Which is fine. And police across the US have managed to do this with linked protesters on thousands of occasions with spraying pepper spray in their eyes.Yeah, they were illegally blocking the path which is what they were being arrested for.
Sure.After being repeatedly warned that they would be arrested if they didn't move.
If they'd been warned they would be shot, would that have then be OK, because not moving is tacit approval? No. It was misuse of the spray and it is part of a pattern where police use more force and more devices.And then were warned they would be sprayed, before they were in fact sprayed (from a reasonable distance).
These protesters are linked on the ground. There is no reason to assume violent response and good indications to expect passive resistence. Again, police manage this in many situations. If you are speeding and the police think you are drunk, they don't get to spray you before asking you to step out of the car, even though, yes, you might have a gun or knife. They are big boys who are armed and standing over college students. If they couldn't handle this situation without the pepparspray then they need training from those police who have managed the exact same type of situation without it.Not at all.
When arresting people in a group like that you don't know who you are dealing with and pepper spray tends to make the arrest go easier and much less likely that someone can mount an effective counter attack, you know, with a knife or gun.
No, but they should not raise the level of violence. If the real goal is to reduce the liklihood of violence raising the level is not smart. The ones who had the knives and guns would just use them before they got sprayed, and feel more entitled to.You think the police should presume that the people are all going to be peaceful?
Yeah, and how many in the history of the US were killed arresting college students, llinked on the ground with their heads down? None, I'll bet.160 police officers were killed in 2010, and 59 of them were in shootouts.
They could minimize it even more with a machine gun. They don't get to be violent preemtively. That is part of their jobs. I've seen active criminals arrested with much less violence: purse snatchers, gate crashers, car theives, etc.So no, police arrests are handled in a way to minimize the risk to the officers even if that means some discomfort to the protestors.