About 100 Darth Vader-like riot cops pounding on their shields marched up to the group sitting in. The rest of the crowd tried to move in but were prevented by a phalanx of riot police. These enormous cops could have picked up those young women with one finger and moved them out of the way. Instead they sprayed them. Not a few feet from them as Dr. Pepper did in Vancouver during the APEC, but directly into their faces, less than an inch from their eyes.
Pepper spray is nasty stuff.
I got some in my throat and was coughing for hours. There was no need for the pepper spray. The police knew there was no danger. There had been no violence from the demonstrators all day. The only violence came from the police.