Retrial opens on using pepper spray on protesters' eyes

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/chronicle/archive/2004/09/10/BAG8O8MK8Q1.DTL

An attorney for anti-logging protesters whose eyes were swabbed with liquid pepper spray during sit-ins seven years ago opened a retrial of their damage suit Thursday by accusing Humboldt County officers of devising a strategy to punish the demonstrators, and intimidate others, by inflicting pain that amounted to torture.

The officers' attorney countered that the caustic chemical was a safe and necessary response to "organized lawlessness.''

An eight-member U.S. District Court jury in San Francisco heard opening statements in the second trial of a suit stemming from the unprecedented use of liquid pepper spray to break up demonstrations at Pacific Lumber Co. and a congressman's office in 1997. Another jury deadlocked 4-4 in the first trial in 1998.

The protesters chained themselves together at company headquarters in Scotia and at the Eureka office of a pro-logging congressman, Frank Riggs, in 1997. Two demonstrators also fastened themselves to logging equipment on Pacific Lumber property.

After warnings, sheriff's deputies and Eureka police pulled the protesters' heads back and applied Q-tips doused in pepper spray to the corners of their eyes. Those who refused to move were sprayed in the face at close range.

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That was a disgusting display of sadism.

180

protesters were docile enough to have swabs used on their eyes, then it is torture. There is no other definition.

I hope those bastards get fined, fired, and thrown into prison for that one.

It's really disgusting. Those cops should be behind bars.

Scotia still has the Support Our Troops signs placed in strategic bushes around the town. It's absolutely disgusting. Caveman mentality. I don't mean to start a conversation about the phrase. I mean, I translate that to Support Our War. Maybe it's just me, but I'm offended beyond my limits, every time I go there. I suppose I'm also a tad bit annoyed that they could bulldoze beautiful forests, for profit.
Good luck people. It took 11 years for Cherney to win his case against being bombed by the FBI.
Argh. I need a cup of coffee. I'm a ranting loonatic. :)

And by extension of that logic, if you don't support the Pres' poor policies, then you don't support the troops.

We live in an age where words have lost their meaning. If we really "supported" the troops, we'd bring them home right away, as there is no national interest being served by their presence overseas in Iraq.

From Democracy Now

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=04/09/08/1422252&mode=thread&tid=25

If you aren't watching/listening to Democracy Now, you are really missing out.

Video of Humboldt County police officers using pepper spray-soaked cotton swabs on activists at a protest at Pacific Lumber's offices, in Scotia, California on September 25, 1997.
- Excerpt from the documentary "Fire in the Eyes," Courtesy Headwaters Action Video Collective.

"pain compliance"

When the cops just administer the "sentence" for a crime on the spot.

There is no way that anyone, anywhere could justify this type of treatment by law enforcement.

If some Fuck who calls himself a cop did that to my daughter I would KILL him.