The Energon Pub

Why did this happen?

Peaceful protesters attacked by police with pepper-spray?
What do you guys think about this? What do you think made the police do this? What went wrong? And how can this be prevented from happening again?


This is not an "impeach Bush" or any other kind of hate-thread. This is a discussion about why and how peaceful protests like this go so wrong and how things like this can be prevented. This is productive.

Wow. I would think, if that's how it truly happened, that that is grounds to sue. Good thing they got it on video. I haven't even heard about this.

LEAVE THE PROTESTERS ALONE. LEAVE THEM ALONE! THEY ARE JUST HUMAN! THEY HAVE IDEAS THEY KNOW ARE IMPORTANT AND OPINIONS THAT PEOPLE SHOULD HEAR! AND HOW DARE ANYONE OUT THERE MAKE FUN OF THE PROTESTERS AFTER ALL THEY'VE BEEN THROUGH! THEY LOVE THEIR AUNT. THEY WENT THROUGH A DIVORCE. THEY HAVE 2 KIDS, THEIR HUSBAND'S A USER, THEY'RE GOING TROUGH A CUSTODY BATTLE. ALL THE POLICE CARE ABOUT ARE READERS AND MAKING MONEY. THEY'RE A HUMAN! THEY HAVEN'T PERFORMED ON STAGE FOR YEARS. THEIR SONG IS CALLED "GIVE ME MORE" FOR A REASON BECAUSE ALL YOU PEOPLE WANT IS MORE MORE MORE MORE MORE! LEAVE THE PROTESTERS ALONE! YOU'RE LUCKY THEY EVEN PERFORM FOR YOU BASTARDS! LEAVE THE PROTESTERS ALONE!!

are people that surprised? I've never seen cops act any differently. Everyone who isn't a cop is a piece of s**t according to their thinking.

Anytime you go to a protest, you should expect that type of treatment. If you don't receive it, then consider yourself lucky.

Hate to break it to you, but protests that are deemed uncontrollable or on the brink of being considered unsafe (by the authorities), will usually follow by beatings or pepper spray.

It's in our constitutional right to protest, but the authorities will often jump the gun when they think it will become dangerous. I think its wrong what the authorities are doing, but this sort of thing is nothing new to this world. I'm not taking either side, because I don't know the story behind the incident. I do know that cops fear protesters will instigate other people which can sometimes lead to rioting, which is when the police are trying to prevent. (Protests can easily turn into a mob full of rioters)

Prowl20 wrote: (Protests can easily turn into a mob full of rioters)

the police like to overlook though that's it's usually the beatings people are getting at the hands of the cops that trigger the riot. It's anger at the cops, who represent "the system" that'll make people pop and start acting crazy.

Honestly I don't know why more cops aren't randomly shot considering some of the horrible treatment I've known people to get.

My friends dad was on SWAT and he said The Badge makes alot of cops nuts. That they're dorky nerds who now suddenly have power and authority and it goes to their heads instantly. Not to mention if you don't completely bow down and kiss a cops ass whenever you have to deal with them, they'll consider it that you're giving them "attitude." and man, god help you if you know your rights and ask for there to be a Sgt. or Lt. on the scene, *which is your right, btw*

Alot of times that just ends with an ass kicking too.

The whole worlds basically gone completely insane in the past 8 years or so.

I think it's a sick scene and I hope someone gets what's coming to them for it.

I also edited your link Chaos Bringer, so it wouldn't stretch the window.

Whilst I am not a Bush fan, I see no reason why the number of the responses in there was essentially *Bush's fault.....rah!*

Also due to only having half of the story, I'm somewhat sceptical.

However if there really was absolutely no cause for the excessive force used......why not just sue the police?

Fist off Welcome to 2002. Also here are some of the facts. After a May 2000 protest that went badly, the city of Portland requires a permit be obtained by protest leaders to organize a rally. This did not happen for the 2002 protest. These permits allow for the police and city planners to organize both events so that adaquite space is given to both groups. Since the protest leaders refused to get the permits the police and city planners thought that it would be a small rally. Instead somewhere between 1,100 and 1,300 protestors showed up.
Barricades had to be moved in order to allow for the persons going to attend the Presidents visit. The crowd was told to move back three times when they did not the police started using pepper spray to get the protestors to move. When this did not work they started in with the tear gas, rubber bullets, and riot control.
Did the police make some bad choices? Yes. Getting over a thousand people to move is no easy task. Had the police given the protestors time to move this might not have happened. However the police that made these decisions had only the information they could see. A thousand protestors who seam to not be following instructions and could easily become violent what do you do?

