32 Pictures Of Police Brutality From Occupy Wall Street Protests

[Pharaoh]

http://www.buzzfeed.com/mjs538/violent-pictures-from-occupy-wall-street-protests

[MineralMan]

1. Aside from a couple of photos of people who may have been

sprayed with mace or pepper spray, I don't see any police brutality in those photos. Arrests, yes, but civil disobedience comes with arrests by definition.

No photos of anyone actually being sprayed, either.

I have seen real police brutality in person. This was not that. It was arrests at a protest. I've been arrested at protests. That's a different thing.

Do I consider mace and pepper spray as police brutality? That's a marginal thing, really. But, there are no photos in this series of anyone actually being sprayed.

One thing is absolutely clear, though. If you participate in events such as this one, you may be arrested. It happens. In fact, it's not a successful civil disobedience action unless there are arrests.

[Webster Green]

3. Gimme a break.

Those women were sprayed. (and you know it)

[emcguffie]

4. There is a slow motion of the video somewhere in which you can --

-- clearly see the policeman in the white shirt walk over and mace the women behind the net. If I can figure out where I saw it, I'll give you the link. It's an analysis done by a legal organization -- USLAW? Something like that.

There are also videos of some extremely violent arrests.

And there is video of the same policeman, I think, attacking a bystander who didn't do anything. It looked like the policeman was trying to start something.

[MineralMan]

8. I'm only commenting on the photos at the link.

If there are other images or videos that show actual brutality, I'll certainly look at them. I've seen videos of a couple of arrests, though, and it doesn't look like any injuries were sustained by the persons arrested. I've been taken down to be cuffed. I wasn't hurt. I expected to be arrested.

Brutality has a definition. Getting sprayed with mace or pepper spray could fall into that category, no doubt...depending on the situation. Normally, such a thing would not legally be classed as brutality, though, since no serious injury results.

I'm a stickler for terminology, because overstating what happens is a lot like crying wolf. It can cause people to ignore actual brutality. When you attach the label of brutality to photos that don't actually show any brutality, you run the risk of diluting your complaint if there is actually brutality in other instances. Street Activism 101.

[rhett o rick]

10. What's your point? nm

[MineralMan]

12. My point is explained in the post.

Brutality is a serious charge. If it's made when there is no actual evidence that actual brutality occurred, it dilutes claims when police brutality takes place. It's a term that is used too loosely.

[Pharaoh]

14. This was the name of the article

I can't see why you are attacking the article? Were you there? No you were not. Are these people being beaten and bashed to the ground and stomped on? Yes. What is your definition of brutality?

[MineralMan]

24. And it's the title that I'm questioning, isn't it.

The title is not supported by the photos. Can you not see that the average person, looking at that series of photos will conclude that they do not present much evidence of brutality? That is my point. Saying something happened, then illustrating it with photos of it not happening is neither good journalism or good sense.

I'm not arguing that no police brutality has occurred. I'm saying that the photos don't illustrate police brutality.

[Dyedinthewoolliberal]

74. I don't know,

isn't kneeling on a person's neck sort of brutal? The police go out of their way to inflict discomfort on those they arrest. Especially during things like this.............. :shrug:

[ret5hd]

17. Do you mean if there are no bruises it isn't torture?

[MineralMan]

26. No. I do not mean that. I mean exactly what I say.

The photos at that link do not represent evidence of police brutality. The title is misleading.

[RaleighNCDUer]

19. That sounds a lot like "if it doesn't cause permanant damage, it's not torture".

If we don't buy that coming from Bushco, why would we buy it coming from YOU?

[MineralMan]

27. No, it sounds nothing like that.

Which photos in this group show police brutality? It may be that a policeman maced those people, but that is not in the photo. If there are photos showing the macing, then that is evidence, but those photos are not at the link.

It's a very poor title for this series of photos.

[RaleighNCDUer]

33. OK. I get it. There is nothing wrong with extraordinary rendition, because

none of us have SEEN it, and there are no pictures of it happening.

Got it.

[MineralMan]

34. Oh, please. Just read my posts.

I'm talking about what's on that link and nothing else.

[marions ghost]

38. kneeling on someone's neck qualifies as brutality for me

so is dragging people through gutters, smashing their faces into the ground, pushing them down on pavement, any kind of pepper spray.

I didn't see any videos of protestors physically assaulting any police physically.

Did you really LOOK at the videos?

[rdking647]

40. the title of this thread is 32 pictures of brutality

its possible the police may have overreacted.. but the pictures in the OP's link doesnt show it...


and pepper spray is not necessarily brutality. neither is pushing them to the ground,etc.....

[marions ghost]

47. Your "over-reaction"

is most people's "brutality." (thank god)

[rdking647]

50. my most people you mean the couple dozens that cared enough to post in this thread

[marions ghost]

51. no I speak for sane people everywhere

just like you speak for a certain group I'm sure.

