Needed: Retraining for police in dealing with protests

by David Safier

I've posted some horrific photos and videos from Occupy protests involving police using pepper spray on participants. But I don't want to get all 60s about it and turn the police officers, as a group, into the enemy. That seems counterproductive to me. And I don't think it makes sense, especially when the officers are following standard procedures.

When I read lines like these from the police justifying the slow, deliberate use of pepper spray on a group of arm-linked protesters, I know something is wrong with the police department's mindset when they confront Occupy participants.

Charles J. Kelly, a former Baltimore Police Department lieutenant who wrote the department's use of force guidelines, said pepper spray is a "compliance tool" that can be used on subjects who do not resist, and is preferable to simply lifting protesters.

"When you start picking up human bodies, you risk hurting them," Kelly said. "Bodies don't have handles on them."

After reviewing the video, Kelly said he observed at least two cases of "active resistance" from protesters. In one instance, a woman pulls her arm back from an officer. In the second instance, a protester curls into a ball. Each of those actions could have warranted more force, including baton strikes and pressure-point techniques.

"What I'm looking at is fairly standard police procedure," Kelly said.

In law enforcement parlance, pulling your arm back from an officer and curling into a ball fall under the heading of "active resistance" which warrants pepper spraying. That places this passive kind of resistance in the same category with violent resistance which can put police officers in danger.

Police haven't dealt with this kind of protest for awhile. Their procedures seem to be written to deal with people who are being arrested for criminal acts, people who, when they pull back their arms are likely to strike an officer or run away, people who curl up in a ball, then, when touched, sometimes turn into a whirlwind of arms and legs.

Cities, college campuses and police departments need to rethink their responses to Occupy protesters who are unlikely to become violent or dangerous when they're confronted by police. They need to retrain their officers in the procedures to be followed in these kinds of situations.