(NYC) Police Dept. to Examine Pepper-Spray Episode

[WilliamPitt]

Police Dept. to Examine Pepper-Spray Episode

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 pepper spray episode occurred on East 12th Street, where police officers arrested some protesters and corralled others behind orange mesh netting. It was captured on video recordings made by several protesters from different vantage points.

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.

The rest: http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/09/28/police-department-to-examine-pepper-spray-incident/?hp

[MineralMan]

1. Good!

Let's hope they do a proper investigation. I'm sure people will be paying attention.

[rhett o rick]

22. Police get away with killing people. I doubt they will find against him.

If they do, he will get a slap on the hand and moved.

[MineralMan]

24. I guess we'll find out. nt.

[Lost-in-FL]

2. Maybe they want to congratulate him.

And yeah… don't you give me a moral lesson about my statement. I surely know I do not need the "sarcasm" thingy. :hi:

[Uncle Joe]

3. I don't believe they decided to do this because the corporate media covered the incident,

that's for sure.

The Internet is what prompted this action.

Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, WilliamPitt.

[bluestate10]

13. I agree. If not for distribution of the video, the scum that sprayed the women

would be planning his next act of bullying.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

4. Life term?

[eppur_se_muova]

5. And now justice will follow its majestic and impartial course ...

and no wrongdoing will be found.

[kath]

18. A-yup. You've got that right. Same as always.

[Tesha]

6. I'll believe it when I see criminal charges proffered. (NT)

[Warren Stupidity]

7. The NYPD is the model for the Blue Wall.

[avaistheone1]

8. NYPD investigates self.

Results?


:rofl:

[Fire Walk With Me]

10. Result: "We confirm that we are the NYPD. Thank you and good night."

[EFerrari]

17. No kidding. Farcical. n/t

[markpkessinger]

9. Don't hold your breath for anything other than a whitewash n/t

[coalition_unwilling]

11. The NYCPD may simply be trying to get out front of the massive

civil lawsuits that will be headed its way against Bologna. He apparently did the macing at least twice on the same day to different protesters.

[Fire Walk With Me]

16. Yes, there is video of him spraying another group, this time from behind.

An officer to his right actually can be seen to grin a bit after realizing what was happening.

[louslobbs]

12. Only because the video exists. Without that video, police would have stuck to the story that it was

a proper use of pepper spray by the official involved. The police forces of the United States have always had the wall of blue to protect each other even when they know those among them have committed crimes, planted evidence or done other illegal things. They have a "duty" to protect their "brothers and sisters" on the force and anyone who crosses that line, might not get the back up or assistance they need while patrolling or doing their duty. More and more as of late, police have become more commando or militant like, rather than the community protector and public servant types that we used to know and appreciate. In many ways, people are becoming more and more afraid of dealing with the police, of talking with them or sharing potentially valuable information with them due to that fear. Many police patrols these days, are more like violent gangs in some ways, rather than a force for good in the community that's supposed to be there to serve and protect the people. They beat people who video what they are doing, they arrest people who say things to them that they don't like, during traffic stops, many are rude and robotic treating the possible traffic violator like a bad person or criminal. The more power that any organization can gain or usurp, and the more that these powers go unchecked, or if little to no consequences exist for possible "bad acts," to curtail or stop these actions, then there is little reason to expect any changes in the ways police treat the citizenry, which could help change the views of we the people about those who are tasked with the policing of our communities to possibly start a dialog and maybe bring us closer together, rather than pushing us farther apart and increasing the fear and distrust between the law abiding citizens and a militant police force who looks at all citizens as criminals unless proven to them otherwise. People should not be made to fear the police who are supposed to be friends to our communities with a duty to serve and protect those communities
Lou.
Lou

[pacalo]

14. Shameless lying by the police going on...

A law enforcement official familiar with Inspector Bologna’s account of what occurred, however, said he was not aiming at the four women who appeared in videos to have sustained the brunt of the spray. Rather, he was trying to spray some men who he believed were pushing up against officers and causing a confrontation that put officers at risk of injury, the official said.

“The intention was to place them under arrest, but they fled,” the official said.

[ellisonz]

15. They fuck this up and there could be federal involvement.

Look at what the FBI just did to the LA County Sheriff's Dept.:

Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca, responding to federal investigations of jailhouse abuse, for the first time offered a detailed account of an FBI undercover sting that caught one of his deputies allegedly smuggling a cellphone to an inmate.

In an interview with The Times, Baca revealed that the inmate working as an FBI informant inside Men's Central Jail was using pay phones there to contact agents probing allegations of deputy misconduct. The agents tried to dissuade him from using a jailhouse line, telling him they could be monitored by sheriff's officials. The agents promised to get their informant a cellphone, Baca said, and the inmate volunteered that he knew of a deputy willing to smuggle contraband for cash.

-----------

In addition to the FBI's scrutiny of the jails, federal authorities are investigating a sheriff's captain suspected of being overheard on a wiretap tracking an alleged Compton drug ring.

The U.S. Department of Justice's civil rights division also recently announced a wide-scale "pattern and practice" investigation into allegations that deputies in the Antelope Valley discriminated against minority residents who receive government housing assistance.

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-baca-jails-20110929,0,7405436.story

[Festivito]

19. Indeed. I see this as a civil rights case of denying free speech.

First they pen free speech into a free speech zone. Then they use the pen as a torture device along with pepper spray.

The entire police force enjoins by making statements about the incident.

And, his story, thus far, is he attempts to get two people for getting too close to the line and when he mistakenly hits two innocents, he walks away offering no help and no longer bothering with the original suspects.

I see a lot of tax dollars rightfully going to two girls.

[fasttense]

20. Well Tony Bologna is at it again. Spraying some other protesters.

So, he thinks the police department is supporting him. He only does what they allow him to get away with.

[salin]

21. Ah, the power of a viral video.

Can't just sweep it under the rug. The "whole world" is watching. Okay maybe not the whole world - but a whole lot of folks.

[rhett o rick]

23. It soon will be against the law to film police. nm

[justiceischeap]

25. If you watched the videos carefully, it seemed as though those with cameras

were being targeted by the police. I don't think that was a coincidence.