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Occupy Wall Street: Inquiries Launched as New Pepper-Spray Video Emerges
NYPD officer Anthony Bologna faces two investigations as video emerges of a second pepper-spray incident
The senior New York police officer at the centre of the Occupy Wall Street pepper spray controversy fired the gas at protesters a second time just moments later.
After new video emerged on Wednesday showing the second incident, New York police commissioner Ray Kelly told reporters that the Civilian Complaint Review Board would investigate the officer, deputy inspector Anthony Bologna.
The New York Police Department's own internal affairs bureau also plans to open an investigation, the New York Times reports.
The investigations were announced after bloggers and activists drew attention to video posted online which showed that Bologna fired pepper spray on two occasions last Saturday as officers broke up a protest march through Greenwich Village.
The first footage shows him targeting a group of female protesters who were being penned in by officers on East 12th Street. The latest video shows another incident on the same street, shortly after the first, when he fired more pepper spray towards at least one of the same women, after they were recovering from the first incident.
On both occasions, the officer appears to have violated New York Police Department guidance on how the gas should be used.
In response to the Guardian's appeal to readers to help us reconstruct Saturday's events on East 12th Street, one protester wrote to say that she was sprayed with gas by the officer both times.
The protester, Ashley Drzymala, also sent us a link to this raw footage, which shows - at about the 3:56 mark - the officer spraying protesters as they retreated from the area of West 12th Street where he had used the gas on another group about a minute earlier.
Early on Wednesday, Charlie Grapski, in a diary for the Daily Kos, posted a slow-motion edit of just the portion of the video that showed Inspector Bologna spraying the retreating protesters.
Drzymala, 21, a student at a state university outside New York, told the Guardian that she had also been sprayed in the first incident.
We saw police throw a guy who had a video camera into a car. I remembered a police officer pushed the kid and he was trying to get away he was just videotaping, he was not inciting anything. I was saying "What are you doing? Stop it, we're peaceful" I kept saying "what are you doing" They shoved him into a car, they just attacked him, it was uncalled for." Then the girl next to me was pulled through the net by police. She had a black-t-short and black curly hair. Then she was dragged across the ground.
Drzymala, who was also shooting video, said she captured an image the woman in the black t-shirt before the attack, when she was calling police fascists and she was uninjured, and afterwards, when they were trying to leave the pavement, her mouth was bloody.
"I was watching her and then I looked up and I saw the police officer, the one in the white shirt coming up with his hand up and he had a vial in his hand."
Her own video shows the first use of pepper spray quite clearly, although her camera was pointing away from inspector Bologna when he sprayed her the second time.
Drzymala added that since she was in Cairo as an exchange student in January and took part in the Tahrir Square protests, she managed to escape the worst of the pepper spray. Being teargassed in Egypt had taught her to turn her head away, she said.
Asked about the first, more highly-publicized use of pepper spray by Bologna, the NYPD commissioner said on Wednesday, "I don't know what precipitated that specific incident." Chelsea Elliott, who was among the first group to be sprayed, drew our attention to this raw footage, which shows more of what the women were doing moments before the gas was fired at them - arguing with police officers.
The section of the NYPD patrol guide that outlines how pepper spray should, and should not, be used, was posted online in a 2000 report on the matter by the Civilian Complaint Review Board, an independent agency that examines allegations of police misconduct.
According to the guidance, officers are permitted to use pepper spray when "necessary to effect an arrest of a resisting suspect, for self-defense or defense of another from unlawful force, or to take a resisting emotionally disturbed person into custody." The patrol guide also specifies that officers should "not use pepper spray on subjects who passively resist." Officers with special training, however, do have latitude "in the use of pepper spray for disorder control."
Donna Lieberman, director of New York Civil Liberties Union, said: "There's no excuse for using pepper spray in the faces of peaceful demonstrators whether or not they are engaging in minor disorderly conduct. The use of pepper spray appears to be gratuitous and in violation of police department rules. What the video demonstrates how harmful it is for the police to engage in excessive force against protesters because it causes fear and how harmful it is for the police department itself."
