Pepper Spray

LOS ANGELES - A woman suspected of showering Black Friday shoppers with pepper spray surrendered to authorities but was released pending further investigation after she refused to discuss the incident, police said Saturday. The woman, whose name was not released, is suspected of firing pepper spray into a crowd in order to clear a path to a crate of Xbox video game players that were being unwrapped late Thanksgiving night at a Wal-Mart in the upscale Porter Ranch section of the San Fernando Valley.

SAN FRANCISCO - "Chilling" video images surfaced online Saturday showing an officer at a California university calmly pepper-spraying a line of several sitting protesters, who flinch and cover their faces but remain passive with their arms interlocked as onlookers shriek and scream out for the officer to stop. The chancellor of the University of California, Davis, said she was forming a task force to investigate even as a university faculty group called for her resignation because of the incident Friday.

Using pepper spray on a man he thought was a robber cost a 48-year-old South Philadelphia man his life. Tony Campbell, of Leithgow Street near Carpenter, never recovered from a beating on Manton Street near 4th on July 18. Campbell died of "multiple injuries" on Oct. 26, said Assistant District Attorney Kenneth McDaniel. He was battered after spraying Chevez Holden, 19, following an argument and fistfight at about 11:30 p.m. This week, Holden, of Morris Street near 7th, was ordered to stand trial on a murder charge following a preliminary hearing before Municipal Judge Frank T. Brady.

Wall Street protesters, joined Tuesday by Oscar-winning actress Susan Sarandon, vowed to continue weeks of demonstrations after police squirted pepper spray at some participants and arrests mounted. About 100 people camped out with mattresses and sleeping bags in Zuccotti Park as demonstrations against what they called greed by financial-services firms and social inequality continued for an 11th day. Sarandon, who appeared last year in Oliver Stone's Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps , toured an area that includes a makeshift kitchen and library with titles such as The Wage Slave's Glossary and Nickel and Dimed: On (Not)

Henry School in Philadelphia was temporarily evacuated this afternoon and 15 students and five adults were treated for exposure to pepper spray, school district spokeswoman Shana Kemp said. Philadelphia police are investigating how the spray was released in the school just outside the cafeteria about 12:50 p.m., as students were leaving lunch. "We're not sure if it was a student or an adult. We think it could have been a student," Kemp said. It was the second case today of pepper spray being released at the school at 601 Carpenter Lane in West Mount Airy.

Twenty-three students and two teachers at the Hatch Middle School in Camden were treated at three hospitals yesterday after authorities say a 15-year-old student discharged a canister of pepper spray in a classroom. The youth was arrested and charged with juvenile delinquency. He was being held in the Camden County Youth Detention Center pending a hearing in Camden County Superior Court's Family Division. Lt. Joseph Richardson, a police spokesman, said the incident occurred at 12:30 p.m. in a second-floor classroom at the school, in the Parkside section at Euclid Avenue and Park Boulevard.

HOMICIDE detectives are investigating how a 48-year-old man died in SEPTA police custody after officers sprayed him with pepper spray Friday night. A sergeant in the Homicide Unit said SEPTA police responded to a call of a theft at the Wayne Junction rail yard, on Windrim Avenue near 18th Street in Logan, where they spotted Willie McCray, who had allegedly trespassed onto the property. Police said McCray ran from the officers and hid in bushes nearby, then grabbed an officer when he was approached.

The Federal Aviation Administration says it's now OK for passengers to pack small containers of pepper spray in their checked bags. The agency revised its restriction on self-defense sprays in response to requests from passengers and flight crews who want the protection once they reach their destinations. The agency noted that the new allowance makes it unnecessary for passengers to bring the sprays into aircraft cabins where any release could hurt passengers and incapacitate flight crews.

A mysterious release of pepper spray at a Wendy's restaurant in Northeast Philadelphia sent 41 people to hospitals yesterday. City police and the Fire Marshal's Office were trying to determine whether the incident was accidental or intentional, Capt. Mike Carroll, a fire department spokesman, said last night. No one was seriously injured, Police Lt. Mark Bugieda said. Carroll said emergency medical technicians responded to a report of fumes at Wendy's at 2:18 p.m., and a woman at the restaurant complained of nausea.

The Henry School in Philadelphia was temporarily evacuated Tuesday afternoon, and 15 students and five adults were treated for exposure to pepper spray, school district spokeswoman Shana Kemp said. Philadelphia police are investigating how the spray was released in the school just outside the cafeteria about 12:50 p.m., as students were leaving lunch. "We're not sure if it was a student or an adult. We think it could have been a student," Kemp said. It was the second time that day that pepper spray was released at the school at 601 Carpenter Lane in West Mount Airy.

