No Pepper Spray
updated 2/19/03
Police Video Shows Pepper Spray Torture
A shocking police video shows deputies swabbing liquid pepper spray directly in the eye of nonviolent protester Jennifer Schneider, whose arms were locked to those of adjacent protesters. The forest activists were conducting a sit-in in the Eureka, California office of then Congressman Frank Riggs. When the video was broadcast nationwide and overseas by the national TV networks, there was almost universal outrage and criticism of the police tactics in this case. Editorials in the San Francisco Examiner, the San Francisco Chronicle, the San Jose Mercury-News, the Jasper (Wyoming) Star-Tribune, and a press release by Amnesty International all condemned it as torture.
More scenes from the shocking police videos which brought international outrage and condemnation on the Humboldt County Sheriff's Office.
Terri Slanetz (left) is pepper sprayed directly in the eyes from only 2-3 inches away, risking permanent injury to her eyes.
Deputies pepper sprayed Mike McCurdy (above) and Noel Tendick directly in the eyes at close range while they were locked together through the tracks of a Pacific Lumber bulldozer on an old-growth redwood logging site. The activists endured the torture and did not unlock. Deputies safely cut them loose with a portable grinder, as they could have done without using pepper spray, and as they had done for years previously.
