Occupy Seattle: Interview with 84-Year-Old Pepper Sprayed by Police

November 17, 2011 from Democracy Now!

Police departments across the country are coming under criticism for using excessive force against Occupy Wall Street protesters during the past two months. In Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn apologized Wednesday, hours after an 84-year-old retired Seattle school teacher named Dorli Rainey was pepper sprayed in the face during a protest. Photographs of her moments after she was pepper sprayed went viral, showing the chemical irritant and liquid used to treat it dripping from her chin. According to Occupy Seattle organizers, a priest and a pregnant teenager were also pepper sprayed Tuesday night. Dorli Rainey joins us from Seattle. "My problem is not only with police brutality," Rainey says. "It is with the progressively worse attitude of the police."

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In This Video

Occupy Seattle

Occupy Seattle is an ongoing collaboration that has included direct action demonstration with occasional activity at Westlake Park and Seattle City Hall in downtown Seattle, Washington. Occupy Seattle is inspired by the Occupy Wall Street protests in New York City in September... Explore this topic

Occupy movement

The "Occupy" protests are an ongoing series of international protests which began in mid-September 2011 and are primarily against social and economic inequality, corporate greed and influence of corporate money and lobbyists on government. The protests take their name from the... Explore this topic

Police brutality

Police brutality is the abuse of authority by the unwarranted infliction of excessive force by personnel involved in various aspects of law enforcement while in performance of their official duties. The term is also applied to abuses by corrections personnel in municipal, stat... Explore this topic

Pepper spray

Pepper spray, also known as OC spray, OC gas, and capsicum spray, is a lachrymatory agent used in policing, riot control, crowd control, and personal self-defense, including defense against dogs and bears. Its inflammatory effects cause the eyes to close, taking away vision. T... Explore this topic

Dorli Rainey

Dorli Rainey is an American protester famous for being pepper-sprayed in the face at age 84 during the 2011 Occupy Seattle protests. Explore this topic

Michael McGinn

Michael "Mike" Patrick McGinn is the mayor of Seattle, a lawyer, Greenwood neighborhood activist, and a former Sierra Club state chair. In what was characterized as a "sea change in the power structure of Seattle", McGinn differentiated his campaign by his opposition to the pr... Explore this topic

Protest

An act of defiance or objection by an individual or group of people. Protests can take many forms: peaceful or violent, direct or indirect, large or small. Protests in the news are often political in nature, as groups of citizens voice their disagreement or dissatisfaction. Pr... Explore this topic

Seattle

Seattle is a major coastal seaport and the seat of King County, in the U.S. state of Washington. With an estimated 620,778 residents as of 2011, Seattle is the largest city in the Pacific Northwest region of North America and the largest city on the West Coast north of San Fra... Explore this topic

Street protester

Street protesting is a form of individual public demonstration, more prevalent in larger cities. Characteristically, street protesters work alone, gravitating towards areas of high foot traffic, and employing handmade placards such as sandwich boards or picket signs in order t... Explore this topic

Senior citizen

Senior citizen is a common polite designation for an elderly person in both UK and US English, and it implies or means that the person is retired. This in turn usually implies or in fact means that the person is over the retirement age, which varies according to country. Synon... Explore this topic

Also See

Occupy movement

Occupy Seattle

Police brutality

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