Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly said on Wednesday that the Internal Affairs Bureau will look into the decision of a high-ranking officer to use pepper spray on a number of female protesters at an Occupy Wall Street demonstration on Saturday.
***The video, which has been posted on YouTube and the Web sites of numerous news organizations, shows a deputy inspector walking up to a group of women standing on the sidewalk behind the orange netting and shooting pepper spray at them. Then footage then shows the deputy inspector, who has been identified as Anthony Bologna, walking away.
Commissioner Kelly said he had seen video of the pepper spraying only on a television newscast, and questioned whether the snippet he saw offered enough context to evaluate what occurred.
***“I don’t know what precipitated that specific incident,” he said, but added that demonstrators as a group were engaged in “tumultuous conduct” and were “intent on blocking traffic” as they marched down University Place on their return from Union Square to the financial district, where the protesters have been encamped for more than a week.
You gotta love the specious bullshit at the end there. First, all you need to see is the 2 minute snippet to understand that Bologna walked up to a group of penned folks, sprayed his mace all over them without even giving warning or letting the other cops know, for no reason, then nonchalantly slinked away like a coward. There’s really nothing more to it. It doesn’t matter what other demonstrators were doing, it doesn’t matter if someone somewhere else was engaged in “tumultuous conduct,” etc. None of that matters a bit, and shows a mentality of collective punishment and brutality we’ve all grown to accept in this country. Who gives a shit what other people were doing, Commissioner Kelly? Those people weren’t doing anything, and your whiteshirt thug walked up to them and maced them. Period. End of story.
Kelly’s comments indicate he is part of the problem.