The award for the most stunningly bad behavior caught on camera this week goes to Lt. John Pike, a member of the campus police of the University of California, Davis, in northern California. During a peaceful “Occupy UC Davis” protest on November 18, Pike pepper-sprayed a number of students. The university’s chancellor, Linda ”Katehi, promised an investigation, even as students called for her resignation. Meanwhile, photos and videos of the incident went viral and Lt. Pike himself became a full-fledged Internet meme—the first true icon of the protest movement of 2011.” Photo by Louise Macabitas, International Business Times

”Around the country, the crackdown on protesters continued. In Dallas, police arrested a dozen protesters after clearing out an encampment near City Hall. Photographer Patrick T. Fallon captured the face-off between authority and resistance.” Photo by Patrick T. Fallon/Dallas Morning News, “Lens,” New York Times

”Eqypt tipped again toward violence as thousands gathered in Tahir Square to protest against the military’s control of the country. The wounded protester seen here is being treated by Red Crescent workers at a makeshift triage clinic.” Photo by Moises Saman, New York Times

”Entrance, Stage Left: Former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi ushers his successor, Mario Monti, onto center stage at the Palazzo Chigi in Rome. The new prime minister faces the daunting task of keeping Italy from succumbing to the European debt crisis—the very issue that forced Berlusconi to exit the scene.” Photo by Gabriel Bouys/AFP/Getty Images, “Lens,” New York Times

”Catholic faithful prayed at a statue of the Virgin Mary at St. Michel Church in Cotonou, Benin, days before Pope Benedict XVI arrived in Africa for a visit. Photographer Rebecca Blackwell managed to make individual portraits of three women in the same frame.” Photo by Rebecca Blackwell/AP, “Framework,” Los Angeles Times

“’America’s troops too often come home from war only to remain a step apart from the rest of the nation,’ writes Time magazine in the text accompanying Peter Hapak’s portfolio, which focuses on the tattoos that soldiers have gotten to commemorate their service. Hapak shot the photographs at the Capitol Tattoo shop, near Walter Reed Medical Center in Silver Springs, Maryland. U.S. Army Cpl. Ben McCrosky (left) wears a tattoo on his leg in memory on a comrade who was lost in Afghanistan. The tattoo on the arm of U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Brad Fasnacht (center) memorializes the unit he served in both in Iraq and Afghanistan, the 44th Engineer Battalion. U.S. Army Specialist Anthony Morales (right) has a number of tattoos to remember his service in the military. Hapak’s photographs respectfully establish the isolation of the soldiers.” Photos by Peter Hapak, Time

”In 2009, the New York City Police Department began using a new camera, the Panoscan, to document crime scenes. The camera creates a 360-degee view that allows investigators to point and click over evidence from a scene that might have been missed during the initial examinations. (Think Weegee in the 21st Century.) The New York Times published a number of astonishing images made with the camera, including this one, which shows the body of a man found stabbed in his Harlem apartment in 2009.” Photographs from the New York Police Department, New York Times

”It only looks like a hummingbird. In reality, the colorful specimen photographed in flight by photographer Jamie Chung is a remote-controlled surveillance device developed for the Defense Advance Research Project by a California-based company spectacularly named AeroVironment. The prototype, which weighs only 0.66 ounces, can fly and hover as it streams video from a camera hidden inside. Chung photographed the bird of prey in his studio in several different positions. The device was one of a number of inventions he photographed for Time’s ’Invention Issue.’” Photo by Jamie Chung, Time

”In 2010, more Americans lived below the poverty line than at any time since 1959, when the U.S. Census began collecting such data. Time sent photographer Joakim Eskildsen across the country over a seven-month period to record the many and varied faces of modern poverty. At left: Elizabeth and Aleena Arnesen, ages 8 and 9, photographed at their home on the Gulf Coast of Louisiana. Their father, a shrimp fisherman, saw his livelihood devastated by the BP oil spill last year. At right: Richard London, 56, a military veteran living in the Seventh Ward of New Orleans, who lives on the $160 a month he earns by salvaging cans. ” Photos by Joakim Eskildsen, Time

“’With Earth's population headed toward nine or ten billion,’ notes National Geographic, ‘dense cities are looking more like a cure—the best hope for lifting people out of poverty without wrecking the planet.’ The magazine’s intriguing article on the benefits of city living notes, however, that creativity is required to make density manageable. That point was illustrated with a number of images by photographer Yeondoo Jung, who documented the identical rooms of a 25-story apartment tower in Seoul, South Korea—each one individualized to suit its residents. More than half of Seoul’s 24-million residents live in high rises.” Photos by Yeondoo Jung, National Geographic

”Sports Illustrated described the magnitude of the recent Penn State football scandal in no uncertain terms on this week’s cover. The story, said the magazine, was the ’most explosive…in the history of college sports.’ The scandal has already claimed the career of the school’s legendary football coach, Joe Paterno, and SI’s cover image, a file photo by photographer Heinz Kluetmeirer, aptly shows the iconic figure bowed and walking out of the frame. Not mentioned is the name of the man at the center of the scandal—former defensive coach Jerry Sandusky, who stands accused of molesting a number of young boys. The nature of the crime that shattered the college remains unthinkable.”

”Interview magazine describes fashion icon Daphne Guinness as ‘part couture creature, part visual-art concept, part retro-futuristic creation.‘ The Guinness family heiress, who is launching her own film production company, is also a muse of photographers like Steven Klein, who photographed her perched provocatively atop various rock formations for the magazine’s current issue.” Photo by Steven Klein, Interview

”Two notable American clans were joined over Labor Day when Lauren Bush, granddaughter of President George H.W. Bush and niece of President George W. Bush, married David Lauren, son of designer Ralph Lauren. In this wedding portrait by celebrity photographer Norman Jean Roy, the bride wears a dress—antique tulle hand-embroidered with Swarovski Elements—designed by her new father-in-law. The groom, also dressed in Ralph Lauren, described their wedding at the 17,000-acre Lauren ranch in Colorado as being like ’a beautiful movie.’ Roy’s picture captures the couple’s cinematic perfection.” Photo by Norman Jean Roy, Vogue

”According to GQ, TV talk-show host Jimmy Fallon and actor Justin Timberlake have revolutionized modern entertainment by pioneering a ’shinier, happier, singier-and-dancier brand of entertainment.’ That’s why the magazine included them in its annual ’Men of the Year’ issue. The pair clowned it up (while remaining shiny and happy) in this shot by celebrity photographer Peggy Sirota.” Photo by Peggy Sirota, GQ