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Over the weekend, Lieutenant John Pike was photographed casually pepper spraying peaceful Occupy Wall Street protesters at UC Davis, turning himself into a full-blown meme and symbol of police brutality. Thanks to artist James Alex, the subjects in paintings have probably become his most famous victims, but the truth is, there’s growing concern for what pepper spray—casual or not—might do to the health of real-life protesters.
By many accounts, the name “pepper spray” is overly benign for a substance that can cause death and be used as a torture device. Deborah Blum wrote at Scientific American:
…we’ve taken to calling it pepper spray, I think, because that makes it sound so much more benign than it really is, like something just a grade or so above what we might mix up in a home kitchen. The description hints maybe at that eye-stinging effect that the cook occasionally experiences when making something like a jalapeno-based salsa, a little burn, nothing too serious.
But take Jeniffer Fox, a 19-year-old Seattleite who recently suffered a miscarriage, less than a week after she sustained injuries during police action at an OWS protest earlier this month, including the use of pepper spray. (The photograph on the right, taken by Josh Trujillo, shows Fox being rushed to an ambulance on November 15.) Her situation makes it clear that pepper spray shouldn’t be held in the same class as hot sauce. She seemed fine the night of the police actions, but miscarried her baby on Sunday the 20th. Fox told Seattle’s Stranger:
“Everything was going okay until yesterday, when I started getting sick, cramps started, and I felt like I was going to pass out,” Fox says.
A friend called for an ambulance near the community college campus. (Fox says she has been camping with Occupy Seattle since it first began in Westlake Park. She is homeless and says, “I don’t have a place. This is the place I call home.”) When she arrived at Harborview at 11:00 a.m., she says, a doctor told her that “there was no heartbeat” from the baby. “They diagnosed that I was having a miscarriage. They said the damage was from the kick and that the pepper spray got to it [the fetus], too.”
As for joining the protests, she says, “I was worried about it, but I didn’t know it would be this bad. I didn’t know that a cop would murder a baby that’s not born yet… I am trying to get lawyers.”
While there’s no hard proof that her miscarriage was directly caused by pepper spray, it doesn’t seem unreasonable to think that it could be harmful to a developing fetus, given the dangers it brings to fully grown adults.
 | Fox News Host Megyn Kelly Says Pepper Spray Is “Like A Food Product, Essentially” |
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I’m not arguing that pepper spray isn’t dangerous, but I don’t agree with the use of this young woman as an example that it could cause a miscarriage.
There is a lot of controversy about the authenticity of this story given the motivation to attract sympathizers to the Occupy movement and contradicting statements from her. She said she was 2 months pregnant at the time of this incident on November 15th, then said she was 3 months pregnant at a different rally 3 days later, and there is a police report from September when she was squatting a vacant building and she claimed to be 3 months pregnant at that time (and also clutched her stomach and claimed pain at that incident).
She didn’t even mention a pregnancy or miscarriage to her former foster mother, whom she called after being discharged from the hospital. The foster mother was even quoted as saying she was a “compulsive liar.”
@loveydovey Update friend! the crowd was not peaceful. http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-201_162-57325688/pregnant-woman-pepper-sprayed-at-occupy-seattle/ out of this article there is a woman hotting an officer with a stick, a man throwing an unknow substance on an officer and the group in general trying to block streets during rush hour. you have the right to assemble and speak, you dont have the right to block traffic and hinder other people’s travel. block traffic could be seen as a violation of other people’s constitutional rights to move about freely, you can keep protesting just stay in the park or assemble in some other usable space. in the end pepper spray and force was only used against those who “” were either refusing a lawful order to disperse or engaging in assaultive behavior toward officers.”
@loveydovey you also mentioned in an earlier post that there was rioting after the arrests began. then you tell me there wasnt. get it together with the facts here. i dont particularly care because this is a non-issue. it wont go to court, no one will ever press charges and the cops will keep doing their jobs, why? because we all know nothing wrong happened here, if they protesters were expected to leave for whatever reason and didnt the police must remove them, the number of police to protesters seemed fairly equal in the video and that justifies a force multiplier, pepper spray, used to effectively break up the group and move the protesters out of the way. The only issue not civilian safety, the police have rights as well, particularly safety. you can say that people were just protesting but the truth is you never know what a crowd full of dumbasses is going to do, therefore the police have the right to quickly and safely do their job and leave the area instead of spending hours and exposing themselves beyond reason to potential harm by physically pulling each person off the ground. not to mention physically move them could cause more harm than just pepper spray.
