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Clashes mar Occupy Wall Street protests
Thousands of demonstrators have taken to the streets in the US to raise their voices against what they say is corporate excess. But after police in riot helmets swept them from their original encampment this week, Occupy Wall Street protesters are singling out officers as another enemy, saying their crowd control tactics were an excessive use of force against free speech.
“Police Brutality,” protesters’ signs blared Thursday, in a day of protests across the country to mark the two-month mark of the Occupy movement.
New York officials have called for investigations of the police raid of Zuccotti Park in lower Manhattan early Tuesday.
“The police played their role. I wouldn’t call it respectful,” said Danny Shaw, 33, on Thursday.
The image of an 84-year-old woman who was tear-gassed in the face in Oakland, California, and hundreds of arrests of demonstrators and journalists at protests across the U.S. this week shone the spotlight on the crowd control tactics of police who broke up encampments in New York and other cities.
Experts on policing say departments have used necessary tactics to control unpredictable, sometimes violent protesters, and that the police haven’t yet reached the stages of full riot protection.
“I don’t think they’re rioting at Occupy Wall Street, not yet, but they are getting out of control,” said Maki Haberfeld, a professor of police studies at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York. “If they were rioting, you would see much more riot gear” like sonic devices and high-powered weapons, she said.
“When somebody puts their hands on somebody itself, it never looks right,” Haberfeld said. “But this is what they’re allowed to do. ... It is truly not excessive, and I am surprised by how not excessive it is.”
