Edited Video (Rotated)
Edited Video: Slo-Mo with Emphasis on Apparent Indiscriminate Use
Apparent Indiscriminate Use After Incident - A
Apparent Indiscriminate Use After Incident - B
As people do the appropriate thing and discuss this and analyze this it is important to look closely to what is being reported and what is being claimed as the "official" line on what happened - and what is clearly seen in this particular video.
As far as I have been able to analyze the video the two incidents (minimal) of use of force that are here documented, putting aside what occurred (clearly) prior and inside the Museum, would have a hard time being justified according to established policy.
The use of force, Pepper Spray, is being deployed in what appears two independent incidents, by two different officers/guards, on two different sets of people. In the first incident the officer emerges from the door and fires indiscriminately toward a woman standing with a sign and also another officer who turns his head in defense.
In the second an officer/guard is clearly outside of the Museum and is spraying towards some of those you see a moment later on the ground.
No one in this video is "rushing" the Museum or its security. There are no visible "banners" let alone a three-story banner. And at the time of the spraying everyone in this location seems to have barely noticed or reacted, if at all, to an incident that took place inside of the Museum.
It should be noted that in the second of the two apparent incidents on this video there are several observers from the National Lawyer's Guild present.
Whatever may have happened INSIDE the Museum, and whatever may have been the appropriate or inappropriate nature of how that incident was handled, this video raises far more serious questions about the misuse of force and abuse of power than what might center around the perhaps questionable actions of others who were not the victims shown on this video.
NEW VIDEO
It appears likely that the officers/guards involved in this incident are members of The Smithsonian Institution Office of Protection Services. These are Federal officers.
According to the U.S Code (Title 40, Chapter 63, §6306), Smithsonian guards designated as special police
The information is incomplete at the moment but here is video shot at the scene. Apparently this is at or near the National Air and Space Museum, part of the Smithsonian Institution, near the Mall in Washington D.C..
If you have further information or updates please post below in the thread.
Photos from Washington Post, OpEd News, and NewsTimes.com
Further images from the Washington Post.
COMPARE the images and videos above - identifying the victims of the Pepper Spray to the following close ups of the "offending" banner that is the cause of this incident. Note that there are only two males identified as those placing up the banner (in a peaceful, non-disruptive, and non-aggressive manner) - to those below identifying the persons who put up the banner.
Now ask: are those people on the ground outside feeling the effects of the Pepper Spray attack the same as, and only, those persons here identified inside as responsible for the act that caused/justified (allegedly) the use of force?
It appears that the causal incident leading to the Pepper Spraying was protesters unveiling a three-story banner from the Air and Space Museum protesting a Military Drone exhibition.
It appears that reporters from OpEd News, wearing press passes, were among those Pepper Sprayed.
FROM HUFFINGTON POST on this incident:
WASHINGTON -- According to dispatches on Twitter, security officials at the Smithsonian Air and Space museum used pepper spray on "Stop the Machine" demonstrators protesting an exhibition on drone aircraft, which is described as a "glorification of extra-judicial executions and the military industrial complex at a public institution" on the group's Facebook page.
The group reportedly made their way inside the museum
, located on the National Mall near the U.S. Capitol, and dropped a three-story banner that read "No Drones, Stop the Afgan War."
The protesters have asked for donations of T-shirts, saline and towels to be brought to the first-aid tent in Freedom Plaza, the home base of the "Stop the Machine" protests.
The Air and Space museum is closed for the rest of the day, according to its website.
Around 150 protesters made their way north on 7th Street NW toward Gallery Place, where Washington Capitals hockey fans were assembling for Saturday night's game against the Tampa Bay Lightning at the Verizon Center. Around 4:50 p.m., they paused for a few minutes at F Street NW in front of the National Portrait Gallery where they shouted chants before moving on elsewhere in downtown.
3:24 PM PT: Analysis of the video that has been released (others are clearly seen with cell-phone's videoing the incident - so there may be more footage to come) shows what appears to be at least two incidents of Pepper Spray after whatever event caused the initial Police involvement.