Nothing to debate. Two views that will never intersect.

[greyl]

81. Hey, I've got news for ya... nt

[marions ghost]

95. huh

:freak:

[sabrina 1]

68. Your standards of what is appropriate for a servant of the people,

cops ARE servants of the people, regarding touching without cause people who are exercising their Constitutional rights, are quite different from those of the majority of people.

Not only was there brutality on Saturday, earlier in the week several protesters were attacked by the NYPD and were injured, one lost a tooth, another suffered leg injuries, one was seen bleeding from the head, the photos are available, and another, a woman, was bleeding from the lip or mouth. Why are people willing to allow this kind of brutality in this country?

There was absolutely no cause for any of this. Throwing US Citizens on the ground IS brutality and any cop who behaves this way, needs to be fired. The NYPD doesn't have a great history of restraint when it comes to dealing with the people who pay their salaries.

This was a peaceful protest. The NYPD disgraced themselves. I hope someone reigns them in before someone gets really hurt.

I do not expect to be man-handled by the people who are supposed to be protecting us, nor by anyone for that matter. And just because someone is wearing a uniform does not give them special priviliges to maul and abuse citizens.

I hope this will become one of the reforms demanded by the American people, an end to police brutality. Americans have become so accustomed to it, that they feel there is nothing they can do about it anymore. Well, there is.

This is supposed ot be a civilized society. But the behavior of some police departments in this country says to the world, that we are not. And it's way past time to put a stop the abuse and to make it clear that cops have no special privileges when it comes to abusing peaceful, law-abiding citizens.

[ret5hd]

30. Sounds like we tickled a nerve.

[rhett o rick]

9. Wasted on him. He doesnt want to see any brutality. nm

[Fire Walk With Me]

45. Here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=TZ05rWx1pig

[emcguffie]

6. DUPE please delete

-- clearly see the policeman in the white shirt walk over and mace the women behind the net. If I can figure out where I saw it, I'll give you the link. It's an analysis done by a legal organization -- USLAW? Something like that.

There are also videos of some extremely violent arrests.

And there is video of the same policeman, I think, attacking a bystander who didn't do anything. It looked like the policeman was trying to start something.

[Ignis]

7. You've got to be fucking kidding me.

Not brutality?


Not brutality?


The pro-authoritarian message you're shilling is disgusting.

[MineralMan]

11. A takedown for an arrest is not necessarily brutality.

The other photo I can't comment on. I didn't see what happened and there are no police doing anything in the photo.

[marions ghost]

39. Look at the videos

if you don't believe the stills.

[Ignis]

49. A knee on the neck is not safe. Pain compliance is torture.

But I'm guessing the logical conclusion of this argument is that LEOs can do no wrong, so why bother?

If you're curious (ha!), you can see what led to photo #2 here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=moD2JnGTToA&feature=player_embedded

[bluestate10]

67. 100% agree. nt

[Name removed]

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[Name removed]

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[Tunkamerica]

18. well that's quite a charge

[ManiacJoe]

21. MineralMan is correct about the poor title on the web page.

At best, three of the pictures could be thought to show brutality. The rest do not come anywhere close to that. In other words, the pictures presented do not support the title.

I have seen some of the videos. There are obviously lots of pictures that do support the title. Unfortunately, none of those pictures are included in that web post.

[AngkorWot]

20. Yup. forceful arrests =/= brutality

This is an insult to real victims of police brutality.

[MineralMan]

25. There may well be instance of police brutality in connection to

these protests. It's just that the photos with this don't show it. Bad title.

[Luminous Animal]

35. Just proves that you have no clue what police brutality is.

We've become so enured to excessive force (which is a form of police brutality) that we now accept it as the norm.

[patrick t. cakes]

42. thats it right there.

[Starry Messenger]

44. +100,000

[Raster]

28. welcome to du...

[Luminous Animal]

32. Excessive force and verbal abuse are both considered police brutality.

[AngkorWot]

54. "excessive"

Sure. Excessive being the key word here. Mace, tasers, wrestling perps to the ground are all considered to not be excessive when dealing with crowd dispersal of this sort.

"verbal abuse"

d'ohohoho

[Luminous Animal]

59. Mace is excessive when there is no threat. Reaching over barriers to drag already

subdued protesters through the streets is excessive.

The police are doing their best to block people from taking pictures and videos (swarming the scene) but, fortunately, they've not been 100% successful. I watched a video today of a young man with his hands up and backing away. He had been "taping" the arrest of another protester. The cop grabbed that kid's arm and slammed him to the ground.

And FYI, verbal abuse is considered police brutality. You mocking it does not negate it.

[AngkorWot]

61. Decades of court decisions disagree with you.

There's a reason why police departments all over the country, and in civilized nations all over the world, use pepper spray, tear gas, etc. for this kind of thing.