Here is the portland tribune article from the same time as the protest. Notice the lack of the word Stormtroper, in the portland article.

http://www.portlandtribune.com/news/sto ... y_id=13339

I take offense to the way they are throwing the name "Stormtroper" around..

Sigh...

the protesters are going to be abused, they always are I don't know why but that would appear to be the case. This time it was their own fault. You see they should have gone angry mob, that way mace, tear gas and senseless beatings are earned not gust given freely.

If your gonna get beat up either way at least give um a reason....

Malikon wrote:the police like to overlook though that's it's usually the beatings people are getting at the hands of the cops that trigger the riot.

I don't suppose you have a source for this?

Homer wrote:LEAVE THE PROTESTERS ALONE. LEAVE THEM ALONE! THEY ARE JUST HUMAN! THEY HAVE IDEAS THEY KNOW ARE IMPORTANT AND OPINIONS THAT PEOPLE SHOULD HEAR! AND HOW DARE ANYONE OUT THERE MAKE FUN OF THE PROTESTERS AFTER ALL THEY'VE BEEN THROUGH! THEY LOVE THEIR AUNT. THEY WENT THROUGH A DIVORCE. THEY HAVE 2 KIDS, THEIR HUSBAND'S A USER, THEY'RE GOING TROUGH A CUSTODY BATTLE. ALL THE POLICE CARE ABOUT ARE READERS AND MAKING MONEY. THEY'RE A HUMAN! THEY HAVEN'T PERFORMED ON STAGE FOR YEARS. THEIR SONG IS CALLED "GIVE ME MORE" FOR A REASON BECAUSE ALL YOU PEOPLE WANT IS MORE MORE MORE MORE MORE! LEAVE THE PROTESTERS ALONE! YOU'RE LUCKY THEY EVEN PERFORM FOR YOU BASTARDS! LEAVE THE PROTESTERS ALONE!!

You sir, are made entirely of win.

so in other words, people didn't follow the rules/law, which resulted in pepper spray and rubber bullets.

seems fairish to me.

Plus, like him or hate him, we're talking about the President of the US. His safety is pretty far up there as priorities go.

Maybe the police went a bit too far, but then it is hard to make a huge crowd move simply by asking them. And the whole permit thing...

tequila stu wrote:so in other words, people didn't follow the rules/law, which resulted in pepper spray and rubber bullets.

seems fairish to me.

This is the part thats always left out when people protest over the treatment of protestors.

Asmodae wrote:

tequila stu wrote:so in other words, people didn't follow the rules/law, which resulted in pepper spray and rubber bullets.

seems fairish to me.

This is the part thats always left out when people protest over the treatment of protestors.

Hmm, what sells more news papers,
A"protesters get pepper sprayed and shot at demonstration" or
B"Police take acceptable measures to control an illegal demonstration"

Same story different spin.

I need to see both stories in great detail before I'll make a decision one way or the other.

However, the pictures of the protest do show that the people aren't crossing the barricade, aren't throwing items, etc.

Also, corrupt cops have been popping up on YouTube left and right (and they are corrupt, the videos capture that perfectly)

So I look at it this way....

The protesters are idiots because no matter how much they yell, no matter how much of a show they put on, etc...it all falls on deaf ears. Besides, Bush is leaving the office, permanently, at the end of this year.

The cops are scum because they can use excessive force, knowing they don't have to, but choose to, then tell a juicy fib and people will look the other way. (Watch the YouTube videos)

So neither side can win with me. They're both guilty of stupidity and it gave way to pain and suffering.

Before anyone says I'm wrong about cops, yada yada yada...I've seen more negatives (personally and on TV) than I have positives when it comes to cops. Plus the fact we called 911 and the cops refused to assist my parents one night, so my dad called the next morning, talked to the chief, reported our complaint, the cop(s) got in trouble for not showing up, so they started pulling us over every chance they got. My mom even got pulled over twice in a single day. This went on for a month or more. So yeah, my respect for them went down the drain a while ago.

Disgusting.

Whatever happened to legit cops? Ones who were concerned with upholding the law and doing the right thing? Oh don't get me wrong, I know there are legit cops out there, and I'm sure some of them at that demonstration had never been in such a situation, so they were frightened and had no idea what could happen...but that doesn't excuse the rest of it.