Just, wow:
The police commander whose blast of pepper spray galvanized the Occupy Wall Street Movement says he has been "tortured" since the incident — but still believes he used the proper amount of force and "would do things the same way" if given a second chance, sources said.
"On the inside" sources who spoke to Deputy Inspector Anthony Bologna say he was stunned by the virulent reaction to the video that portrayed him squirting pepper spray into the faces of four female protesters during a march near Union Square on Sept. 24.
Even as Bologna remains unrepentant, Josh Harkinson reports that some members of the New York City Police Department are actually quite supportive of Occupy Wall Street:
The New York City Police Department has dealt with a heavy dose of criticism for the way that it has handled the Occupy Wall Street protests, with an unprovoked pepper spraying, questionably legal arrests, and a dressing down by a US Marine at Times Square all caught on videotape. But in the interactions with police that I have witnessed and the conversations I've had with officers, a more nuanced picture has emerged: one of overworked rank-and-file cops torn between following orders and sympathizing with the movement and its goals.
"We are all in this together," says an off-duty cop—let's call him Jim—who described himself to me as a 99 percenter and supporter of the occupation. Jim says he believes that most of his fellow officers feel the same. "We have no problems with what goes on there," he says.
Law enforcement officers, like any large group, are not monolithic.