NYPD and the Force Continuum
by James on Oct.06, 2011, under News
Here is another video coming out of the protests on Wall Street in New York City, in this video, a reporter and camera man for the local Fox affiliate are injured by a police officer during the protest.
One thing that I found interesting in this video is the police officer’s (captain in the white shirt) use of force. Most police, including the NYPD train with what is known as the Force Continuum (or Continuum of Force, etc). It details how violence escalates and which actions are to be used and it what order. I could not find an online source for the NYPD’s guide (though it is apparently on page 7 of the NYPD Academy textbook), typically you are supposed to use OC spray (pepper spray) before you start striking people with batons. This is because OC spray does no lasting harm while a baton can cause bruises, broken bones, and internal bleeding.
The other thing I found interesting is how the officer is swinging almost at random, frequently striking people in the back who are either trying to escape or are unaware of his presence.
On a final note with regards to the pepper spray itself. According to the Report of the Pepper Spray Committee (pdf), NYPD Patrol manual states that: “They are taught not to fire the spray from within three feet of subjects, not to use the spray on a windy day, and not to use OC in group settings or for crowd control; they are trained to fire a maximum of two one-second bursts of the spray.”
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