PREGNANT AND ELDERLY AMONG PEPPER SPRAYED

PREGNANT TEEN, ELDERLY WOMAN AMONG 
OCCUPY PROTESTERS HIT WITH PEPPER SPRAY 

Seattle (AP) - A downtown march and rally in support of the Occupy Wall Street movement turned briefly chaotic as police scattered a crowd of rowdy protesters with blasts of pepper spray.  Protest organizers denounced the use of force, saying that police indiscriminately sprayed the chemical irritant at peaceful protesters.  The Occupy Seattle movement released a written statement late Tuesday expressing support for “a 4-foot 10-inch, 84-year-old woman, a priest and a pregnant woman who as of this writing is still in the hospital.”  Dorli Rainey is an activist who has supported liberal causes in the Seattle area for decades. A photo showing Rainey being cared for by fellow activists in the immediate aftermath of the police incident appeared on news websites around the world.  Seattle police spokesman Jeff Kappel said pepper spray is “is not age specific. No more dangerous to someone who is 10 or someone who is 80.”

He added, that if it were harmful, “we probably wouldn’t be using pepper spray if that was the case.”  Kappel said police had not yet established whether a pregnant woman was involved.  Paramedics examined a handful of people, including a 19-year-old woman who was three-months pregnant.  Seattle police said plenty of verbal warnings were given to demonstrators attempting to block intersections and streets during rush hour.  “Pepper spray was deployed only against subjects who were either refusing a lawful order to disperse or engaging in assaultive behavior toward officers,” said Kappel.  Authorities arrested at least six people before quickly restoring order.  Occupy Seattle moved its encampment to Seattle Central Community College late October.  Occupy Seattle organizers said the downtown march was in solidarity with other Occupy Wall Street protests around the nation.

Occupy Seattle, while demonstrating in solidarity with the besieged protesters in New York City, faced a volley of indiscriminate police pepper spray last night - including a pregnant 19-year-old and an 84-year-old activist.  Protest organizers denounced the use of force, saying that police indiscriminately sprayed the chemical irritant at peaceful protesters and hit even a priest and several teenagers with mace.  There is generally a fragile balance between personal relationships because they do not respect life neither the lives of others.

WHAT DO THE VEDIC TEACHINGS TELL US?

Spiritual life is the science of wonderful relationships based on love. One of our main problems in this world is that we scarcely have good and loving relationships. ... We are born into a world where relationships are not based on respect. Man is merely a number, customer or object of enjoyment. Children don’t listen to their parents, and parents only respect them insofar as career and success can be expected. Hardly anyone cares for the elders. Females enjoy attention only while they are sexually attractive. Leaders don’t respect their constituents. The government does not care for the citizens and the police is established mainly for protecting the valuables of the rich from all those who have nothing. But we still try to understand the love that may connect us from soul to soul. In the Vedas, spiritual relationship is called nitya-sambandha, “eternal relationship”.

Śrīla Bhakti Aloka Paramadvaiti Mahārāja :
“The Science of Relationships”
Lecture given in Hungary, Nandafalva Mela, 2002.
http://vedicwisdom.weebly.com/index.html
http://www.vrindanews.com/nectar/science_of_relationships.html