NOTRE DAME quarterback Tommy Rees was pepper-sprayed and arrested early Thursday after he allegedly ran from away from an off-campus party and knocked the wind out of a police officer who caught up to him. A probable cause affidavit says the 6-2, 210-pound Rees continued to resist even after being knocked down by police officer Brandon Stec , so Stec used pepper spray and was finally able to subdue him with the help of other officers....

Residents were evacuated from two floors of a Rittenhouse Square apartment building today after an unusual odor was detected on the seventh floor. Eight people - seven women, a man and a child - were taken to area hospitals complaining of throat irritation, officials said. One resident compared the sensation to pepper spray. About 30 people were evacuated from the seventh and eighth floors of the building at 201S. 18th St. before the situation was declared under control around 11 a.m. Fire Department Hazmat Unit members donned protective gear before heading to the 25th Floor for a top to down search for the source of the odor.

LOS ANGELES - A woman suspected of showering Black Friday shoppers with pepper spray surrendered to authorities but was released pending further investigation after she refused to discuss the incident, police said Saturday. The woman, whose name was not released, is suspected of firing pepper spray into a crowd in order to clear a path to a crate of Xbox video game players that were being unwrapped late Thanksgiving night at a Wal-Mart in the upscale Porter Ranch section of the San Fernando Valley.

BEING A BIT of a contrarian (what, you're surprised?) I tend to approach Thanksgiving week in a slightly unorthodox way. Instead of tallying all those things that I'm grateful to have, I ruminate on those I don't. This is not to say that I engage in some Occupy Depression mentality, where I long for things that belong only to the 1 percent (including Demi Moore, Michael Moore and Ivana Get Moore). No, it's more of an attempt to remember why life is so good in my part of the world by thinking about how much worse it could be. For example, we don't have a Congress or president who seem to be able to get along on the most basic issues, including health care, the deficit, immigration and our military preparedness.

HISTORY CAN only imagine what the late Abbie Hoffman and his Yippies of the 1960s might have produced if they had technology like Photoshop or Tumblr blogs. But in 2011, we all can give holiday thanks for what supporters of Occupy Wall Street have cooked up in the wake of Friday's viral-on-the-Internet pepper-spraying episode - proof that satire may be the best form of social protest. On Tumblr blogs like peppersprayingcop.tumblr.com - where these photos and many more can be found - virtual graffiti artists have repainted Lt. John Pike, of the University of California-Davis campus police, across the broad canvas of history, from Michaelangelo's "The Creation of Adam" to Pink Floyd's "Dark Side of the Moon.

SAN FRANCISCO - "Chilling" video images surfaced online Saturday showing an officer at a California university calmly pepper-spraying a line of several sitting protesters, who flinch and cover their faces but remain passive with their arms interlocked as onlookers shriek and scream out for the officer to stop. The chancellor of the University of California, Davis, said she was forming a task force to investigate even as a university faculty group called for her resignation because of the incident Friday.

NEW YORK - After a month of bashing banks and other corporations, the Occupy Wall Street movement has had to become a money manager itself. It has $435,000 - most of it from online credit-card donations, but tens of thousands donated in person at the Manhattan park that has become the epicenter of the global "anti-greed" protests. Handling the money, and figuring out what to do with it, could be one of the biggest challenges for a movement united by anger more than by strategy, and devoted to building consensus among activists with wide-ranging goals.

Wall Street protesters, joined Tuesday by Oscar-winning actress Susan Sarandon, vowed to continue weeks of demonstrations after police squirted pepper spray at some participants and arrests mounted. About 100 people camped out with mattresses and sleeping bags in Zuccotti Park as demonstrations against what they called greed by financial-services firms and social inequality continued for an 11th day. Sarandon, who appeared last year in Oliver Stone's Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps , toured an area that includes a makeshift kitchen and library with titles such as The Wage Slave's Glossary and Nickel and Dimed: On (Not)

HOMICIDE detectives are investigating how a 48-year-old man died in SEPTA police custody after officers sprayed him with pepper spray Friday night. A sergeant in the Homicide Unit said SEPTA police responded to a call of a theft at the Wayne Junction rail yard, on Windrim Avenue near 18th Street in Logan, where they spotted Willie McCray, who had allegedly trespassed onto the property. Police said McCray ran from the officers and hid in bushes nearby, then grabbed an officer when he was approached.

EDNA, Texas - A former Texas prison-kitchen employee suspected of a being a serial rapist who targeted older women was convicted yesterday of sexually assaulting a disabled woman. Jurors rejected claims by Billy Joe Harris, 54, that he suffers from multiple-personality disorder and found him guilty on one sexual-assault count related to the January rape of a 59-year-old disabled woman in Edna, about 100 miles southwest of Houston. The jury deliberated for just five minutes before returning its verdict, the Victoria Advocate reported.