re: #30 recusancy

It’s not the police’s fault. They are a casualty of the system.

I was just reading up on that. The pepper spray thing is an outrageous outrage.
Officers in pepper spray incident placed on leave

Charles J. Kelly, a former Baltimore Police Department lieutenant who wrote the department’s use of force guidelines, said pepper spray is a “compliance tool” that can be used on subjects who do not resist, and is preferable to simply lifting protesters.

“When you start picking up human bodies, you risk hurting them,” Kelly said. “Bodies don’t have handles on them.”

After reviewing the video, Kelly said he observed at least two cases of “active resistance” from protesters. In one instance, a woman pulls her arm back from an officer. In the second instance, a protester curls into a ball. Each of those actions could have warranted more force, including baton strikes and pressure-point techniques.

“What I’m looking at is fairly standard police procedure,” Kelly said.

UCD peppered by ‘Net outrage

Lynne Wilson, a Seattle attorney who has written on the subject, said some court decisions have faulted police for using pepper on nonviolent protesters.

“When protesters are just passively resisting, pepper spray is not usually an option,” she said.

However, officer safety is a major issue.

“Surrounding police officers is probably not a good idea,” she said.

In one video, an officer, with students milling in the background holding cameras, methodically sprays the faces of students seated passively on the ground.

There may be more to it than that, suggested John McGinness, a former Sacramento County sheriff.

When students were told to leave, they had that option, he said.

“When you see the ultimate use of force, it’s not pretty,” he said. But pepper spray causes less harm to protesters and officers than other methods, McGinness said.

I know it seems unfathomable to many people but my guess is the reason why it’s standard procedure is to avoid prolonged scuffles and wrestling with officers. That’s how the bloody guy in Zuccotti park got so messed up. It’s safer for both the officers and protesters to have them subdued at the time of arrest. Especially in a crowd situation.