Welcome to the Police State: NYC Cops Mace Peaceful Protestors Against Wall Street

[Karmadillo]

Maybe Obama will speak out on this.

http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2011/09/welcome-to-the-police-state-nyc-cops-mace-peaceful-protestors-against-wall-street.html

Welcome to the Police State: NYC Cops Mace Peaceful Protestors Against Wall Street
Yves Smith
September 25, 2011

I’m beginning to wonder whether the right to assemble is effectively dead in the US. No one who is a wage slave (which is the overwhelming majority of the population) can afford to have an arrest record, even a misdemeanor, in this age of short job tenures and rising use of background checks.

Now at least in New York (and I hope readers in other cities will chime in) the right to assemble seems to be pretty much a dead letter. I was in Sydney during the global protests against the Iraq War, and I was told that the New York demonstrations (which were already hindered by typically lousy winter weather) were pretty much blocked by the police. Protestors were tying to gather at the UN, and the cops put up a cordon at Second Avenue. The result was the turnout was far lower than the number who tried to show their opposition and were stopped.

The latest New York City protest is OccupyWallStreet. Even though its turnout last week fell well short of hopes (the estimates from the group were that 2000 participated; the New York Times suggests numbers more like “hundreds” but the photos from the 17th make figures larger figures seem plausible), making it a nuisance level demonstration rather than a major statement, the powers that be seem to be trying a bit too hard to prevent it from getting traction.

The organizers were using Twitter to promote participation and visibility. And so Twitter intervened. From AmpedStatus:

On at least two occasions, Saturday September 17th and again on Thursday night, Twitter blocked #OccupyWallStreet from being featured as a top trending topic on their homepage. On both occasions, #OccupyWallStreet tweets were coming in more frequently than other top trending topics that they were featuring on their homepage.

more...

YouTube of macing of corralled peaceful protestors:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=moD2JnGTToA

[rdking647]

1. no mace was used.......

from their own web site


At least four arrested, one for shooting photos UPDATE: at least eighty arrested, five maced | RETRACTION: no tear gas used

[Harmony Blue]

2. There is evidence that mace was used

sorry can't spin this.

[rdking647]

4. what evidence???

when even the organizers deny it....

[NutmegYankee]

8. Why does every person who got pepper sprayed in the video look like it?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=moD2JnGTToA

Seriously! Watch the Fucking Video! They are not faking it. That one young woman took a direct shot of pepper spray right into her eyes, which is why she's screaming.

[Karmadillo]

22. The lengths some people will go to ignore the evidence...

nt

[NutmegYankee]

3. Riggghhht -that women is screaming because she got water in her eyes...

:eyes:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=moD2JnGTToA

[rdking647]

5. so why do the orginizers themself deny it?

[NutmegYankee]

6. They said tear gas (as in canisters) wasn't used.

But they do say that mace was used on 5 people. In most cases today, Mace is actually "pepper spray" rather than aerosol tear gas.

[rdking647]

9. mace is also tear gas

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mace_%28spray%29

[NutmegYankee]

10. In common everyday language Mace = Pepper spray

From the article "Most Mace branded products sold today by Mace Security International are pepper spray rather than tear gas, though it is still possible to buy Chemical Mace.

Point being - Just like tissues are "Kleenex" or Refrigerant 12 was "Freon", "Mace" is pepper spray. In fact! The pepper spray bottle may even say MACE right on it as it's a BRAND NAME.

Want to revisit your original post?

[rdking647]

11. in the mind of most people over the age of 40 mace is tear gas....

[NutmegYankee]

14. So? It doesn't change the fact that Mace and Pepper Spray are synonymous.

It's been pepper spray since the early 1990's. You may still have time to edit your nonfactual post.

[rdking647]

16. they aren not synonymous except in your mind

unless you can show me the bottle of pepper spray they actually used, I will assume they used pepper spray and not Mace...

they are different

[NutmegYankee]

17. You want to ignore modern usage and choose to argue semantics.

Noted. If you asked the protesters out there to describe the difference between old mace and new mace, they wouldn't know the difference.


Now that you have spent all this time arguing semantics on the name of the agent used, do you acknowledge that they were brutally attacked for no reason? Or will you spend another half hour arguing some other semantic point to attempt to justify that too?

[toddaa]

23. This is a fantastic argument.

It certainly illuminates how disorganized and ineffective the Occupy Wall Street protests are.

I think it would be helpful, however, if we did a little scientific experiment to confirm your persuasive assertion that Mace and pepper spray are different.

We'll take two bottles marked #1 and #2 respectively. It's your choice which you spray in either eye. As a control the experiment will be performed three times, with one of the pairs containing nothing more than concentrated lemon juice in both bottles. After each, you decide if the mace is in #1, #2, or neither.

If you choose correctly, the protestors will have no choice but to recognize how silly they are, admit defeat, and go home.

[JackRiddler]

25. So what are you gaining with this semantic hair-splitting? They were sprayed.

The bulls went wild (on orders, presumably) and fucked up a bunch of protesters, kettled them, arrested 80, as well as spraying non-threatening people with pepper spray. Who the fuck cares if mace now refers to both? Why are you wasting our time? Stick to what's happening, not a debate about the evolution of word usage.

[jberryhill]

21. Bullshit - I'm 48 and "mace" and "tear gas" are two different things

But that has nothing to do with your silly attempted distinction here.

[TeeYiYi]

19. The cop in the vid yelled, ” That was mace! ”

Everyone knows mace is pepper spray in this day and age. Where is the outrage?

Not to mention twitter and yahoo blocking messages,...I'll ask again: Where is the outrage?

TYY

[Hoosier Daddy]

7. Why are you defending thuggish police tactics?

Even if mace wasn't used---and I'm not saying it wasn't---we're talking violation of basic rights.

[Bodhi BloodWave]

12. likely because saying things that didn't happen happened tends to weaken trust in those accusing? nt

[NutmegYankee]

15. Watch the video - the camera doesn't lie nt

[cui bono]

20. Why are you arguing against your own post?

Your own post says in the body "5 maced".

:shrug:

[emcguffie]

27. No tear gas was used.

They had earlier said that gas was used. So they issued a correction to say gas was not used. But Mace, or pepper spray, was used. There is video of that.

[Drew Richards]

13. I watched the video of that fat slob pepper spray the woman and then run away

If it was my wife that he did it to I don't give a f(*& that pig would get a beat down when he was caught alone.

[Leopolds Ghost]

18. Twitter BLOCKED #OccupyWallStreet? This is the big news here

Where are the "Free Libya" folks? Where are the folks who supported Arab Spring on this?

[JackRiddler]

26. Remember? State Department asked Twitter to continue service in Iran during protests there.

Is it possible to exceed this hypocrisy?

Oh, and the supporters of the Arab Spring are something other than the supporters of the imperialist intervention in Libya (as for the latter, you can find a lot of them in offices around DC).

[truthwillout777]

24. we have to do everything we can to support them-Demand media cover the truth

The Media Will Not Cover the Wall Street Protest? Take the Protest to the Media!!
http://getsmartnews.com/news/220689