Pepper Spray Hits the Media

In November 30 through December 3 of 1999, protestors in Seattle encountered a blitz of pepper spray for the first time. Police faced demonstrators gathered outside of the Seattle Convention Center. Inside, members of the World Trade Organization were meeting.

The media deluged the public with reports of officers using “tear gas, rubber bullets and pepper spray” as they tried to break up crowds of protestors. During that period television, radio and newspapers compared it to the “turbulent 1960s” and blacked out news stories far more important than vandalism and looting: “the unprecedented indiscriminate use of military weaponry on a peaceful population.”

During the first two days, police wearing riot gear shot pepper spray directly into the eyes of nonviolent protestors on a routine basis. They also fired rubber and plastic-jacketed bullets into crowds from close range. They also used armored vehicles to charge into crowds.

As ill-advised as their behavior was, the stunning part for Americans was that officers assaulted demonstrators in front of journalists and hundreds of TV news cameras. Reporters demonstrated little concern for the inappropriate behavior mainly because they mistakenly believed that police were attempting to subdue violent looters.

In fact, police assaults preceded the looting and the media clung to the belief that the acts of a few out-of-control protestors precipitated the violence. Meanwhile, the police ignored vandals but busied themselves with assaulting demonstrators who were merely blocking the entrance to the WTO meeting.

By the end of that week, everyone in America knew about the “evils of pepper spray.”