@iknowyourwrong
you realize the article does not say the pepper spray had any proven effect, doctors said it could be a potential contribution. Lets think about the obvious aspects of being homeless and the affects on pregnancy. before you flame like a retard again check this out: http://www.americanpregnancy.org/pregnancycomplications/miscarriage.html notice a short distance down the page under potential causes is lifestyle, which lists malnutrition. oops, apparently im awesome and your an idiot, pay respect to the name fool. now weather obviously it can have negative effects especially during prolonged exposure, and she’s homeless so thats most likely. on to the fact that it only takes 300 more calories. lets think, is she already getting the recommended 2000 for a women her age? unlikely and if she is its from empty calories not nutrient filled sources, so therefore adding 300 to that is an extreme difficulty for a homeless women, not to mention she cant just eat an extra big mac everyday, they baby needs actual nutrients. and the rest of your argument just helps mine, why would a pregnant mother put herself in a position to have her child harmed, if she’s laying on the ground resisting arrest its difficult for an officer to notice she’s pregnant above everything else thats going on. common sense would dictate and a true caring mother would not put the baby in harms way, its not even like she gives a shit about the protests, we all know she’s there for a place to live, and thats it.
@loveydovey
there is no dictate for when paper spray is used its a color coded chart that the officer must justify progressing through usually. The fact that there is no rioting does not matter. The motto also does not matter, the fact is a police force is just that a force, its modeled after a military organization but they get convinced to change names an logos, paying millions of dollars to change force to service because pussy ass liberals think it sounds too aggressive. Which is bullshit because then they do their job and get told its a waste of taxpayer dollars to do so, as if the millions for repainting cars so a couple of pussies dont have to be irrationally afraid of the police isnt a massive waste. this isnt brutality its use of force that is completely acceptable for the removal of protesters. the only possible issue is whether or not they had the right to remove them, if they did this is perfectly fine use of force to break up a protest. also different rules on force and action apply to protest groups than for criminals.
“…if you’re ignorant, you’re scared of ideas…” unidentified young woman at Occupy Wall St, Zuccotti Park, NY, NY. interviewed by Geraldo Rivera at large
I’m not anti-police, I’m anti-abuse of power… but the video of police violating 1st Amendment rights of the Occupy Wall St/USA supporters is more than I can take. (I’ve got history, man…) I watched the video of the UC Davis cops using the industrial sized pepper sprayer on the student protestors and I have to ask myself: THIS IS THE USA?
Ok let me get this straight… According to Republicans/Conservatives, the Occupy Wall St/Occupy USA crowd are lazy, unemployed, trouble makers who need a bath, right?
City Halls/police departments all over the nation have decided to STOP CONCERNED CITIZENS demanding ethics, responsibility and accountability from those who destroyed the US economy, right?
In the “land of the FREE, home of the BRAVE” we have officers of the LAW who think it’s a good idea to use MILITARY grade pepper spray on STUDENTS, right? Does this sound RIGHT to any human being?
Please tell me a majority of the American PEOPLE find something VERY DISTURBING about this situation. What the f*** is University police departments doing with military grade anything?
Tell me please, WHO are you fat, dirty rotten fascist pig m’f***or’s protecting? Funny how we didn’t see law enforcement breaking in on all those corrupt, greed stricken, power mad, war profiteering con artists who almost destroyed the US economy.
Funny, how public sector workers such as police and corrections officers expect Americans to protect their job/pension/health care security from Republican/Conservative spending cuts (examples in Wisconsin and Ohio). But then the police union/association members pay us back by beating, gas, shoot with rubber bullets and wrongfully arresting Concerned Citizens demanding accountability from the Wall St con-artists who ruined our economy. It seems the real criminals and true enemies of the USA have police and secret service protection.
Y’know what the REAL problem is? Too many law enforcement agents believe that crap dished out by the Limbaughs & FOX news! Conservative wacko cult bias shouldn’t driving police policy. It‘s “protect and serve” remember? Not act like the strong-arm guys for Wall Street organized crime, ya bunch of fascist oinkers.
NOTE: FOX News and the AM radio Limbaughs want to divert attention away from these facts and ridicule/demonize the Occupy Wall Street crowd. Fox News is punk’n Occupy Wall supporters… SETTING YOU UP for police abuse of power/brutality, (right, Gasperino & Crowder) The smartest thing protest radicals (with coines) could do is storm the FOX News building the next time Glenn Beck comes out of his bomb shelter to do the O’Reilly Show, lol.
And if you see Andrew Breitbart or James O’keefe… well, speaking for myself I’d knock these silver spoons @$$ OUT, just to be known as the guy who shut up these propagandists working for foreign special interests. You right-wing, dittohead morons might as well dig up Joe McCarthy, J Edger, Tokyo Rose, take a loyalty oath, urine test and get in line with the REST OF THE SHEEP! I detest & despise you Republican voters for giving power to the real enemies of the USA!
