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Death of Democracy in Michigan: Pepper Sprayed for Exercising First Amendment Rights
Former U.S. Rep. Mark Schauer was one of many citizens pepper-sprayed by police Tuesday while engaging in a protest against the Republicans’ union busting bill at Michigan’s Capitol. A mounted police also used his horse as crowd control, running over a citizen.
Watch here via ACLUofMichigan (between 11 sec-17 sec):
c/u, click to enlarge:
The Battlecreek Enquirer reported that Schauer had been in the process of trying to negotiate with police regarding moving the crowd when they were pepper-sprayed:
He said he tried to negotiate a line away from the Capitol that police would accept when he and “a number” of people were sprayed.
“I immediately began to retreat and began to cover my eyes and my mouth,” Schauer said. “It was not good.”
Former U.S. Rep. Mark Schauer talks about his experience with the protestors outside the House chamber, including getting pepper sprayed himself.
Watch here via MIRSNews:
There were instances of chaos and violence at yesterday’s protest, but according to Schauer, the protest area where Schauer and others were pepper sprayed was not one of them. Nor does the crowd appear violent or out of control in the video.
As of the Occupy movement, police are using pepper spray inappropriately in order to move crowds. It is becoming a “pattern and practice” of our local/state governments. The University of California has to pay nearly $1 million in damages to a group of students involved in an Occupy protest who were pepper-sprayed by campus police in an effort to get them to move. However, the officer was cleared of illegal use of force.
Pepper spraying was hardly the only incidence of thuggery against the people yesterday. “Mounted police use horses to control crowd, run over protester in process”:
The right to protest is one of our most basic rights as Americans, enshrined both in the U.S. Constitution and international human rights law. It falls under the First Amendment, and includes the right to assemble, protest, and petition. The act of protest is not a threat to the government; quite the contrary, it is one of the founding tenets of our system of government.
The scared Republican Koch puppets are afraid to face their constituents because they stabbed democracy in the back, passing laws without debate in the lameduck session. They knew citizens would be angry when they stripped away a global human right without even pretending to debate it. Force (ignoring democracy) needs more force to enforce it (intimidate protesters).
Police are being egged on into acting like private militia for the lawmakers, which suggests that governmental agencies are seeking to silence free speech. Silence is the effect of intimidation, and it’s not an accident.
These recurring episodes of excessive force serve to silence the rights of protesters (including free speech and freedom of assembly). Indeed, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) — an international organization of which the US is a member — found that “America is failing to uphold this fundamental right.”
Their report recommends that U.S. authorities remedy this by limiting the use of police force among other suggestions:
The report recommended U.S. authorities “ensure the right to free assembly, including by facilitating protest camps and marches as much as possible, limiting police use of force, promptly investigating police misconduct, and not dispersing assemblies merely for lack of permits.”
Citizens shouldn’t be pepper-sprayed for exercising their first amendment rights, and they shouldn’t be met by a menacing, deliberately intimidating show of force by police. Police need to modify their crowd control policies in order to not only respect, but facilitate, the freedoms accorded to us.
Pepper spray should be saved for when the threat has escalated.
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10 Responses to Death of Democracy in Michigan: Pepper Sprayed for Exercising First Amendment Rights
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Mary
Dec. 12th, 2012 at 9:12 am
So much for the “pro-life” scam. The only life the haters are interested in saving is Zygotes.
Andrew Carvin
Dec. 12th, 2012 at 9:23 am
TAKE AMERICA BACK VOTE DEMOCRAT. There is NO DEBATE NEEDED. The Republicans have at every step favored only WHITE WEALTHY HEALTHY RICH CHRISTIAN MEN, and have repeatedly violated the rights of everyone else, and caused rampant suffering and death via their policies. It’s at my YouTube channel Zarrakan, and here’s the name:
2012 12 5 ZOC No Debate Needed Part 1
www.youtube.com/watch?v=S...
Watch it, share it, and join the fight against those who refuse to acknowledge reality.
buckeyewill
Dec. 12th, 2012 at 9:29 am
Union busting and pepper spraying.
Fascism has come to America wrapped in excessive body fat carrying a misspelled sign.
M.R.M
Dec. 12th, 2012 at 11:34 am
im glad to see people giving them hell in mich, one has the right to protest, or did they take that also?… So called “right to work states” are slave states, they pay crap, treat workers like crap, and fire people on a dime! not to mention, dont speak up for your right’s,or see something un-safe at a meeting, keep your hand down, or youll get fired next week! and you cant do anything about it! i know 1st hand, i live in one!
troy
Dec. 13th, 2012 at 2:06 am
Was this state Florida? We do have the right to protest, but I also have seen how these rights can be eroded by local athorities. Please play down the hype but also when the rights are suppressed lets take action leagaley and secure our rights under the the constitution. We the people have to be the watch dogs and I respect those watch dogs, may they be many and may they be truthful.
Here of late I am more for Unions because the see how our rights are being eroded, in the same breath we must not let unions misguided us. We the people must teach our children the Constitution, before it is changed.
Sighned by the low man on the on the totem pole
Troy Maple
M.R.M
Dec. 12th, 2012 at 11:41 am
guess republicans wont be happy untill “we the people” have the same working right’s, as china?
Maranon
Dec. 12th, 2012 at 12:31 pm
US, welcome to the second and third world working conditions.
This is what the corporations have been doing around the world for years, sucking the wealth of the underdeveloped countries, paying slave wages and housing people in the company high rent district and selling high cost food in the company store.
And when the people would organize and try to defend and improve their working conditions, the company would call them Marxist or communist and call the CIA to destroy the activity as seen “undesirable and a threat to democracy” but mostly a threat to the corporation interest
Defending the rights of the workers and better life conditions, this is one activity that the churches ought to be helping as it clearly fights social injustice.
Deborah_
Dec. 12th, 2012 at 1:41 pm
You must read this.. It will give you goosebumps and make you proud of these two Ohio Justices, and I think has set a precedent. www.supremecourt.ohio.gov...
sherrie heckendorn
Dec. 12th, 2012 at 3:11 pm
This is how we become a fascist country.
gsb
Dec. 14th, 2012 at 11:02 am
Sherrie:
What makes you think we are not a fascist country already? The police have powers far beyond what limits should be, All given by the patriot act.
Thank you GW Bush.