What is clear from these two incidents, if they are indeed as they appear, is that the Pepper Spray is being used contrary to policy and indiscriminately.
In the first incident on this video a uniformed officer is seen emerging from the door to the Museum with no one particularly in sight and reaching his arm out with his Pepper Spray in hand. A bystander, likely involved in the protest (sign in hand), is in the line of fire as well as another officer who can be seen reacting by turning his head away from the spray.
A moment later, to the right of this, another uniformed officer can be seen pointing his pepper spray out into the crowd who were on the outside of the Museum. Standing around him are several members of the National Lawyers Guild, clearly indicated by the green hats and their t-shirts. The video shows a woman laying on the ground in pain after the attack.
Communications from OpEd News, who initially released this video, indicate that several of their reporters were on the ground. This video is apparently that of one of their senior editors, Rob Kall, and was posted by a former Managing Editor, Amanda Lang.
Communications along with the positing of the video indicate that one of those caught in the line of fire of the Pepper Spray was one of their crew named Cheryl who was clearly identified as a member of the press by her press badge.
3:26 PM PT: The Slow Motion Video now provided here highlights what appears to be at least two incidents of unwarranted use of Pepper Spray by two uniformed officers (of what service and branch is unclear) on those outside of the Museum's doors moments after what appears to be the original confrontation.
Members of the Press, other officers, uninvolved by-standers and even observers from the National Lawyer's Guild were placed in harms way during these two apparent incidents in what appears to be actions clearly violative of the proper procedure and policy on the use of force and the deployment of O.C. (Pepper) Spray.
More to follow.
FROM OP ED NEWS:
Reporter and Occupy Wash DC Protesters Pepper Sprayed at National Air and Space Museum
By Rob Kall (about the author)
opednews.com
When participants in a peaceful, non-violent march which departed from the Freedom Square Occupy Washington DC staging area attempted to enter the National Air and Space Museum, guards and police responded violently, throwing people to the ground, pepper-spraying a journalist and protesters so the doors outside were surrounded by people choking, wheezing, prostrated on the ground, eyes blinded or tearing from direct and indirect exposure to pepper spray.
I had gone ahead of the group of 700-1500 protesters, carrying signs opposing the use of drones to indiscriminately kill. The National Air and Space Museum had been targeted because it is celebrating the use of drones.
After less than a dozen people had entered the foyer of the museum, and just a handful of activists had entered the actual museum, guards rushed to the doors and blocked further entry.
Within seconds, more guards arrived. They started spraying pepper spray at anyone nearby.
photo by Cheryl Biren
It happened so fast it's hard to sort out what exactly happened. But we know that at least one photojournalist, Cheryl Biren, who took the above and following photo, with clearly displayed media /Press ID was sprayed directly.
the first moments of guards getting aggressive (Photo by Cheryl Biren, opednews.com)
The first video shows activity first, within the entry foyer, then outside.
video by rob kall, opednews.com
The guards pursued people outside, continuing to pepper-spray people indiscriminately.
Pepper-sprayed protesters (Photo taken by Cheryl Biren AFTER she was pepper-sprayed)
Opednews photojournalist Cheryl Biren, recovering from being sprayed directly. (image screen grab from video by rob Kall opednews.com)
Tighe Barry and a fellow protester managed to unfurl a three story high banner with the message, No Drones End Afghan War, before being taken into custody by guards. He was released relatively quickly. (photo by Bill Perry)
Video taken moments after the above video where Pepper spray was used.
video by rob kall Opednews.com
Following the interaction between the guards and the protesters and media people, a member of the police SWAT team came out, cleared people from the door, announcing that the museum was "shut down."
SWAT team member turning away tourists, saying that the Museum has been shut down. (photo by Cheryl Biren)
Update:
Update. MSNBC has used the second of my two videos on their website. They're quoting a guard saying there were 100-200 people. I say there were 700-1500. And they report that one person was pepper sprayed-- I saw at least ten people suffering the effects of pepper-spray, and the guards did not just spray one aggressive protester. They chased after people and sprayed outside.
additional update:
David Swanson writes, "
The guards locked the doors and closed the museum. We had not planned to close the museum but to demonstrate and leave. With the museum closed and one of our own in custody, we held a rally on the steps as more people made their way over from Freedom Plaza to join us. We were there for hours. "
Got that? the protesters had not planned to shut down the museum. They had planned to protest the idea that the museum was celebrating killer drones.
