Occupy Wall Street Protest Pepper Spray Incidents To Be Investigated By NYPD

NEW YORK -- New York City Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly says his department will look into a complaint that an officer wrongly used pepper spray at a demonstration against Wall Street last week.

Kelly says internal affairs will investigate the claim made by a 25-year-old woman and others.

Video from Saturday's Union Square incident shows an officer blasting a cluster of women with pepper spray. Two of the women crumple on the sidewalk in pain. One screams. The officer's white shirt indicates a rank of lieutenant or above.

Kelly says the video leaves out tumultuous conduct by protesters who illegally tried to block streets.

About 80 people were arrested as the "Occupy Wall Street" demonstrators marched through lower Manhattan.

The women have also filed a complaint with the civilian complaint review board.

Infamous hacker group Anonymous threatened the NYPD over the incidents.

"We, as it is our duty to uphold the freedoms of the people will constitute a declaration of war against the NYPD if the brutality does not stop. If we hear of brutality in the next 36 hours then we will take you down from the internet as you have taken the protesters voices from the airwaves."

Anthony Bologna, an officer named in the incidents, was the target of several 2004 civil rights complaints involving a heated anti-war protest.

NYPD spokesman Paul J. Browne defended the action, saying that pepper spray was “used sparingly.”

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Comments

[Robert Rowley]

10:34 AM on 11/21/2011

There seems to be an issue when you click on the article "Pepper Spay Incident Being Investigated" on the MSN Homepage. After it re-directs you to the article and you click on the comments section you get a message that a script is slowing internet explorer and then a bunch of advertisements for republican presidential candidates pop up by Adchoice and you can't access the comments that are posted. Is this another form of censership and an indication of how freedom of the press and speach will operate under a republican leadership? If this is not illegal then it should be but apparently our rights don't matter anymore. Someone should investigate this and bring the facts to light about who is responsible.

[sugarpops]

04:22 PM on 10/02/2011

The world is watching NYPD. Time to do the right thing and support the OWS during their peaceful protest.

[liarfire]

01:26 PM on 10/01/2011

I love when they say the NYPD will investigate.....LOL.....so next time a criminal robs a store maybe you should have them investigate themselves.....

http://www.imagebam.com/image/4fd65a151706334

[Ben F]

08:18 PM on 09/30/2011

"Kelly says the video leaves out tumultuous conduct by protesters who illegally tried to block streets." If a person does something illegal, the police do not get to just swoop back around for another pass and spray down people at random. I've seen way too much video of someone resisting or disobeying, and then they choose to comply, only to have a cop turn around and punch or spray or taze them and say, "But they resisted."
They don't get to use force punitively--corporal punishment is illegal, period. They are only to use force as a preventative measure.
So it doesn't matter what happened before the video. If a cop behaves in a vindictive, retributive manner, (like running up behind someone and spraying them down, almost as an afterthought but certainly meant to escalate the situation) they have circumvented the law and they should lose their badge and gun. Period.

[imonlyhereforthelaughs]

03:40 PM on 10/04/2011

Then you haven't seen the video where the resisting person mocks surrender to lure the police officer in.

It isn't an easy job. You should try it.

[grm1984]

02:44 AM on 09/30/2011

NYPD has let the people down.

[PuffDragon]

10:35 PM on 09/29/2011

Huffpo: please move this story and related threads to the Front Page.

America needs to stand up to Wall St. and it's corrupt practices that have devastated the world economy.

People in America need to understand what's happening with perspective and context.

[PuffDragon]

10:31 PM on 09/29/2011

"Sparing use" of pepper spray directly in people's eyes is STILL Way TOO MUCH!!

Those women were clearly captive, peaceful, and non-threatening.

The NYPD Inspector's casual approach and unexpected blast of spray directly to their faces was shocking and excessive by any standard of judgement, unless you are an NYPD Police Commissioner with WAY TOO MANY YEARS ON THE JOB.

[Pleroma]

08:23 AM on 10/03/2011

Paul J Browne is the name of the hired liar for the NYPD.

[Mike Davis 747]

09:19 PM on 09/29/2011

Firing a police officer is not as simple as firing someone in another occupation. Cops are entitled to special tribunals conducted much like a criminal trial. The police department must convince the tribunal that the officer violated department police and/or the law and then if the officer is found guilty of the act, the officer can only be fired if he/she has a history of misconduct. If after all this and the officer is fired, the officer can still file a lawsuit against the employing agency to get his/her job back with back pay and compensatory damages. The courts have ruled that a police officer's employment is a property right and the property cannot be taken away without due process. This has been challenged in court numerous times by civil liberty organizations but once the Supreme Court ruled on the issue the chances of changing the procedure are nil.

[Chazz280V]

01:50 PM on 09/29/2011

That аѕѕhοlе should lose his badge. But cops stick together, even if they know their co-worker is committing atrocious acts. They most likely won't to anything about the incidents involving him.

[mynamesyow]

01:46 PM on 09/29/2011

Go Anonymous!

