Alison Caldwell | ABC Online | 5 December 2011
Lawyers in Victoria say they fear recent changes to the Victoria Police manual could lead police to use capsicum spray or foam more often.
Capsicum spray, also known as pepper spray, is a crowd control weapon which makes the skin and eyes sting and burn.
The spray has been in the news worldwide because of the Occupy protests and two police officers in California were recently suspended after they used the spray on protesting university students.
AUDIO: Concerns police will use capsicum spray more often (PM)
Police in Victoria have been using the spray on offenders since 1998.
Until recently the police manual provided guidelines for the use of capsicum spray, including when it should and should not be used on a person.
The manual used to state the spray or foam should not be used "when a person is passively resisting arrest such as hanging limp or refusing to comply with instructions."
But that guideline was removed from the police manual last year.
Melbourne lawyer Anthony Kelly, from the Flemington and Kensington Community Legal Centre, says he is concerned police will start to use capsicum spray more liberally.
"Our major concerns are that when capsicum spray was first introduced it was very clearly specified that it should only be used in really violent or confrontational situations of serious physical confrontation," he said.
"But more and more we're seeing the use of capsicum spray against people who are simply non-compliant with police orders - so against prisoners, against people in custody, but also against protesters who are peaceful and are engaged in what's sometimes called passive resistance or non-violent civil disobedience.
"Prior to February last year there were very clear guidelines that it should only be used in situations of violence and serious physical confrontation ... and those guidelines have now been removed from the recent edition.
"We're concerned that police are more likely to use capsicum spray against people who are engaged in non-violent protest, peaceful protest."
Showing posts with label Occupy movement. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Occupy movement. Show all posts
Monday, December 12, 2011
Friday, November 18, 2011
Occupying the First Amendment
Raymond Vasvaril | Slate | November 15, 2011
What the actions over Zuccotti Park teach us about public spaces and citizen protest.
For nearly 60 days, demonstrators gathered in Zuccotti Park, a privately owned and very publicly occupied sliver of lower Manhattan, to Speak Truth to Power at what has become the hub of the Occupy Wall Street movement. But last night, Power was in no mood to chat. So shortly after 1 a.m. several hundred New York City Police surrounded the park dressed in riot gear, illuminated the encampment with klieg lights, and delivered—on behalf of Power—the same message that made Max von Sydow so charming in the Exorcist: “Get out.”
And get out they did. In a few hours time, over 200 demonstrators were arrested. Police cordoned off streets approaching the park, keeping the curious, the sympathetic, and most notably the press away from the action. Several journalists reported being roughly handled by police in the process, and an order closing the air space over lower Manhattan ensured that news helicopters couldn’t get footage of the raid.
That was the state of affairs when the First Amendment right to peaceably assemble smashed into the right of cities to protect their parks. And that was the state of affairs at 8 a.m., when Mayor Michael Bloomberg issued a statement affirming his deep regard for the First Amendment. He proceeded to give the sort of stern lecture about rights and responsibilities that sitcom fathers give their badly behaved teens, the tenor of which was that while free expression is generally a good thing, this nonsense had gone on long enough, and the city of New York had run out of patience.
It is no exaggeration to say that what happened overnight could be a watershed moment for the Occupy Movement: Frankfort, Ky., San Francisco, and Cincinnati have all been occupied, but the encampment near Wall Street has been the spiritual and symbolic center of a leaderless movement that has taken the example of Zuccotti Park and turned it into a moral franchise of sorts around the world.
What the actions over Zuccotti Park teach us about public spaces and citizen protest.
For nearly 60 days, demonstrators gathered in Zuccotti Park, a privately owned and very publicly occupied sliver of lower Manhattan, to Speak Truth to Power at what has become the hub of the Occupy Wall Street movement. But last night, Power was in no mood to chat. So shortly after 1 a.m. several hundred New York City Police surrounded the park dressed in riot gear, illuminated the encampment with klieg lights, and delivered—on behalf of Power—the same message that made Max von Sydow so charming in the Exorcist: “Get out.”
And get out they did. In a few hours time, over 200 demonstrators were arrested. Police cordoned off streets approaching the park, keeping the curious, the sympathetic, and most notably the press away from the action. Several journalists reported being roughly handled by police in the process, and an order closing the air space over lower Manhattan ensured that news helicopters couldn’t get footage of the raid.
That was the state of affairs when the First Amendment right to peaceably assemble smashed into the right of cities to protect their parks. And that was the state of affairs at 8 a.m., when Mayor Michael Bloomberg issued a statement affirming his deep regard for the First Amendment. He proceeded to give the sort of stern lecture about rights and responsibilities that sitcom fathers give their badly behaved teens, the tenor of which was that while free expression is generally a good thing, this nonsense had gone on long enough, and the city of New York had run out of patience.
It is no exaggeration to say that what happened overnight could be a watershed moment for the Occupy Movement: Frankfort, Ky., San Francisco, and Cincinnati have all been occupied, but the encampment near Wall Street has been the spiritual and symbolic center of a leaderless movement that has taken the example of Zuccotti Park and turned it into a moral franchise of sorts around the world.
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