5:59 PM PT: Much healthy discussion, despite the limited information, on the use and appropriate use of force.
I place this here as food for thought:
MY TWO CENTS
WHAT DO YOU DO (OUGHT TO BE DONE) IF SOMEONE TRIES TO PLACE A BANNER UP IN A FEDERAL MUSEUM?
First of all you, as a professional law enforcement official, rationally assess the situation. Its protesters with a banner - a piece of cloth. Will it harm anyone? No. Will the act of placing it up harm anyone?
Threat Assessment 1: No urgent issue.
Second, will it harm property? Will the act of placing it up harm property?
Look to the particulars: A few people are in the stairway now dropping a banner down so that it can be seen from the front entrance. No threat to persons or property evident.
Threat Assessment 2: No urgency to deal with the matter.
What to do? Calmly walk over to the particular individuals witnessed placing up the banner. Address them reasonably and politely. If they stop and listen explain to them that they have violated the policies of the Museum and that they need to leave the Museum.
What do they do? Most likely they leave the Museum. Part A of the issue is now closed. No harm done to the persons or property and no harm done to the Museum or its guests.
Part B: Slowly and calmly have staff take down the offending banner.
Incident is over. Business goes on as usual. No one is harmed. No abuse of force or authority. A small and isolated incident has occurred. The matter is concluded.
This is, I believe, how such an incident - assuming what I am describing is what happens - should be handled and how WE should be expecting it to be handled.
We have come to tolerate the excessive use and abuse of authority and force as if it were justified the moment someone "steps out of line."
This is one reason, I believe, that as a Nation we have gotten ourselves into this mess. We are not using reason.
Just my two cents. I cannot say for certain what all of the specifics in this particular situation were. I can say that the evidence I have looked at so far suggests that the above procedure (which, by the way, is the way procedure and policy assumes situations of this nature are to be handled) would have sufficed to effect the appropriate end - which would have been solely and exclusively to remove the offending banner and perhaps (probably) excluding the offending individuals. In fact no arrests needed to be made. And certainly no use of force. But especially not the escalation of the use of force to the outside of the Museum and indiscriminately used against a number of people completely uninvolved in the incident at hand.
Questions about Who the Officers are:
Should a Private Security Firm be Given Federal Police Powers?
The Office of Protection Services (OPS). We are the largest unit at SI with over 850 employees. Our staff is dedicated to the mission of ensuring that visitors, staff and collections at SI are safe and secure.
OPS is often the first face of the Smithsonian -- the first person that visitors or staff see when they enter one our museums is an OPS Security Officer who can have a major impact on the visitor's overall experience. Although security is our first priority, officers go through continuous customer service training to ensure that the visitor experience is a positive one.
But while most staff and visitors recognize our officers, OPS is truly so much more ... we also provide K-9 services, ATV and boat patrols at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center, Police Officers at the National Zoo and oversight of the security at Smithsonian facilities in Panama. To ensure all security and law enforcement officers maintain their proficiency we have a full training staff who conduct hundreds of hours of training, including but not limited to basic security training, firearms, CPR, emergency response and customer service.
8:03 PM PT: There are reports starting to come out about "who" was initially responsible for some of the aspects of what took place at the Air and Space Museum. The whole picture is not yet clear.
What has been made known is that it appears that there was a particular group known as World Can't Wait who were responsible for unfurling the banner inside the Museum.
But with that said there is also some uncertainty, from eyewitness reports, as to what caused the police reactions to the presence of those who were there to express their displeasure with the "celebration" of the use of unmanned drones in warfare. It does not appear that the catalyst for the initial actions taken against those present was the banner but something else (perhaps simply the fact that it was apparent that they were opposed to the exhibit - perhaps it was statements made by some upon their entrance (apparently only about 15-25 of such people had entered the facility before the police response began).
