Police in Tulsa have come under scrutiny again after video emerged of a cop assaulting a man for seemingly no reason other than he was getting on the cop’s nerves.
The video, shot by a witness from a first floor window shows the police questioning people in the street while a man walks back and forth eating a bag of chips.
The man is seen gesticulating, but clearly not getting close enough to the cops to impede their activities.
After a while, one officer approaches the man casually and suddenly sprays him full in the face with pepper spray.
The man, shocked and clearly in distress, has the wherewithal to place his hands behind his back and stay still, so as not to aggravate the cop any further.
Despite posing no threat, a second cop breaks out a taser and shoots the man with it.
Some reports suggested that the cops attacked the man after he dropped a chip on the floor. This is not entirely clear from the footage.
The person who posted the video to YouTube suggests that the man was arrested on charges of obstruction of justice and resisting arrest, neither of which is evident from the footage.
The Tulsa police department was previously criticised for wantonly pepper spraying protesters at point-blank range directly in the face during the Occupy protests in 2011.
The substance is brutal, and can be deadly, which is why its use during peaceful protests is in fact outlawed.
As reported by The ACLU, “An Army study concluded that pepper spray’s active ingredient, “is capable of producing carcinogenic effects, sensitization, cardiovascular toxicity, as well as possible human fatalities.”
Police are generally not authorized to use pepper spray except in circumstances in which it is necessary to prevent physical injury to themselves or others. The video presented above, clearly show that this was not the case. The same goes for tasers. They are intended as a last resort before the use of lethal force. They are, however, now simply used as a way to enforce orders.
Tulsa police are also currently facing scrutiny after an unpaid volunteer reserve deputy shot an unarmed man at point blank range last month, claiming that he had mistaken his gun for a taser.
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Steve Watson is a London based writer and editor for Alex Jones’ Infowars.com, and Prisonplanet.com. He has a Masters Degree in International Relations from the School of Politics at The University of Nottingham, and a Bachelor Of Arts Degree in Literature and Creative Writing from Nottingham Trent University.
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