The NYPD were forced to change some of their policing practices during demonstrations, specifically their use of pens, after a lawsuit brought by NYCLU which accused them of excessive restrictions in movements of protesters during the February 2003 anti-war protests in New York.
According to recent statistics, 1722 people complained of being wrongfully pepper-sprayed by New York police officers between 2006 and 2010. Of that number, the civilian review board substantiated just 22 complaints.
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37 Comments so far
Show AllTo any observer it is clear that it is clearly the lack of discipline and use of violence on the part of the NYPD that is causing literally all the disturbance and is the only criminality apparent in these videos.
America and New York should be ashamed of these undisciplined bullies pretending to be police officers.
Disgusting to think this is the type of person the NYPD promotes to Captain.
Unfortunately it should not be too surprising to find out that at the end of the day these self-appointed investigations by the police department only amount to one thing and that would be a cover-up and an exoneration of the atrocities that have been committed by Lt. Bologna.
In a just and ideal world Bologna would receive five to ten years in jail for what he had done to those defenseless women as well as giving financial compensation [at least six figures] to those women who had been wrongfully pepper sprayed. In addition, the police department would assure the people of New York that Bologna would never be placed in a position of authority again. Alas, it would seem that the chances of these things happening to that sadist are about as likely as members of the Bush and Obama administrations being prosecuted for war crimes that they had committed [and are still being committed] against the people of the Middle East.
These assholes *ALWAYS* get off the hook. There was an incident in which a pastor was shot to death by two off duty narcotics officers in Florida. The pastor was seen offering a ride to a known drug user, so therefore they assumed he was a drug dealer. In reality, the pastor had been counseling the woman and trying to help her defeat her drug habit, which was heroin.
The pastor pulled into a convenience store and once parked, the two cops pulled along side in an unmarked car and drew their weapons. The pastor, thinking he was about to be robbed, ran. Once of the officers fired at him several times killing him.
Upon investigation, even though the officer that had fired his weapon had even failed the qualification exam to carry a firearm and was therefore banned from carrying a weapon until he successfully passed the qualification test, the two officers were deemed to have fired in self defense, evern though neither the pastor (obviously) nor the woman were armed. Both were no billed at a grand jury hearing.
The bottom line is that pigs have a license to kill...anybody. I can't think of even one instance where a police officer was held criminally liable in a shooting. (Think of the situation right there in New York where the police raided the wrong apartment for a drug bust, "thought" the guy was going for a gun, and shot him 38 times to death. They also were no billed.
I suppose these ladies were lucky, considering how trigger happy these motherfuckers are. Had any of them actually tried to fight back, they would have surely been shot to death as a threat to Officer Bolognas life. A bunch of petite badass women, eh.
Police forces consist of a large number of cowardly pussy wannabe men. There is no differentiating between them.
Since 9/11 these pussy thugs have been given automatic weapons, armored personell carriers complete with machine gun mounted turrets, sonic noise blasting equipment designed for warfare but now used against American civilians, microwave blasting machines used to cook unruly crowds, weapons that fire multiple electric charged devices similar to tasers but designed for crows control, and weapons that contain narcotic medications or other sedating medication to knock large numbers of people out.
Ladies and gentlemen, this is the result of the war on terror. What has been justifyably used against the "enemy" in Iraq and Afganistan is now being used against *US*citizens. Drones are now patroling the Mexico/U.S. border and are now being used to patrol some cities (Houston, Tx. for certain.) Of course the Patriot Act makes this all "legal."
Ahh, America...Land of the Free and Home of the brave cops.
Thanks for the link to NYPD guidelines for the "proper" usage of pepper spray. Who exactly was he protecting from harm? Were these women arrested? Were they fleeing? Perhaps he thought they were emotionally disturbed? Or maybe Tony equates women with dangerous animals
Tony is the animal and a sick one at that.