[alteredstory]

01:05 PM on 09/29/2011

Just adding to the call for this to be headlined on the front page, along with Lawrence O'donnell's piece on this event, and all the others that have been going on.

The guy whose head was slammed against a car for carrying a camera.

The woman pulled to the ground and dragged out from the fenced off area she was supposed to be in.

The several protesters who got pepper sprayed while standing still, on the correct side of the barrier, not even noticing the cop who did it till he sprayed them.

Like with the 1,000+ who were arrested in opposition to the Keystone pipeline, CNN, BBC, FOX, and so on - nobody is really covering this.

At the very least, this is an opportunity for the Huffington Post to call out other outlets for not covering important stories. Do THAT enough, and maybe they'll have to.

[nos2001]

09:12 AM on 09/30/2011

you think huff would be believable? they are no different than msnbc.

[JPETERB]

11:11 PM on 10/01/2011

Believability is in the eye of the beholder. The truth is in the things done and the things said. The only honest news question is, "Are these the honest facts, as was done, the news? Or is this version of the facts, this news, and the reader and the viewer, being programed to believe, only what is shown on TV?"
We can most times check, by looking up and seeing with our own eyes and ears, what is going on outside of the TV box, but simultaneously being shown "on" TV. The Occupy Wall Street media TV camera coverage vs. citizen camera coverage is a good start for beginning to discern what the difference is and then why one exists.
The corporate owned press and television media will rarely have (and even more rarely show) the actual events and repeat unvarnished facts. No one should really trust any (especially for-profit) media "outlet" to tell even a portion of the "news you could use" or the whole truth about any particular event or person. Even when and if that whole truth is actually known.

[aqueryan]

12:33 PM on 09/29/2011

The problem with almost any fraternal organization - and this especially holds true for police departments - is that they tend to invariably places their allegiance to one's kinsmen above all else... including Truth and Justice.

The fact that NYPD spokesman Paul J. Browne shamelessly and REFLEXIVELY defended the despicable actions of Deputy Inspector Anthony Bologna, claiming that the video records of the incident did not tell the full story and that Bologna's sadistic use of pepper spray was warranted, speaks to the culture of 'soft' corruption that inevitably takes hold in ANY organization that places its allegiance to their own members instead of the overriding PRINCIPLES that those members are entrusted to uphold.

If the NYPD would seek to restore the public's confidence/trust, then it needs to do the 'RIGHT' (i.e. correct/responsible) thing in this situation and FIRE Bologna for action totally unbecoming of a New York City Police Official.

Attempting to look out for 'one of their own' at the expense of fulfilling the commitment they have to the public which they are entrusted to SERVE is simply unconscionable and unacceptable.

No one ever said being a police officer was easy. But with great power comes great responsibility. And as Deputy Inspector Bologna acted in such a shockingly irresponsible manner towards members of the public he is entrusted with serving and protecting, it is up to the NYPD to ensure the public that NO ONE IS ABOVE THE LAW - including those individuals entrusted with enforcing it.

[kenwig]

12:27 PM on 09/29/2011

"Wall Street Protests" should be elevated from the New York section to HP's front page. I imagine that with growing interest here, in readers' comments, that will happen. Let's make it happen.

[alteredstory]

11:56 AM on 09/29/2011

"Government crackdown on peaceful pro-democracy demonstrators. Officials insist proper protocols were followed."

I dunno, there's something familiar about all this...

[kenwig]

12:37 PM on 09/29/2011

Cairo 2011 or Los Angeles 1968?

[alteredstory]

01:21 PM on 09/29/2011

That was kinda what I was getting at. I realize that the scale is different, but it's the same rhetoric.

During the late 30's and 40's, studies were conducted into how the Nazi party used propaganda - the techniques and so on. When the same research was applied to the U.S.A., it turned out that we do it too.

To be clear - I am NOT comparing anybody to the Nazis. I'm really not. The point of bringing that up is to illuminate how we're often guilty of the behavior we condemn. In some cases, it's the same in both kind and scale, like the waterboarding, and in others, like NYPD brutality, and, say, the events in Cairo or even Syria, it's the same KIND of activity, but on a different SCALE.

Scale DOES matter. I don't see the world in black and white, and while I don't excuse ANY of what the NYPD did in the name of the people of New York, there is something to "it could have been worse".

It's the same kind of thing, though, and the importance of making a big deal over smaller-scale abuses like this, is to prevent larger-scale abuses from ever coming close to taking place.

They DO take place, all over the country, every day, but that will never change until we move to a zero tolerance policy on police brutality, and re-emphasize "protect and serve". They are there to serve us, not to control us.

[gdauth]

07:09 PM on 09/29/2011

Sounds like Mayor Gaddafi is getting out of hand.

[Concerned1]

08:46 AM on 09/29/2011

This New York protest against Wall Street is getting little play in the media. It's a shame especially since it played a big part in this country's downfall. Huff Post, I am disappointed that you are missing the point.

[kenwig]

12:31 PM on 09/29/2011

O'Donnell did a nice feature last night with Michael Moore.