Seattle police officers shot pepper spray into a crowd of uncooperative Occupy protesters Tuesday night — including a pregnant 19-year-old and an 84-year-old activist — after a number of them refused to clear one of the city’s downtown intersections, the Associated Press reported.
The protesters gathered in the intersection of 5th Avenue and Pine Street after marching down from their Seattle Central Community College campgrounds. The AP reported the police began blasting pepper spray into the crowd after many refused to move from the intersection, despite police orders.
The Seattle Post-Intelligencer quoted an Occupy Seattle protester named Martin
describing the police officers spraying with abandon
. He said that they were grinning and smiling and cracking jokes
while spraying the crowd
Seattle activist Dorli Rainey, 84, reacts after being hit with pepper spray during an Occupy Seattle protest on Tuesday, 15 November 2011 at Westlake Park. Bottom right, Seattle Police officers spray to disperse the crowd gathered in the intersection of Pine Street and 5th Avenue. A woman who gave her name as Jennifer and said she was two months pregnant is rushed to a waiting ambulance after being hit with pepper spray at Occupy Seattle Tuesday night. (Photos by Joshua Trujillo, seattlepi.com)
Update: Keith Olbermann interviewed Dorli Rainey, who is pretty fucking awesome:
Eighty-four-year-old activist Dorli Rainey tells Keith about her experience getting pepper-sprayed by the police during an Occupy Seattle demonstration and the need to take action and spread the word of the Occupy movement. She cites the advice of the late Catholic nun and activist Jackie Hudson to
take one more step out of your comfort zoneas an inspiration, saying,It would be so easy to say, ‘Well I’m going to retire, I’m going to sit around, watch television or eat bonbons,’’ but somebody’s got to keep ’em awake and let ’em know what is really going on in this world
— via redwolf.newsvine.com
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