Liberal Viewer is taking a fine tooth comb to the action of the police during the OWS protests. More importantly he is speaking directly to what the character of the US is about. It the US a constitutional democracy or is it a autocratic oligarchy that will defend the interests of the rich before the rights of the poor (yes, yes I know false dichotomy but we are being dramatic here). The protests and coverage are writing a new chapter in the rights that people are allowed to express in the US. You can sit on the sidelines and critique OWS on any number of areas, and justifiably so, what and how they are doing is far from perfect. However, what also needs to be examined is what by extension they are doing for those of us who are not participating.
The protesters are documenting and recording how the state treats dissident views. What you are seeing is how well your rights as a citizen stand up to the power of the state and its coercive apparatus. The OWS protests are a litmus test as to exactly how much freedom and liberties are accorded in society. So before you cast aspersions and uncritical invective at OWS, perhaps consider what it would be like if you were demonstrating and vocalizing an idea that meant enough to put your freedom and safety on the line.
bleatmop
Mystro
The Arbourist
Dead Wild Roses 
1 comment
November 27, 2011 at 1:27 pm
Vern R. Kaine
I found this article as well on its legality:
http://articles.sfgate.com/2011-11-23/news/30436178_1_pepper-spray-reasonable-officer-excessive-force
Obviously Kelly’s interpretation is wrong here, however she qualifies her comment by saying “her instincts” were that the police were allowed to use pepper spray. When they usually do their “Is It Legal?” segment on that show they go into what the laws are and what precedent says. I think this was a case of the “Full Spin Zone” to fit O’Reilly’s ongoing narrative about the protestors, and in the case of the cops, they were told to make the protestors leave and in my opinion they weren’t going to just go home without sending a message of “don’t f–k with us.”
A better clip of the incident can be found here:
As for the pepper spray being “diluted” or not, I can tell you that as someone who has been pepper sprayed (as a younger kid playing around with ‘bear scare’, not because of protesting), with the quantities that cop is dousing the protestors with, it has to be watered down. There’s no way you could sit there and endure that otherwise, either being sprayed directly or even as someone in the proximity of it. A couple quick blasts from it had four guys coughing and choking. You certainly wouldn’t have that crowd chanting shortly after the fact.
Thankfully I’m not a pepper spray expert but it looked to be a more liquidized version than aerosol.
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