The occupy movement can’t be sprayed away
Pepper spray can’t be washed off with water. The intense burning it causes — the stinging, the redness, the swelling, the coughing and gagging and gasping — will only subside with time, usually several hours. It can cause tissue damage and respiratory attacks. A study of its most commonly prescribed remedies found that none of them really work. It has been prohibited in war by the Chemical Weapons Convention, so our enemies don’t have to experience it on the battlefield. If only our citizens were so lucky.
That is the powerful opening paragraph of this Washington Post op ed by Katrina vanden Heuvel, whose title I have borrowed for this posting.
There are a number of powerful points made in the post, which I am going to urge you to read.
I quoted the opening paragraph in part because it was one of the points I explored last night in a few random thoughts on a Tuesday night. How is it legitimate to use something prohibited in warfare on a non-violent civilian protest? Why is this kind of approach ever acceptable for use by the police? What does this say about our nation? If one argues that the use of Oleoresin Capaicin, a more appropriate name for the spray, is acceptable, perhaps one should be aware that even by itself it can cause a fatal reaction, and that it is far more than a pure
