In Downtown Phoenix this past Friday, a whole crowd of people were hit with pepper spray when a team of police vastly over-reacted to Occupy Phoenix presence at the Friday Art Walk. While police claim “someone not affiliated with Occupy Phoenix or Occupy Wall Street hit an officer with a skateboard” this does not match eye-witness reports, nor does it explain the radically excessive response and police action.
What do we mean by excessive? The Phoenix Urban Health Collective reported on their page that, at said event, “police pepper sprayed a young man who was already handcuffed in the back of a patrol car. We at PUHC try not to use emotionally loaded words lightly. But given the fact that this child clearly posed no threat to anyone, we welcome a dialogue about whether such malicious acts seem to meet the legal definition of torture.”
Read more and watch video: http://networkedblogs.com/raVCC
