Rights

Police across the US have been criticised for their actions in clashes with Occupy Wall Street protesters. The man who led the police response to the Battle in Seattle protests at the 1999 WTO meeting blames the post-9/11 militarisation of American policing.

“Law enforcement across the country is pursuing the same tactics that failed so miserably in Seattle,” Norm Stamper tells BBC World Service’s Witness programme.

“There’s a lack of patience, there’s a lack of imagination and there are clear over-reactions to the challenges the police perceive. It is all so disheartening.”

In November 1999, Chief Stamper was one of the main officials charged with managing the huge numbers of demonstrators who brought the city to a standstill in protests against the launch of a new round of global trade talks.

An estimated 50,000 activists from around the world flooded Seattle and occupied strategic crossroads, blocking delegates’ access to the convention centre where the talks were to be held.

The demonstrations seriously disrupted the trade talks. The opening ceremony had to be cancelled because most delegates were unable to get to the meetings, and even US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright was stuck in her hotel room unable to give the speech she had prepared.

The police responded by spraying the crowd with tear gas, That, says Chief Stamper, set the tone for the next three days — via redwolf.newsvine.com

A new law protecting people from being married against their will has come into effect in Scotland.

The legislation gives courts the power to issue protection orders to those at risk, which if breached could carry a two-year prison sentence.

Greater help will also be made available for victims of forced marriages, and existing powers to annul such unions have been strengthened — via redwolf.newsvine.com

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 zone as 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