cop, meme came about after a University police officer pepper sprayed a group of peaceful students, apart of the Occupy Davis movement. A video of the incident was uploaded to YouTube on November 18, 2011 and went viral.

The video has been shared via Facebook, Twitter, Tumbler, email and has received international attention.

The reason this video become popular is largely due to the interesting political timing of the incident. The incident occurred shortly after a video was posted of students at UC Berkeley being struck by police batons. All of this was happening right as the Occupy movement was really heating up. Mass media channels were spending a lot of time depicting the ambiguities of the Occupy movement leaving the general public feeling ambivalent. However, when this video was posted people where out raged that a police officer would harm peaceful protesters (students). Thus, the video of a police officer casually pepper-spraying students became popular and countless memes have been made about it.

2.) The details/description of the "meme," person, event, etc. 

The meme features a plump police officer wearing riot gear. In the original meme the officer is holding a red can of pepper spray in his right hand and is looking at the target (students) he is spraying. The original features a group of students sitting on the ground, arms linked, heads down, getting pepper sprayed. In other memes various things replace the students.

3.) How popular did it become and over what time span? (include "Google Insights" interest). 

The meme was very popular during the months of November and December, 2011. Since then, memes are still being created and shared but are less popular. On the Occupy Davis Facebook page the meme has 58 ‘Likes’ and 43 ‘Shares’. The YouTube video, which started the meme has close to 2.5 million views. According to Google Insight, everything related to Casually Pepper Spray Everything Cop was most popular from November 20 through the 26^th.

4) Include other memes that may have emerged from this or have been influenced by this. 
Include videos or images when relevant to illustrate your description - please try to avoid posting images or video that may be offensive. 

Google Image Search turned out 19 pages of memes that where influenced by the original. 

Here are a few of the more popular ones.