"Tony Baloney' is actually fairly typical when it comes to cops.
The only "animals" who are PSYCHOPATHS are human beings. I can always compare HUMANS unfavorably with "dangerous" or "sick" animals, because the record on sick and violent human behavior against other humans is overwhelming, disgusting, and very clear. So STOP denigrating animals -- stop the SPECIES-IST remarks! I've had enough of human extremism!
Pepper spray in the eyes can cause permanent eye damage (corneal abrasions, etc.). It is not a nonlethal device like assumed my many people either, and has caused quite a few deaths in restrained individuals with asthma.
Where is the Tea Party whose main complaint was the Wall Street bailouts? I would like to see them join the demonstration...and bring their guns
Just an aside from the main issue here, but unless the camera really does add 10 pounds or these guys in blue are all wearing hidden flak vests, it would appear the donut biz is booming in NYC.
As the world can plainly see, in Fascist America the police protect corporations, bankers, brokers, the financial elite. Meanwhile, We the People, from whom government power supposedly derives, are treated as presumed criminals and considered a threat. Political priorities in America could not be more upside-down than they are right now.
It is too bad that the only way these protests can get any attention is when something like this happens - to white protestors. African-American and Latino communities know all about these kinds of incidents.
Aside from Bologna's use of pepper spray, the videos show numberous instances of gratuitous and criminal brutality being committed in the presence of police officers who not only do not intervene to put a stop to it but abet the criminal act as crowd controllers and such. And they abet and do not intervene quite apparently because of how the brutalizers are dressed.Every police officer at the scene is guilty of aiding and abetting in the commission of these blatantly criminal acts, as is (will be) every prosecutor who prefers spurious charges against the victims of these acts and every prosecutor who refuses to prosecute the policemen involved when presented with sufficient evidence to do so.
"Then I'll be all around in the dark - I'll be ever'where—wherever you look. Wherever they's a fight so hungry people can eat, I'll be there. Wherever they's a cop beatin' up a guy, I'll be there... I'll be in the way guys yell when they're mad an'—I'll be in the way kids laugh when they're hungry and they know supper's ready. An' when our folk eat the stuff they raise an' live in the houses they build—why, I'll be there. "
Tom Joad in the Grapes of Wrath
BE Tom Joad. Join this protest as much as you can, and whenever you can.
What shame the NYPD doesn't have a nice old sergeant like they had in "Hill Street Blues", who could tell these oafs to "be careful out there - you never know who's got a cell-phone camera trained on you."
Does anyone still doubt that America has become a police state?
No doubt what sooo ever.
If you doubt, it means you have not been paying attention or you are a sheeple that has been brainwashed by Foxy News and the whore MSM or you are in the 1% super, wealthy financial elite.
NYPD = Not Your Public Defender. The police have become an enemy of the people.
Perhaps Officer Anthony Bologna is 'auditioning' his services as a private security guard for the Banksters. Thanks to said banksters, Officer Bologna will not have much of a pension to live on once he retires.
I think he should submit his resume' to Blackwater as he would be a perfect corporate soldier!
If Blackwater / Xe open a branch office on Wall Street, it would not be a surprise at all if NYPD Deputy Inspector Tony Bologna becomes that office's station head.
living on the lower east side in n.y.c. in the 60's, i witnessed police shoot at, wound, and one time kill, black and hispanic CHILDREN. it wasn't even reported in the newspapers...
When I first saw the videos of Bologna I experienced déjà vu.
I assumed he was just evoking a generalized association with every "pig's pig" goon cop you've ever seen on the street or teevee.
And I grew up in Philadelphia during the Frank Rizzo era, so I figured I might be experiencing flashbacks.
Which is all likely enough, but then I realized that Bologna brought back a memory of Bernie Kerik.
Remember Kerik? He was Rudy Giuliani's pet pit bull, another steroid-enhanced skinhead hardcore Supercop lionized as a hero after 9/11.For one brief, shining moment, he was a shoo-in for the job of Director of Homeland Security.
