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Assault and pepper: Cops trained to spray
Published: 21 November, 2011, 15:28
A police officer pepper-sprays students at an Occupy protest at University of California, Davis
TAGS: Conflict, Crime, Scandal, Protest, USA
Two police officers involved in Friday’s pepper-spray incident during the crackdown on Occupy UC Davis protesters have been put on leave. But some commentators say the police using violence against unresisting protesters is part of the academy drill.
The YouTube video showing policeman dousing students point-blank at their head with irritating chemical has gone viral. It reached more than 1.3 million views over the weekend. The majority of comments denounce the apparent police brutality against peaceful demonstrators, whose only fault was that sitting passively and refusing to leave.
Shannon Giammichele, sophomore UC Davis student, who was among the victims of the incident, says getting sprayed by the police resulted in an asthma attack.
“I quickly covered, and next thing you knew you just heard the sound of spray going off and felt it in your mouth and your nose,” Giammichele told the UD Davis student newspaper Aggie. “I accidentally slipped the lower part of my cover and inhaled pepper spray, so I ended up being transported to the hospital because I have asthma, and I had an asthma attack as a result. It was all over my hands so I got it in my eyes.”
UC Davis police announced on Sunday that two officers have been placed on administrative leave over the breakdown of the camp at UC Davis Quad.
Peter Moskos, ex-police officer who is now an academic, says pepper-spraying for non-compliance is part of the police academy training, which he calls “dumb-assed”.
“Some people, perhaps those who design training programs, think policing should be a hands-off job. It can’t be and shouldn’t be. And trying to make policing too hands-off means people get Tased and maced for non-compliance. It’s not right. But this is the way many police are trained. That’s a shame,” he wrote in the Washington Monthly.
Earlier on Saturday a media conference was held at the university by UC Davis Chancellor Linda Katehi and UC Davis Police Chief Annette Spicuzza. Katehi announced that a task force has been gathered to address the incident. A report is to be released within 90 days.
As the conference happened, some 700 protestors – students, alumni and community members – gathered outside the building. The demo calling on the chancellor to resign apparently unnerved the officials, as Katehi left the conference 2 hours and 20 minutes after it ended, the Aggie reports.
21.11.2011, 13:03
8 comments
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21.11.2011, 16:19
15 comments
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You are correct; if someone is breaking the law then the police have to authority to take action. They used the least amount of force to take control of the situation. As a retired military person and someone that has worked in the law enforcement field I have been pepper sprayed over 10 times myself. It is a requirement to be sprayed before you are allowed to use the spray on someone else. I will agree that it does burn extremely bad and will disorientate you temporarily. That allowed the police to arrest the people that were breaking the law without injury. Using the definition given on TV, I fall in the 99% bracket but the last thing I want or need is a bunch of law breaking, hippie wanna-be kids speaking on my behalf.mrphy42 wrote in
#9
Michael harris wrote in #8
So apparently, if you are spoken to, and don't comply, the police have every right to cause physical harm, respiratory damage, blindness, chemical burns, destroy tissue and you should be glad they didn't just shoot you. No, this is not irrational and insane at all.
most of you dont understand the trespass laws in the US. the occu-cult protest was on city property, so the city ordered an eviction, the cops went to enforce that eviction. They told the protesters to leave or they would be charged with trespassing. now when they police came, the protesters locked arms and ignored all commands from the police to leave. so what do you people expect the police to do? ...just walk away, some of you would say yes, but a crime is a crime, if it was theft, should the police just walk away? if it was murder should they police just let them be and continue thier crimes? I dont see this as police brutality, it could have resulted in a situation where they each get tazered, beaten with a baton, or who knows what else. In the end im sure they all were able to just walk free and wash out thier eyes, when they should be getting fines or even going to jail for breaking the law. i dont know why this movement is getting so much support, all it is is a pro-socialism, pro government, pro welfare, and anti-success. People arent born rich, they work hard and take risks to get to where they are, and even more importantly, its not thier falt that others are poor, they are poor because they are lazy and expect everything from the government.
RON PAUL 2012