Additionally there seems to be some other groups who have been active in DC and who are claiming some responsibility for what they admit were naive actions. It is not certain if the presence at the Museum is one but there is also some reference on twitter to their having regrets for appearing to have attempted to co-opt certain elements of Occupy DC including its General Assembly.
The tweets coming from this group, known as Stop the Machine 2011, are highly apologetic to Occupy DC - which itself has been very gracious in its responses back.
I will share more as it is brought to my attention. Please keep discussing (in a positive way - there is no reason for people to be getting personal and angry with people here that are just discussing this matter and the related issues) and sharing any further information.
8:24 PM PT: The American Spectator admits to being involved in the precipitation of violence at the Air and Space Museum as a means of discrediting the Occupy Movement.
It has been openly reporting about its "plants" among the protesters and their actions to get certain things to occur. Included in this, today, was the presence - and central role played by - of Patrick Howley, its Assistant Editor, in sparking the police reaction and violence.
Standoff in D.C.
By Patrick Howley on 10.8.11 @ 6:24PM
American Spectator reporter pepper-sprayed at Washington protest.
The fastest-running protesters charged up the steps of Washington's National Air and Space Museum Saturday afternoon to infiltrate the building and hang banners on the "shameful" exhibits promoting American imperialism. As the white-uniformed security guards hurried to physically block the entrances, only a select few -- myself included -- kept charging forward.
Roughly one hundred protesters marched on the Air and Space Museum Saturday, following a planned assembly held the night before in Freedom Plaza. At that assembly, the "Action Committee" for the protest movement organized by October2011.com suggested storming the museum in order to state their opposition to American militarism, which they perceive as a root cause of the national deficit. The marchers started out in the early afternoon, and after a roughly half-hour parade through the streets of D.C. they reached their target. As the museum doors approached, all of a sudden liberal shoes started marching less forcefully, and the crowd split into two factions -- those rushing the doors, and those staying behind.
After sneaking past the guard at the first entrance, I found myself trapped in a small entranceway outside the second interior door behind a muscle-bound left-wing fanatic and a 300-pound guard. The fanatic shoved the guard and the guard shoved back, hard, sending my fellow comrade -- and, by domino effect, me -- sprawling against the wall. After squeezing myself out from under him, I sprinted toward the door. Then I got hit.
Being pepper-sprayed is a singularly agonizing experience -- enormously painful, but even worse for a hypochondriac. When the spray begins soaking into your eyeball, swelling your eyelids and rendering them largely inoperable, it's hard not to worry that you might soon have to invest in stronger-prescription glasses.
But as far as anyone knew I was part of this cause -- a cause that I had infiltrated the day before in order to mock and undermine in the pages of The American Spectator -- and I wasn't giving up before I had my story. Under a cloud of pepper spray I forced myself into the doors and sprinted blindly across the floor of the Air and Space Museum, drawing the attention of hundreds of stunned khaki-clad tourists (some of whom began snapping off disposable-camera portraits of me). I strained to glance behind me at the dozens of protesters I was sure were backing me up, and then I got hit again, this time with a cold realization: I was the only one who had made it through the doors. As two guards pointed at me and started running, I dodged a circle of gawking old housewives and bolted upstairs.
The tourist reaction within the museum -- like the reactions of those on D.C. tour buses and sidewalks Saturday -- was one of confusion and mild irritation. In the absence of definitive national polling on the matter, that may be the best opinion sample we yet have of this rash of ill-defined, anti-corporate and anti-bailout protests developing across the country. What began on Wall Street is now spreading, and the question still remains: is it dangerous?
Socialist indoctrination methods are surprisingly effective. It's hard not to get swept up in the Movement when you're among a hundred foot soldiers -- most of them attractive 20-year old girls -- marching down E Street toward Freedom Plaza chanting, "How do we end the deficit? End the war and tax the rich!" Whenever the protesters would pass a group of tourists they'd implore them to join, and when a few smiling college kids would hesitantly jump in they'd applaud wildly.
