Passive Occupy protesters take pepper spray blast

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D9R4636G3&show_article=1 ^ | 11/19/2011 | SUDHIN THANAWALA

[Morgana]

(AP) - Protesters sitting on the ground supporting the Occupy Wall Street movement on the campus of the University of California, Davis, on Saturday took a face full of pepper spray at close range from an officer in riot gear in an incident that was captured on cellphone video and spread virally across the internet.

UC Davis Chancellor Linda Katehi described the video images as "chilling" and said she was forming a task force to investigate even as a faculty group called for her resignation because of the police action Friday.

However, a law enforcement official who watched the clip called the use of force "fairly standard police procedure."

In the video an officer dispassionately pepper-sprays a line of several sitting protesters who flinch and cover their faces but remain passive with their arms interlocked as onlookers shriek and scream out for the officer to stop.

"The use of the pepper spray as shown on the video is chilling to us all and raises many questions about how best to handle situations like this," Chancellor Linda Katehi said in a message posted on the school's website Saturday.

[Freedom_Is_Not_Free]

I would have used a fire hose.

[Rodney Dangerfield]

Fire Hoses.

[ArmstedFragg]

It’s the old lock arms and hope they spray us routine. Tree huggers did the same thing in Eureka a decade ago. The deputies used OC applied by Q-tip. If memory serves, the huggers did well in court.

It’s now a standard tactic to provide a sound track intended to influence those who watch the tape. Sounds like the demonstrators had their tactics all prepared.

[berdie]

“Don’t Lysol me, bro” lol

And, I am beginning to wonder if that was what the officer was using.

I have a pepper spray thingie that I tested when I first recieved it. About the time I sprayed it..a slight breeze blew the spray back in my face. I nearly hit the ground and my eyes were shot for the rest of the day.

The protesters were just ducking their heads. Not at all what I experienced!

[Lazamataz]

The use of the pepper spray as shown on the video is chilling to us all

It's not chilling, it's hottening.

[tanuki]

Would you like a little pepper on your protester?

[christx30]

And if one of those stood up and sprayed a cop, then they would have been beaten within an inch of their life and charged with felonious assault on a police officer. At that point, the police (and you, probably) would not think of it as “harmless”

[jmcenanly]

I have heard people on other sites calling the police 'Stormtroopers' for using these tactics. Historically, it was the Storm troopers (Stoßtruppen in German)in the Weimar Republic who did things like blocking entrances to businesses and terrorizing citizens.
However, if they are referring to those other storm troopers, at that range they'd probably miss.

[Molon Labbie]

Well UC Chancellor Linda Katei, instead of Belgian Malis’ and batons, we should issue the police puppy dogs and candy canes. Those are irresistible.

Folks, those kids are carrying on time honored tradition of resistance. They are using a tactic developed over the years of interlocking arms in which the whole group is able to brace any one person who is being physically pulled away by an officer. Believe me, I have had to try to pull this “chains” apart and it just leads to real injuries to officers and protestors alike. Batons don’t work, even tasers don’t work. Dogs work but that is fodder to bring up pictures of the Selma, Alabama marches.

Mace works well because you simply cannot sit there with it on your face. You have an overwhelming desire to decontaminate yourself and because of that you will let go of your compatriots to do it.

[Dusty Road]

And just when has that happen?

[MinuteGal]

Your post took the words right out of my mouth. These tactics were employed in the hippie protests of the 60's and are being used again today.

It's programmed "Street Theater" with occupiers stoically inviting and enduring police force of any kind while surrounding female participants shriek hysterically on cue. They are very accomplished shriekers.

Videotape, YouTube and the evening news make the street theater much more effective today than it was decades ago.

The police should add salt spray to the pepper spray bombardments. I hear stinging salt spray is good for adolescent acne. Maybe a little Hot Sauce mixed in, too.

Leni

[ThePatriotsFlag]

I think it is time to start rethinking punishment. What is the downside for these people? An hour in jail doing paperwork to get out so they can do it again. Pepper Spray should be the norm, and for repeaters, something new, it's called "caning"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caning_in_Singapore

We need more downside to breaking the law.

[Celtic Conservative]

Yeppers. And with all of them locking arms you would've only needed to taze the one on the end to zap all of them.

CC

[bert]

You misunderstand the concept........ there is no law, there are only lawyers and judges.

[FlingWingFlyer]

I’m sorry. I lived through the goofy 60s and have already seen all of this goofy crap before. When you are obstructing others from going about their daily business, you shouldn’t be pepper sprayed, you should have your ass kicked.

[A_perfect_lady]

And just when has that happen?

Wow, I'm amazed people aren't understanding what I'm saying. It hasn't happened. I'm saying that liberals who are outraged at OWS protestors being pepper sprayed would NOT be outraged if it was anti-abortion protestors who were acting the same way. Am I clear now?

[christx30]

I’ve seen stuff like this too. Casual cruelty from the police. Water cannons and rubber bullets against protestors in Selma. It sickens me. I may not agree with most of what they are fighting for, but there are a few things. Criminal activity from the banks rewarded by bailouts.
Cops that stop people from protesting, and pepper spray people that are sitting down should at the very least be prosecuted for assault.

[ArmstedFragg]

The effectiveness is also enhanced by the inability of a large section of the populace to differentiate street theater from reality. They hear someone yelling, “you're trying to kill him”, and assume they're watching someone committing murder. I don't know how to get people to differentiate what they actually saw from what they were told they were seeing, but it's a big problem, even with some Freepers.