‘I’d do it again,’ says police commander filmed pepper spraying the faces of women at Occupy Wall Street protest

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2051870/Occupy-Wall-Street-pepper-spray-cop-Anthony-Bologna-Id-again.html#ixzz1bRO8GF3p

Well, the raw courage of firing pepper spray into the faces of women safely behind a barrier and then quickly walking away once again demonstrates on the part of Deputy Inspector Anthony Bologna, a monumental lack of understanding of police procedures and department guidelines.

Don’t give me any nonsense about police fearing for their lives or any other crap. I’ve seen the video several times. I teach courses in criminal justice and know police procedure. You do not quell crowds by pepper spraying peaceful protestors behind barricades. That is likely to provoke the crowd which could endanger other officers. It’s exactly the opposite of what you are supposed to do. It’s difficult to come up with any other interpretation than Anthony Bologna did not like the politics of the demonstrators and misused his authority to harm them to send a message. The worse interpretation possible is that he may  have intended to incite the crowd to violence.

Two weeks loss of pay is a pretty thin penalty for this kind of action. I would go for six weeks suspension without pay.

James Pilant

 

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• Occupy Wall Street: Anthony Bologna feels ‘tortured’ by pepper spray incident (dailykos.com)
• Deputy Inspector Bologna Loses Ten Vacation Days for Pepper-Spray Incident (jhaines6.wordpress.com)
• NYPD cop disciplined over #OccupyWallStreet pepper spray (nextlevelofnews.com)
• Occupy Wall Street officer Anthony Bologna ‘broke pepper-spray rules’ (guardian.co.uk)
• Pepper-Spray Cop Had ‘Best Intentions’ When He Pepper-Sprayed Protesters [Occupy Wall Street] (gawker.com)