nypd : jerks?

i actually stumbled onto this scene saturday afternoon, and while i didn't know exactly what was going on, the police response seemed a little excessive for what was a relatively small group of nonviolent protesters on 12th street. here's the follow-up on the particular pepper spray incident:

When members of the loose protest movement known as Occupy Wall Street began a march from the financial district to Union Square on Saturday, the participants seemed relatively harmless, even as they were breaking the law by marching in the street without a permit.

But to the New York Police Department, the protesters represented something else: a visible example of lawlessness akin to that which had resulted in destruction and violence at other anticapitalist demonstrations, like the Group of 20 economic summit meeting in London in 2009 and the World Trade Organization meeting in Seattle in 1999. (via)