Eventually Kerik was exposed as just another low-life creep, but the Establishment practiced its usual damage control by treating him as if he had been belatedly discovered to be a bit of a Bad Apple.
Big city government has an overwhelming inclination to protect and serve its "law" enforcers and zealously preserve a double standard that keeps cops above the law.
Tragically, as a life in and around Philly reveals, there's a "silent majority" of complacent, authoritarian-follower citizens who enable and support everyday police misconduct.
It's not so much that these citizens consciously wink at police misdeeds; they're programmed to give them enormous respect and deference, and indulge them like an overprotective parent coddling a juvenile delinquent kid-- they either deny or rationalize away any evidence of badness, no matter how obvious and indefensible.
I hope I'm wrong, but I think that the usual fix is in, and that Bologna will be protected. Unless public outrage persists to a point that inconveniences the overclass, the usual whitewashes and pretense of serious investigation and discipline will run their course. He's getting overripe this week, but there's a pretty high threshold to being officially disowned by the Powers That Be and branded a Bad Apple renegade or pariah.
Bologna might end up retiring sooner than later. And then he'll get some cushy security job somewhere and live happily ever after.
That guy has nothing on the cops at the Republican National Convention '08. They used pepper spray meant for grizzly bears. http://www.mindfully.org/Reform/2008/RNC-Kentucky-Students2sep08a.jpg
It's too depressing to search for at the moment, but there's a video from the 2008 RNC of a phalanx of stormtroopers in full paramilitary gear marching down the street, and one pauses to viciously pepper-spray a woman holding out a flower.That's all she was doing: holding out a flower at arm's length to the passing goons.Preview of Coming Attractions.
O.S.
Your comments about that young woman and what happened when she held out that flower during the 2008 RNC is reminiscent of the famous photo that was taken during the 1960s, I believe, which showed a number of young people placing flowers inside the rifles of the National Guard. The big difference is that the members of the National Guard did not lash out at the hippies and instead silently witnessed what those people were doing to their weapons. This is not to say that anti-war protesters were not roughed up during the Vietnam conflict. But it does seem that the police today are, perhaps, rather eager to attack peace activists even when, as you correctly note, there is no need to do so especially when those activists have no weapons and whose only crime is that they have the temerity to exercise their First Amendment rights that are contained in that document that appears to becoming less and less relevant each day and that is the U.S. Constitution.
Back in the day, the cops came in with thier "Serve and Protect" slogan on the sides of thier cruisers. The roar came up from the crowd: "Serve the Bosses, Protect the State". (I think it came from the PLP contingent). Make no mistake about it, this most certainly IS Class Warfare. And the Pigs are there to protect the interests of thier bosses, the ruling class. What cops do are never individual or isolated events. They are the enemy!
Shows yet again we should always remember Mayor Richard J. Daley's August 26, 1968 explanation of the police riots in Chicago during the Democratic convention:
"The policeman isn't there to create disorder. The policeman is there to preserve disorder."
Cops have a duty to report crimes. however when one of their own breaks the law the renmain silent.
Police forces are 99.99% corrupt by criminal behaviour or complicit cover up.
The Civilian Complaint Review Board deals with police abuses the same way the Securities and Exchange Commission deals with fraud by Wall Street banksters. Both throw out the records of their most serious cases, because of the political fallout if the information were allowed to become public.
Only in New York can a character named "Tony Bologni" become a Wall Street armed guard against democracy and citizen activism fighting greed!
Too bad more cops didn't die on 9/11.
Toni Boloni should get the same treatment as I would get if I walked down the street spraying people with mace. This seems totally unprovoked. I love the line, which is so true, that wall st devises all manner of illegal manipulation of wealth, and gets to raid the treasury and protection from the President.
Victims of their greed who want justice get arrested and assaulted by police.
Toni Boloni belongs in jail.