The Class War has begun and the LAW better get out of the way. (like Egypt) The LAW has been very tough on Americans who can’t afford decent legal representation. The Aristocrats and Ruling Class have spent a fortune of our tax dollars to set up a CONTROL by AUTHORITY legal system. (see jinnbad.blogspot.com)
Back in the late 90’s while the Newt Gingrich, Phil Gramm and Tom Delay were busy selling out the American middle class for a very few silver spoon trust fund babies… I don’t remember the public sector union workers standing up for their private sector union brothers and sisters. Right cyberbitchslap2.blogspot.com
I agree! I do want to comment on one thing–well, more like share a thought that your last paragraph brought to mind.
There is a lack of awareness of the need for solidarity between public and private sector unions, for sure. But OWS hasn’t recognized the need to stand in solidarity with unions, either. The Teamsters currently protest with OWS, but I read an article in the NYTimes where an OWS protester said something to the effect of “OWS must maintain autonomy; we appreciate that the Teamsters support us, but we cannot do the same for them.” Don’t OWS supporters realize that what they want is exactly what unions want? A fair chance for the average person to have a high quality of life; the ability to resist the tyranny of unchecked corporate power.
I definitely don’t recall any public sector unions ever supporting private sector unions (I remember my dad, a teamster, participating in a strike when I was young–we didn’t have food or money for months–no outsiders ever joined the picket line), but I also don’t recall ANYone at all caring about the private sector unions. People don’t realize the importance of unions and the quality of life standards they bring about for everyone. They also don’t understand the power and influence that would come about if all unions joined together in a single movement–everything would be shut down! People would listen!
Little will change until we all stand in solidarity.
(Sorry, this was all rather besides the point of your post, but just felt like I needed to say it!)
@loveydovey use of force describes a wide spectrum of actions from discharging their firearms to simply using their hands to move protesters under arrest. Therefore, use of force by the police does not provide grounds for rioting, all it justifies is further use of force to remove people who are now rioting.
Who was rioting where, exactly? The actual protestors have been peaceful, but there have been others trying to take advantage of the situation to loot and do damage and OWS has been very careful to distance themselves from those people.
There was NO rioting before or after the use of police brutality, there are many videos that prove that. Cops don’t have nearly the power you and many others believe they have. Their motto is “serve and protect”, not “dictate and strongarm”. It’s even in their rules that such things as pepper spray are ONLY to be used if the person they’re arresting is being violent or about to attack the officer or others. It’s a clear cut case of police brutality.
How does pepper spray seem like them most important cause of the miscarriage. She’s a bum, she probably hasn’t eaten a proper meal in months so im sure malnutrition is a far more important factor. Among others weather and the stress she most likely exposed the fetus to by partaking in the altercation with police. Pathetic that this baby is being used as a scapegoat to attack police action, the true monster is the mother who had absolutely no regard for the safety of her child. Also, the hypocrisy of these groups is laughable. “a cop would murder a baby that’s not born yet… I am trying to get lawyers.” Most of these protesters are a bunch of liberal hippies, wouldn’t be surprised to see them at pro-choice rallies but when the unborn child’s death can serve their own purposes its all of a sudden a human being now.
It was a peaceful protest until the cops decided to overdo it and injure citizens who were only exercising their First Amendment rights. Are you saying she SHOULD have expected the cops to be brutal when that’s not their job, when it was not necessary to use the tactics they did?
As for most of the protestors being a bunch of “liberal hippies”, I take it you’re ignoring the veterans from wars past and present and the laid off cops who joined the protests. This isn’t a “liberal” thing, this applies to everyone who was taken advantage of by a handful of people who worked to remove laws in their way of profits and never answered for their crimes.
Give this site a look:
http://www.businessinsider.com/what-wall-street-protesters-are-so-angry-about-2011-10?op=1
Are you a doctor? probably not so you know absolutely nothing about what effects pepper spray may or may not have on an unborn fetus. Malnutrition? She looked pretty healthy to me and carrying a baby only requires 300 extra calories a day so your argument is wrong. Cold and stress would have nothing to do with having a miscarriage. Being kicked in the stomach by a cop would have serious effects on the fetus. So before you get on your high horse about something you know absolutely nothing about why dont you do some research instread of being an uninformed idiot and spouting off about S@#$ you have no idea about. When the cops are beating you and abusing your constitutional rights are you gonna say that you deserved it? Yea probably not huh.
I have to say that common sense would dictate that you avoid large crowds and potential dangerous, riot-filled areas when pregnant. It’s terrible that this happened to her, but that’s a very dangerous place to put yourself in.
Except there was no rioting until the police decided to use force against peaceful protestors.
Also, I find it hilarious that people on Fox News were saying it’s harmless and “essentially a food product”.