It was a miracle that they even managed to get to the museum. At the Freedom Plaza planning assembly Friday night, facilitators from October2011.com struggled to keep order with a system they had invented -- one in which new ideas are called "process points" and "twinkles" (i.e. twinkling your fingers) stand for "yay." No one at the assembly seemed to have any kind of discernable cause ("I thought the government was the problem? Isn't that why we're here?" asked a clueless old man just before the police cut off the microphones). With the lead facilitator -- a redhaired, ponytailed twentysomething woman seemingly just out of grad school -- imploring the crowd to be patient with her as she differentiated between "process points" and "information points," the group grew restless. Disenchanted with false promises of free pizza, they started leaving in mass numbers.
So I was surprised to find myself a fugitive Saturday afternoon, stumbling around aircraft displays with just enough vision to keep tabs on my uniformed pursuers. "The museum is now closed!" screamed one of the guards as alarms sounded. "Everyone make your way to the exits immediately!" Using my jacket to cover my face -- which I could feel swelling to Elephant Man proportions -- I ducked through the confused tourists and raced out the exit. "Hey, you!" shouted a female guard reaching for my arm. "Get back here!" But I was already down the steps and out of sight.
Minutes earlier, I had been blocking major D.C. roads chanting "We're unstoppable" -- and from beneath my unshaven left-wing altar ego, I worried that we might actually be. But just as the lefties couldn't figure out how to run their assembly meeting (many of my process points, I'm afraid to report, were left un-twinkled), so too do they lack the nerve to confront authority. From estimates within the protest, only ten people were pepper-sprayed, and as far as I could tell I was the only one who got inside.
In the absence of ideological uniformity, these protesters have no political power. Their only chance, as I saw it, was to push the envelope and go bold. But, if today's demonstration was any indicator, they don't have what it takes to even do that.
As I scrambled away from the scene of my crime, a police officer outside the museum gates pointed at my eyes, puffed out of his chest, and shouted: "Yeah, that's right. That's right." He was proud that I had been pepper-sprayed, and, oddly, so was I. I deserved to get a face full of high-grade pepper, and the guards who sprayed me acted with more courage than I saw from any of the protesters. If you're looking for something to commend these days in America, start with those guards.
More protests are planned for D.C. Sunday, with the internal aim of keeping this disruptive movement going into the work week.
About the Author
Patrick Howley is an assistant editor at The American Spectator.
10:26 PM PT:
Another Eye-Witness Account Inside the Museum
posted for Pam Ladds, who had trouble posting
This is a statement from Pam Ladds
Hey Rob, I tried to post the following to your piece as a comment. It does not appear to have taken and I am using a computer at the Hostel. Can't keep playing with it. Grrrrrrr! Getting comments posted tends to be a little frustrating as everything loads so slowly. Any way what I wrote follow. ciao Pam
I am one of the people who did manage to get inside the building and witnessed the banner unfurl. And saw it ripped down by the Guards. There were probably about 15 of us who got inside - because we went into the entrance on the left, not the one on the right. All of us got pepper sprayed, some more seriously than others. The Guards, as they rushed to close the doors looked panicked, and were spraying randomly. People who were shorter got it directly in the face. Those of us taller got our shirts covered and inhaled it, but smaller amounts on our faces. From inside the lobby area between the 2 sets of door was filled with the fog of spray, it leaked into the real lobby which is why the museum was shut down. Tourists also got sprayed. The Guards themselves would have been covered too, so at least they got a sense of what it was like!!! After the banner was unfurled, and pulled down, we all left the museum by the rear doors, quite calmly with all the tourists. No one tried to stop us - and we were very visible. I had shouted to the tourists "Read the Banner, Read the Banner", and was very visible in a bright yellow First Aid shirt. The Guards did not attempt to stop or detain me. About 50 people were sprayed, so far most have given statements to the Legal Observers.
by Rob Kall (164 fans, 1373 articles, 4557 quicklinks, 439 diaries, 2943 comments [1590 recommended]) on Saturday, Oct 8, 2011 at 8:19:49 PM
Posted at opednews.com
http://www.opednews.com/...
Sun Oct 09, 2011 at 12:20 AM PT: More Video: