Police Pepper Sprayed Babies, Lawsuit Claims

Marilyn Taylor is accused of jumping subway fare.

Police brutality stories are legion, and the epidemic of hostile encounters is only increasing as police become increasingly militarized. The mindset between a true law enforcement officer and those who view their terrain as a battlefield cannot be overstated. Beyond all of their new toys to inflict “distress,” a.k.a. non-lethal weapons, the minds of many police have been brainwashed to perceive a constant state of threat when interacting with the public.

Most of us remember the line of seated peaceful protesters at U.C. Davis doused with pepper spray by police. Or who could forget the image of female protesters being sprayed like bugs by this thug in a police outfit while they were already in an enclosed area during Occupy Wall Street?

These are acts of sadism, pure and simple. Well, sadism rarely knows any bounds . . . nor does a police state. Enter the latest police brutality horror story . . . .

Marilyn Taylor is suing the City of New York, the NYPD and Officers Maripily Clase, Suranjit Dey and Jermaine Hodge in Federal Court on behalf of her family after an incident at a New York subway put them in confrontation with police officers.

The officers stopped her on suspicion of skipping a fare because they saw her pushing the stroller through a service entrance rather than the turnstile, Taylor says in the complaint.

“The aggressiveness of the officers’ demeanors had upset the four-year-old daughter, and her mother bent down to console her and tell her, ‘everything will be OK,” the complaint states.

But everything was not OK. Taylor says Officer Dey pepper-sprayed her, causing her to fall to her knees and nearly fall from the platform. She says the spray hit every member of the family.

“The pepper-spray caused the children to scream out and choked the two-year old, who went into fits of vomiting,” the complaint states.

“Ms. Taylor was then placed in handcuffs as the minor children cried in fear and pain.”

While many adults have become inured to tales of police brutality . . . and even have come to expect such a possibility upon their persons, this complaint also address the impact upon the emotional development of children who are subjected to being raised within a police state:

(Taylor) says she and the children needed medical attention because of the lingering effects of the spray.

“After the attack, mother and father suffered ongoing eye injuries and all three children suffer emotional harms, and are now afraid to ride the subways and become afraid when they see police officers. The four year-old cried herself to sleep for weeks, and after the incident the two-year-old began waking up in the night crying for her mother,” the complaint states.

Those who tend to make excuses for such police behavior might play Devil’s Advocate by citing some provocation, or perhaps some overzealousness. Or, perhaps upon reflection the officers might feel some remorse. Apparently not:

Taylor claims that the officers have continued to harass her family.

“Since the incident, plaintiffs have suffered repeated harassment from the officer defendants, forcing them to avoid the MTA through the Atlantic Avenue stop,” the complaint states.

The family seeks punitive damages for civil rights violations, assault, battery, negligence, and violations to the state and federal constitutions,”

Naturally, this case must be decided upon in a court of law, and the defense should have their say. But given the progression of out-of-control police behavior, this is just the type of story that has to make us wonder what is next?

Note: Pepper spray is supposed to be relatively benign, especially according to Megyn Kelly of Fox News who has infamously stated that it’s an all-natural product, so what’s the problem? Sayer Ji, however, countered her health tip with a compelling article that shows how pepper or not — it is still a potentially lethal chemical weapon. Regardless, one would rightly assume it’s not recommended for use on babies.

Here is what the creator of pepper spray has to say about how his chemical invention is being used: