The OWS pepper spray incident

#1
lawgator1

lawgator1

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#1
For those who hadn't seen it: UC Davis Protestors Pepper Sprayed - YouTube

As someone who represents law enforcement, I do not believe that this is, legally speaking, excessive or unconstitutional use of force (assuming that the officer had lawful authority to order them to move). But it is pretty bad public relations.
 
#6
#6
lawgator1 said:
For those who hadn't seen it: UC Davis Protestors Pepper Sprayed - YouTube

As someone who represents law enforcement, I do not believe that this is, legally speaking, excessive or unconstitutional use of force (assuming that the officer had lawful authority to order them to move). But it is pretty bad public relations.
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As a lawyer, can you answer a question for me? When did we stop having the presumption of liberty?

While I'm asking: can you tell me why it is possibly acceptable for a government official to use force to essentially punish people who made him angry? Because that is all this is. Protesters that are not endangering anyone or property are handcuffed and removed around the world without resorting to attacking them. As far as I can tell, attacking them is solely the result of someone with an attitude being unhappy because someone else had the nerve to ignore him.

It disgusts me. And as most anyone who reads anything I post can tell you, I can't stand 90% of what these pseudo-hippies stand for.
 
#8
#8
This is BS. Those kids are just sitting there blocking a stupid sidewalk. No need to blast them in the face
 
#10
#10
Let's just douse them in gasoline and flick a bargain brand zippo at 'em. Seems like it wouldn't piss off too many people.
 
#11
#11
pepper-spray-last-supper.jpg

KeyboardCat.jpg

193796-uc-davis-pepper-spray-meme.jpg

images
 
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#15
#15
RespectTradition said:
As a lawyer, can you answer a question for me? When did we stop having the presumption of liberty?

While I'm asking: can you tell me why it is possibly acceptable for a government official to use force to essentially punish people who made him angry? Because that is all this is. Protesters that are not endangering anyone or property are handcuffed and removed around the world without resorting to attacking them. As far as I can tell, attacking them is solely the result of someone with an attitude being unhappy because someone else had the nerve to ignore him.

It disgusts me. And as most anyone who reads anything I post can tell you, I can't stand 90% of what these pseudo-hippies stand for.
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Excellent question.

The reason is that a law enforcement officer has the right to use at least some force to require that a person comply with a lawful order. You will note that in my comment I said that my assumption was that he was giving a lawful order which they had refused to obey.

Now, this does not mean he can just willy nilly order them to do whatever he wants. But if he has authority to order them to remove themselves from that spot for some lawful reason, and they don't, then he can use minimal force to get them to comply. Would be the same as if he used an arm bar technique to force someone out of a bar after a fight, or handcuffed someone to place in a patrol car.

It looks awful, I agree. But if his order was lawful and they did not obey, then he would not be violating the Fourth Amendment by this use of force.

Having said that, a thornier issue arises based on whether his actions violated the First Amendment, i.e. is he infringing on their rights of free speech by giving the order in the first place. We don't know what the background on the incident was, i.e. how long they'd been there, what the reason was for getting them to leave, etc., so that is a much more difficult question.
 
#16
#16
DinkinFlicka said:
Let's just douse them in gasoline and flick a bargain brand zippo at 'em. Seems like it wouldn't piss off too many people.
Click to expand...

The Sierra Club would be all over you.
(1) littering
(2) creating GHGs
(3) supporting the oil industry
 
#19
#19
This showed up in one of my Knoxville friend's facebook feed. I posted it in the funny pics thread, but I think it deserves more.

Any locals, is this Maynardville?

f083aaee.jpg
 
#20
#20
that pepper spray they used must be defective ,only one kid was squirming ?
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#22
#22
vader said:
This showed up in one of my Knoxville friend's facebook feed. I posted it in the funny pics thread, but I think it deserves more.

Any locals, is this Maynardville?

f083aaee.jpg
Click to expand...

"We ain't in the occupyin' bidness, we in the Nazi killin' bidness. And bidness is a boomin'."

Lt. Aldo Raine

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