Bid to put limit on pepper spray: 8 Humboldt County activists ask judge ..

[struggle4progress]

.. to ban use at protests

The eight anti-logging protesters who won a jury verdict, and $8 in damages, for having their eyes swabbed with liquid pepper spray will now ask a federal judge to ban police use of the caustic chemical against nonviolent demonstrators in Humboldt County.

The April 28 verdict in San Francisco established that officers had used excessive force during three 1997 protests, in violation of the demonstrators' constitutional rights, but imposed no legal restraints on police conduct, said William Simpich, a lawyer for the plaintiffs.

"We need injunctive relief because we don't want to see this happen again, '' Simpich said. "The verdict sends a political message, but we want a legal message as well.''

He said his clients would ask U.S. District Judge Susan Illston for an injunction that would prohibit Humboldt County sheriff's deputies and Eureka police from using pepper spray to dislodge protesters who have chained themselves to one another or to objects on the premises during sit-ins. <snip>

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/05/09/BAGRCCM4F81.DTL&sn=003&sc=780

[DS1]

1. A dollar each

There's nothing that pisses me off more than some scumfuck judges that do nothing but slurp the balls of the mightly local PD, and let them off after crap like this.

edit: Well, of course there's stuff that pisses me off more than that, but it's up there! George is getting UPSET!

[DoNotRefill]

2. Well, at least they are going to stop using Q-tips....

and start applying the pepper spray with cotton gauze instead...

No, I'm not joking. RTFA.

[NorCalDem]

3. If anyone saw the video of that on the Daily Show the one day,

It was nasty. I was so disgusted I almost f**king cried!