Are you new to protesting?

[Luminous Animal]

64. And decades of court decisions have ruled otherwise. Some people actually live in sane

communities.

I guessing you were all for the fire hoses that stopped the march to Birmingham, eh?

[bluestate10]

69. Choke holds and knees on the windpipe is brutality. Study after study

have shown those tactics kill or maim for life. Many police departments ban choke holds and pressure on the neck region, it is sad that the NY-PD obviously is not one such department.

[digitaln3rd]

23. +1

It's just ridiculous how toss the "police brutality" card around like it's nothing - and then sensationalize everything to make it seem like it's such an epidemic of mass brutality like some 3rd world country or something.

Newsflash, if you didn't want to be arrested then quit acting like asses.

[truebrit71]

29. Mighty progressive opinions you have there...

...sure the protestors shouldn't just go home, take a shower, cut their hair and get a job? :eyes:

The violence visited upon these PEACEFUL PROTESTORS is police brutality by definition...

[digitaln3rd]

36. Except that there is no "police violence".

n/t

[Occulus]

41. The hell there isn't.

[digitaln3rd]

55. That's not police brutality.

Not matter how much you want it to be.

[Luminous Animal]

66. Yes it is. Reaching over a barrier to drag a peaceful protester over it is excessive force.

Excessive force is police brutality.

[digitaln3rd]

71. Oh, please.. get over it.

That's not excessive force.

[Luminous Animal]

73. Oh please. Stop making CSI Miami your standard of police conduct.

Dragging peaceful protesters (a Constitutional guaranteed right) through the streets, swarming them, macing them, kneeling on them and, as in the past shooting water on them through a fire hose, is police brutality.

[digitaln3rd]

89. No dragging involved and you don't know what the protestors did before that picture was taken

No doubt it was taken by the protestors to make the police look worse.

[Yon_Yonson]

77. I'd say he is over reaching his authority

Is there a picture where his SUITED-BUDS drops him? I mean the cop would have landed on his fucking face and broke his nose and at least his front teeth.

[formercia]

91. White Shirts

One thing I noticed is Police Supervisors getting physical with the demonstrators. It seems a bit strange to me. They seem a lot more aggressive than the Blue Shirts. I think there's a hidden agenda in play here.

[Luminous Animal]

31. It is not illegal to act like an ass.

[Tsiyu]

85. It is illegal to use your badge as a bludgeon

to those who pose no threat - because you don't like their clothes, or you are so small-minded you have to constantly PROVE you're a man by intimidating others. Whether it's regarded by you or the cops or not, our Constitution was written to protect us from that kind of macho man bullshit.

That cop looks emotionally unstable to me, with poor impulse control, and it is dangerous to society to allow the emotionally unstable to serve in LEO positions where they are allowed to use force against the people.

That cop reaching over the barricade like a classic bully/psychopath is using violence and physical intimidation because he has no idea how to control a protest. He is wacked out by the protesters, and he has no clue how to deal, so he is using violence to soothe his primitive brain.

Stop defending his shit. He needs to be in prison for assault.

[digitaln3rd]

88. You just have an irrational dislike of the police, which is clouding your judgement.

Emotionally unstable? What?

Or maybe he's just trying to do his job among all the animals out there on the streets.

[PA Democrat]

92. Protesters are "animals"?

Wow. :puke:

[Tsiyu]

99. If that ain't Bob Boudelang it's his first cousin

All people are animals to him except teabaggers and Ted Nugent

[Tsiyu]

98. "So stop sayin that"...bob boudelang, have you returned?

I have no irrational dislike of police. The police around me are cool.

Let me tell you a story. We had a friend who was freaking out - a chemical imbalance of the brain - and he needed to be taken to a hospital. In the paranoid state he was in, he would freak if a cop showed up at the door in full uniform. Another friend - on duty cop - changed into his street clothes just to NOT freak out this dude, and was able to get our friend to calmly go into the ambulance.

He was still wearing a gun, but wasn't freaking out our friend because our friend saw a person, not a uniform. And the cop saw a person he could help, not just another head to bash in.

This is the stuff good cops do. They don't go out of their way to be sadistic or intimidating.

You have an IRRATIONAL DISLIKE OF YOUR FELLOW MAN AND THE AMERICAN CONSTITUTION.

[Luminous Animal]

46. It is ridiculous to suppose that exceesive force and verbal abuse is not police brutality...

because they both are.

A person need not be beaten to be a victim of police brutality.

[bluestate10]

65. Choke holds and knees on the necks of people that are obviously

not in a threatening position is not needed to stop civil disobedience. I saw brutality in a number of the photos and am saddened that the NY-PD has sunk that a level where such behavior can happen.

