I came across an interesting article in The Stranger today, and it made me realize something (a duh light bulb moment if there ever was one). As enraging as it is when the police indiscriminately pepper spray us, they may not be acting like jerks. Maybe they are just lazy.
As Goldy pointed out in this blog piece
Let's say you're pulled over by the police for speeding or something, and when the officer asks to see your license, you politely say "No." He asks again, and again you refuse. So he pepper sprays you right in the eyes. Then the officer gets back into his patrol car and drives away. No ticket, no arrest, no nothing.
I admit I never thought of it this way. What are the chances that a minor traffic stop (which is pretty similar to a refusal to get on the sidewalk) would end with a stream of pepper spray and then you are on your way? I am going to guess the chances are about zero. The reason for this are pretty obvious - in most cases it is one police officer, one driver, easy arrest if you refuse to comply, right?
I guess one could consider that there might be safety concerns if a police officer has to put down their bike (in Seattle, the really dickish cops are always on bikes) and walk into the crowd to start arresting people. But that can't be right either, because I have seen them reach into the crowd and arrest people before. Ok, I have also seen those of us in the crowd un-arresting people as they try to grab them but honestly holding onto someone that is being pulled out by the cops is not a threat to them. It is a reflexive reaction on our part. I've never seen anyone attempt to assault the officer to stop them from arresting someone. It's always just hold on tight until they give up.
So this might actually be pretty accurate then:
Officers and their commanders need to remind themselves that by the SPD's own policy (.pdf), "less lethal" weapons like pepper spray are intended as "alternatives to the use of deadly force." They are not meant to be used as a convenient means of crowd dispersal. They are not intended as some sort of righteous street justice against disruptive protesters. Essentially, if the officer wouldn't otherwise shoot the person in the face, he has no business pepper spraying him.
With the escalation that I witnessed on Tuesday, I am really feeling a lot of emotions about the SPD right now. Not only did we get hosed down at least four times with pepper spray, but I watched them assault people with their bikes (by picking them up and slamming them into people when their back was turned). Until they started this behavior at the end of our march none of us were really talking to them even though they had already sprayed us and attempted to trap us for mass arrests a few blocks away. We weren't menacing, or threatening, or even shouting at them at all. We were actually starting to gather to march back to our occupation site when they just flipped their shit, which is when the assaults with bikes and massive pepper spraying happened (and when Dorli Rainey was hit too).
So, I am wondering...lazy, brutal, or a combination of both?