Stewart shows a clip of Lt. John Pike pepper-spraying sitting students and says, “I just want to remind you that the shapes that the officer appears to be casually rustproofing are human peoples. With eyes and lungs! That is not a termite nest.”
…
“We’ve suddenly become a people who use pepper spray to alleviate minor inconveniences. Pepper spray has become America’s new car horn.”
From Monday, 11/28/11
Image above: what we do in America, our role in the world. Certainly can’t last forever though, with our ‘Rick-Perry-minimum-wage jobs’ or no jobs at all. If we don’t consume enough today, the one percent will need more tax cuts — which we’ll gladly pay for by allowing the GOP to cut our social safety net programs.
via: coalspeaker:
.
Apparently pepper spray is the new Christmas tradition in the U.S.
“I heard screaming and I heard yelling. Moments later, my throat stung. I was coughing really bad and watering up.” — Porter Ranch, Los Angeles, California Wal-Mart customer Matthew Lopez • Describing what happened after another customer, who authorities say was “competitive shopping,” pepper sprayed 20 people (including children!) in an attempt to beat everyone else at getting stuff. Considering, you know, this incident and this incident, the usage of pepper spray seems incredibly ironic. Authorities are looking for the person who sprayed her fellow shoppers in efforts to buy a new Xbox 360 or something similar. Humanity sucks sometimes. source (via: shortformblog)
More from nationalpost:
Twenty injured after woman pepper sprays L.A. Black Friday shoppers in act of ‘competitive shopping’
Twenty people, including children, received minor injuries after a woman reportedly pepper sprayed other shoppers at a Los Angeles-area Walmart store on Thursday as late-night Black Friday sales began in the United States and Canada.
Calling it an act of “competitive shopping,” a fire captain told the Los Angeles Times the woman had intentionally taken the pepper spray with her to the department store in Porter Ranch to get the edge on her fellow shoppers.
She used the pepper spray in several areas of the store, Los Angeles Fire Capt. James Carson told the Times.
At least seven of the shoppers were receiving medical care; areas of the store were reportedly evacuated after the incident. Victims reported irritation of the skin, eye and throat. (Photo by Sandy Huffaker/Getty Images)
Police were forced to use pepper spray to control a crowd at a Kinston, North Carolina, Walmart..
image: flickr
I thought the same thing: UC Davis Chancellor Linda P.B. Katehi is a lying liar.
“Quite simply, I think she’s lying. If she had in fact ordered the police to specifically NOT use force when dealing with the protestors, her immediate reaction when the incident happened would not be some passive voice doublespeak and a limp attempt to blame the students, it would have been a forceful condemnation and swift action towards the police who VIOLATED HER DIRECT ORDERS.”
— John Cole on UC Davis Chancellor Linda P.B. Katehi blaming the police for the level of force used
via: someecards.com
via: cartoonpolitics
via: cultureofresistance
CONTACT:
motherjones: UC Davis police officer pepper sprays sitting students because, well, just because. Think that’s %$#ing horrible? The video’s worse.
Via John Aravosis at AmericaBlog:
I’m sorry, this has gone too far. This has happened in police department after police department, and it has gone too far. Our police look like the goons in Russia and China. Please watch this video and send it to everyone you know. This has gone too far.
WTF, law enforcement? Enough! This reminds me of what 19th-century American financier Jay Gould said that after hiring strike breakers: ”I can hire one-half of the working class to kill the other half.” This is what rich people think of you, that’s who you’re protecting.
It doesn’t matter how much money you get to turn on your own, it will always be thirty pieces of silver.
via: gasmaskedaily
Also? Reality check:
via: gauderrrp
UPDATE: The officer who pepper-sprayed UC Davis students is Lt. John Pike. Give his PD a call. 530-752-1727 (via: occupyallstreets)
Chancellor’s office (530) 752-2065
The officer who pulled out the pepper spray was Lieutenant John Pike: (530) 752-3989 japikeiii@ucdavis.edu
…The police in their own way are symbols of the problem. All over the country, thousands of armed cops have been deployed to stand around and surveil and even assault the polite crowds of Occupy protesters. This deployment of law-enforcement resources already dwarfs the amount of money and manpower that the government “committed” to fighting crime and corruption during the financial crisis. One OWS protester steps in the wrong place, and she immediately has police roping her off like wayward cattle. But in the skyscrapers above the protests, anything goes.
This is a profound statement about who law enforcement works for in this country. What happened on Wall Street over the past decade was an unparalleled crime wave. Yet at most, maybe 1,500 federal agents were policing that beat – and that little group of financial cops barely made any cases at all. Yet when thousands of ordinary people hit the streets with the express purpose of obeying the law and demonstrating their patriotism through peaceful protest, the police response is immediate and massive. There have already been hundreds of arrests, which is hundreds more than we ever saw during the years when Wall Street bankers were stealing billions of dollars from retirees and mutual-fund holders and carpenters unions through the mass sales of fraudulent mortgage-backed securities.
It’s not that the cops outside the protests are doing wrong, per se, by patrolling the parks and sidewalks. It’s that they should be somewhere else. They should be heading up into those skyscrapers and going through the file cabinets to figure out who stole what, and from whom. They should be helping people get their money back. Instead, they’re out on the street, helping the Blankfeins of the world avoid having to answer to the people they ripped off.
***
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. (Seattlepi.com)
Photo: Joshua Trujillo / seattlepi.com
Photo by Tanner Spendley (click for more photos)
Video from yesterday:
Here’s the thing: These officers, outnumbered and most likely a bit afraid of that sudden ‘spark’ that could inflame the crowd and overpower them at any second, are basically just as screwed as the rest of us. We’re all the 99 percent. They need to be reminded of that.
Sure, you should complain to the mayor or the governor. Even though the police are taking their orders from these offices it would seem that law enforcement is determining the level of force to use themselves.
So what about letting the Denver police union know what you think about the actions taken by their members against peaceful unarmed protesters?
Denver Police Protective Association (PPA):
2105 Decatur Street
Denver, Colorado 80211
(303) 433-8247
Fax (303)477-3166
Board members:
President: Nick Rogers
Vice President: Vince Gavito
Treasurer: John Bronson
Secretary: Mike Mosco
Al Archuleta
Mike Karasek
Brian Brown
Pepper spray and rubber bullets flying at the Occupy protesters in Denver!
via: forrestonfire
Video from 9News below: Occupy Denver protesters arrested, some pepper sprayed:
evanfleischer: And given how intellectually reasonable something like this is (in case — again — you’re not familiar with the numbers), one would imagine that there has to be a middle ground between staying and doing the above because you’re — assuming — for a moment — that this a legitimate stance — “concerned about sanitation.”
The Denver Post has two people there — @westongentry and@jsteffendp.
evanfleischer: Occupy Denver. Currently. (NOTE: No, that’s not a body in the street)
Wes Gentry, 21 minutes ago: “Overwhelming force of #Denver riot police on hand at #OccupyDenver. Much larger than the small group that pepper sprayed the mob earlier.”
“Here’s something I wonder. Are local PDs cracking down harshly at federal (DHS?) guidance? Or is #OccupyDenver like #OO just because. FOIA?”
— Xeni Jardin.