[Logical]

75. I guess the knee in neck for no reason is OK with you?

[Logical]

76. Police assault people because they can get away with it.

[donheld]

82. You surprise me with this post MM

[unionworks]

83. try out your hypothesis

Get a can of mace. Spray your eyes and face. After about 45 minutes of screaming on your knees with the dry heaves, come back and post again.

[unionworks]

84. holding back

On giving my real opinionof your hypothesis.it is quite uunprintable.

[truebrit71]

2. Wow.

...Home of the "free" right?

[laylah]

5. K&R

[Uncle Joe]

15. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, Pharaoh.

[xiamiam]

22. all this has done is ensure that there will be more protesters...nt

[rdking647]

37. i see a bunch of poeple getting arrested

i dont see any police brutality...

[Name removed]

56. Deleted message

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[rdking647]

57. i call it the real world....

something most people on the extreme end of either party should try living in once in a while

[Webster Green]

58. That's cute.

I'll stay on the extreme, thanks. I want no part of your "real" world.

[Luminous Animal]

60. I've been corralled and arrested in San Francisco during peaceful protests.

The police do not swarm individuals. They do not put their knees on someones back. They do not reach over barriers and drag people through the streets. They do not grab women's breasts. They do not mace people who are posing no threat.

Each of the above is brutality. Police brutality includes excessive force and verbal abuse. There is no ifs ands or buts about this.

[bluestate10]

70. I agree. nt

[patrick t. cakes]

43. The people on this thread who deny police brutality

really are indicative of the state we as a society are in.

These peaceful protests in no way needed to be met with the level of violence
as seen by the NYPD. These guys are thugs, gorillas slamming and beating young people exercising there "freedoms".
Or trying to.

How is this violence justified? Noone was resisting arrest. On the video, bystanders are asking why the cops cant just walk the
protester across the street. She asks why they have to drag them. Of course no answer.

Many here accept this level of violence, and that is a sad commentary. This is completely unacceptable.

[Pharaoh]

48. It is a sad commentary

And the violence that is done against all of us by the banksters and corporations will not stop until millions more take to the streets. Anyone who poo poos this as merely semantics is just arguing for the oppressors against the oppressed.

Shame!

[Lorien]

87. They are no different than the Teabaggers

in their worship of authority and the status quo.

[Ignis]

52. +1

[markpkessinger]

53. You are absolutely correct, Patrick . . .

. . . and to see these apologists for police brutality here, of all places, is beyond dismaying.

[Luminous Animal]

62. And like Kent State, it will take indiscriminate shooting to bring people to their senses.

Swarming people, grabbing them by their hair, kneeling on their necks & backs, macing them, and dragging through the streets are all incidences of police brutality.

While I agree that all of those pictures are not brutality, several of them are. Those two cops who are grabbing that women's breasts know exactly what they are doing. They are trying to humiliate her. When I used to do clinic defense, the antis would send their biggest guys to challenge us. Those guys would grab our breasts and crotches and call us filthy names. We were rigorously trained for that inevitability. Despite that training, some women couldn't return.

[Cherchez la Femme]

79. +Bazillion

[City Lights]

93. Well said!

:thumbsup:

[Aerows]

63. I can't speak for all the pictures

But I certainly know that the women who were pepper-sprayed in the face was unprovoked. That's police brutality in my book - pepper spraying someone just because you can. Even the other cops were shocked.

[bluestate10]

72. The dumb-ass that did that should be fired, with reduced retirement benefits. nt

[Name removed]

78. Deleted message

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[greyl]

80. Small point, but somebody, Matt Stopera I suppose, can't count.

This is not a picture of police brutality:

[Lorien]

86. To the Authoritarians here:

You can stand outside the funeral of an American soldier killed in battle with signs that say "Your son is in hell" and "God hates your fag son" but if you sit on the sidewalk in New York to protest the uncontrolled greed of Wall Street, you are asking for a serious ass kicking by the police. Is this the America we want?

Think about it.

[PA Democrat]

90. I was shocked at the support from some here for police brutality.

During the G20 held in Pittsburgh, college students who were merely watching police attack protesters were pepper sprayed, were exposed to an LRAD weapon that can cause permanent hearing loss, were beaten and arrested. Their crime was not scurrying away fast enough to prevent them from witnessing police brutality.

My son personally witnessed a student brutally beaten and was then threatened by the police officer when he noticed he had witnesses.

And yet we have the supporters here of violence against citizens exercising their right to free speech or for those merely observing the actions of the police.

This is NOT the America that I want.

[City Lights]

94. Then there are the baggers who show up at rallies with guns strapped to themselves.

Imagine what the cops would have done in NYC if those protesters had guns with them!

[blindpig]

96. There are a lot on this thread who think state violence is OK.

The state is the control apparatus of capital.

It is clear whose side they're on.

[Name removed]

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