http://www.alternet.org/story/153134/caught_on_camera:_10_shockingly_violent_police_assaults_on_occupy_protesters/?page=entireAlternet / By Joshua Holland
Caught on Camera: 10 Shockingly Violent Police Assaults on Occupy Protesters
Probably 97 percent of police act professionally toward protesters. But the other 3 percent are armed and dangerous, and know that they're unlikely to be held accountable.November 18, 2011
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1. Point-BlankThis now-iconic image was captured by The Oregonian in Portland on November 17.
Now consider what legitimate law enforcement goal could possibly require an officer to disperse a chemical weapon directly into the face of an unarmed female protester at point-blank range? Though we don't know precisely what chemical agent was in that spray, those with allergies to capsicum can go into anaphylactic shock when exposed to pepper-spray. There's a reason these weapons are characterized as “less-lethal,” and not “non-lethal.”
2. Senseless Violence- snip -
What stands out in the video is that Sabehgi is merely walking backward as he talks to a group of riot police. He doesn't pose a threat, and no discernible law enforcement goal is served by attacking him – the police appear to be acting out of anger. But let's say, for the sake of argument, that they had a legitimate interest in getting him to move out of the street. After the first two baton strikes, that goal is achieved: he runs to the sidewalk. After that point, the subsequent blows appear to be unnecesary and excessive, and they sent him to the hospital with a severe injury.
3. Act of Anger - snip -
In the first video, police appear to be dragging protesters who don't look like they pose a threat into the street and arresting them. At 4:35, a citizen demands that an officer furnish his badge number and gets no response. According to NYPD's own rules, “The New York City Police Department Patrol Guide, procedure 203-09 (Public Contact—General), states that officers must 'give name and shield number to anyone requesting them.' New York City’s Office of Administrative Trials and Hearings ('OATH') has issued a number of recent opinions that examine what this patrol guide procedure requires of officers. In essence, these cases have held that the patrol guide procedure imposes an 'affirmative obligation' to 'give name and shield number to anyone requesting them'; In other words, a demand for a name or badge number demands an 'affirmative response.'”
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6. NYPD Officer Punches Retreating Activist in the Face These videos show two angles of activist Felix Rivera-Pitre being punched in the face by a police officer later identified as Deputy Inspector Johnny Cardona. Rivera-Pitre, and several witnesses at the scene, say he was trying to get away from the officer when he was assaulted in an unprovoked attack.
Note how the crowd is calm before the assault and then goes into a frenzy immediately afterward. Here, again, police violence appears to be counter-productive to the goal of maintaining order.
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