Little sympathy for 84-year-old woman pepper sprayed at Occupy protest

A dramatic picture of an 84-year-old woman pepper sprayed by police as part of Tuesday night’s Occupy Seattle protest march has gone global. But after blocking traffic during rush hour on a busy downtown Seattle street, the little old lady and the other protestors are getting little sympathy.

Seattle police ordered the protestors to disperse as dozens marched from their camp at Seattle Central Community College on Capitol Hill, and when they refused officers used pepper spray to break up the crowd.

“Pepper spray was deployed only against subjects who were either refusing a lawful order to disperse or engaging in assaultive behavior toward officers,” Seattle Police spokesman Jeff Kappel wrote on the department’s blog.Among those getting a face-full of pepper spray was 84-year-old grandmother Dorli Rainey, a well known local activist.

“I’m not in favor of pepper spraying an 84-year-old woman, but why are you there and not obeying police orders if you don’t want to be pepper sprayed?” asked 97.3 KIRO FM host Dave Ross. “Because they will do that. We’ve learned that, we’ve known that since at least 1999 and WTO.”

Protest organizers strongly criticized the police response.

One Occupy Seattle spokesman who calls himself “Karssen” admitted to 97.3 KIRO FM’s Dori Monson the protestors were not without fault, but argues police should have spoken with individuals and asked them to leave the area rather than just indiscriminately spraying what he insists were “peaceful protestors.”

“What happened last night was a debacle, ok? Nobody looked good last night. We looked stupid but the police department looked even dumber,” said Karssen.

Eyewitnesses and videos of the incident corroborate reports police ordered the crowd to disperse several times and warned pepper spray would be deployed.

“What are they supposed to do, let a bunch of protestors who don’t have a permit take over a major downtown intersection, blocking people and leaving people trapped in their cars for hours at a time just trying to get home to their families?,” asked Monson.

Police spokesman Kappel says protestors assaulted several officers, including several trying to arrest a 17-year-old woman who swung a stick at police.

But 97.3 KIRO FM’s hosts Ron and Don argue the police response was extremely restrained, pointing out the officers were in normal uniform and not riot gear and tried repeatedly to verbally break up the protest rather than taking a stronger physical action.

“They’re lucky they didn’t get bean bagged, they’re lucky they didn’t get rubber bullets, didn’t get Tazed,” said Don O’Neill. “I don’t care if you’re 8 or 84. If a cop tells you not to sit in the street, don’t sit in the street. The 84-year-old woman had it coming.”

“I applaud people for getting into the street. That’s part of our freedom,” adds co-host Ron Upshaw.

“But when you start beating an officer with a stick and then you go in to free that person when they’re getting arrested, you deserve to get pepper sprayed.”

By Josh Kerns/97.3 KIRO FM

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