Seattle Police Pepper Spray Peaceful Protesters [Video]

This is just horrible. Sure it's only "pepper spray" but I have been pepper sprayed and it's not fun. I personally think this is an abuse of power. There is the possibility that something hidden happened off camera but this just appears to be an excessive response by the Seattle Police Department.

BEWARE OF FOUL LANGUAGE



Regardless of all our different opinions on the Occupy movement this appears to be a sign of what the Police seem to consider acceptable behavior. It's a scary thought to think that this is considered okay.

reply to post by Corruption Exposed


Pigs disgust me!

Yes, those officers were piggies.

reply to post by Truth4Thought


Oink! Oink?

Perhaps

Torture, plain and simple.

reply to post by TheMindWar


That would definitely be one way of explaining it.

It's extremely painful and it was unprovoked in this instance from what I can tell.

Sorry, it won't let me upload the pictures but this link has plenty.

Elderly woman, priest pepper-sprayed during Occupy protest

Seattle activist Dorli Rainey, 84, reacts after being hit with pepper spray during an Occupy Seattle protest on Tuesday, November 15, 2011 at Westlake Park. Protesters gathered in the intersection of 5th Avenue and Pine Street after marching from their camp at Seattle Central Community College in support of Occupy Wall Street. Many refused to move from the intersection after being ordered by police. Police then began spraying pepper spray into the gathered crowd hitting dozens of people. A pregnant woman was taken from the melee in an ambulance after being struck with spray.

It looks like Occupy Seattle may have actually caused some change:

Seattle council asks city to look at its investments

The Seattle City Council on Monday unanimously adopted a resolution in support of Occupy Seattle that calls on the city to examine its banking and investment practices, home-foreclosure patterns and the financing of local elections.

The resolution was a grab bag of proposals meant to provide a local response to the concentration of wealth and abuses in the financial sector that the Occupy Wall Street protest and its regional offspring have called attention to in encampments and rallies around the country this fall.

Hey, it's a start. Maybe they will adopt a resolution to probe the police brutality next.

reply to post by Corruption Exposed


"Attention! Please voluntarily forfeit your right to assemble and protest! Use of unlawful means to make you comply has been authorized. Your ass will be kicked if you do not comply."

reply to post by this_is_who_we_are


The media is trying to make it sound like they were in the intersection. But the video clearly shows them yelling that they are on the sidewalk, and the pictures from the other link shows that the intersection is clear for traffic to continue moving. The police probably had the whole area cordoned off anyways so It's not like any traffic was going to make it through.

reply to post by Corruption Exposed


Less than two minutes of video. No way to know what lead up to it or context. Typical.

This is what you have when you employ morons as police. Morons who are quite happy to use chemicals and violence on people they are there to protect. People who looked fairly peaceful, riled yes, but that's what happens when jack boot thugs start kicking off. I can't see a single thing thrown, no sticks being waved at them, no bottle or bricks. I might be able to understand it then, but it's quite clear to see whose side the police are on. Look at the cops faces, they love it. They're scum IMO, absolute utter out and out scum. And that's as polite as they deserve.

So they brake the law. Block a street. Police asks them to move and they refuse? What was the police supposed to do? Go in guns blazing?

Originally posted by Blaine91555
reply to post by Corruption Exposed

 

Less than two minutes of video. No way to know what lead up to it or context. Typical.

As if that in anyway excuses the cowardly actions committed by the law enforcement officers.

You want to know what happens leading up to it? Go out in the streets and find out for yourself. Careful though, you will be asked to give up your right to protest and potentially be assaulted&arrested.

Originally posted by PsykoOps
So they brake the law. Block a street. Police asks them to move and they refuse? What was the police supposed to do? Go in guns blazing?

What law had been broken? And what are the police supposed to do? In a perfect world, decent good honest cops would tell their superiors that there is a protest going on, and as police it is their job to make sure that it is peaceful and to remain politically nutral. To REFUSE to strike anyone unless they are actually being violent/deserving of arrest. In a perfect world, the cops would speak with protesters and ask them to keep sidewalks and any acsess points free of any lasting protest and let them get on with it. I'm pretty sure there would be a completly different outcome. One which revolved around mutual respect. It is not illegal to protest, doesn't matter how long they want to be there for.

Are you claiming blocking streets is legal there? I'm pretty sure there is a law against it. I'm not gonna go through the books to find the statue but it would be pretty backwards if there isn't any.

if they are blocking somewhere, liase with them and give them a suitable alternative. It's not exactly rocket science. There is NO need whatso ever to go in showing force in this type of situation. The crowds are only getting angry becasue of the actions of the police. If the actions of the police were more suited to civilised society, then again, I'm sure we'd have a completly different outcome.

I would have arrested them for foul language. There is no need for the verbal aggression.

That said, I think that the police in the US are just too over reactive, although we do not know the context or have any inkling as to how long the police have been standing. Maybe, if we saw what happened beforehand we may be prasining the police for a restrained response.

Regards

reply to post by Big Trouble in Little Chi


Let me ask you a question here. Do you think you have the right to ignore other peoples rights?

Do you have the right to block access to businesses?

Do you have the right to block public roads or sidewalks so nobody else can use them?

If so, where is that right given to you?

How would you personally deal with people who unlawfully stomp all over everyone elses rights? Would you just ignore it and let them get away with it?

Walk a mile in others shoes and realize the right to protest does not include a right to deny others their rights. Who other than an irrational person or a child would want to live in such a place?

This is not about the protests and never has been. It's about people who have zero respect for everyone else and consider themselves special and that they can do whatever they want to others. Those streets are for everyone's use and anyone who does not respect that is a phony wanna-be dictator.

The parks are also for everyone's use unless you have the decency to reserve them in a legal manner as other groups do without problems.

I honestly feel bad for the real protesters that they have to have their movement taken over by bad people nobody does or should care about. They will learn from this I hope and keep them out if there is a next time. Anarchists and thugs are not protestors, they are just a nuisance to be dealt with and when they use force and refuse to act like reasonable people, somebody has to deal with it. Anything that happens to them is their fault.

If I'm wrong why is it that other groups and protestors can gather in far larger numbers with no problems at all? Explain that?

Sad but I don't think this is destined for anything but more violence.. and no I'm not suggesting or endorsing violence.

But sooner or later they will pepper spray some people who aren't going to run or back down. And then it will escalate.

Seems to be almost a self fulfilling prophecy : /

reply to post by Acidtastic


They were told to get off the street and onto the sidewalks. Is that not a suitable alternative?

reply to post by Blaine91555


Not only business and private individuals who have the right to use that road. Remember that emergency services rely on them. Lucky they didn't this time.