Occupy Seattle hasn't been getting as much national attention as other protests like Occupy Oakland and Occupy Wall Street, but today, Jezebel (an affiliate of Gawker) rectified the situation. What got their attention was the pepper-spraying by Seattle police of 84-year-old activist Dorli Rainey, a longtime fixture at City Hall who opposed the deep-bore tunnel and briefly ran for mayor in 2009.

Jezebel's Anna North writes:

[O]n Tuesday, marching Occupy protesters clashed with police on bicycles, who pepper-sprayed about twelve of them, including a pregnant woman, a priest, and 84-year-old Dorli Rainey. Seattle police spokesman Jeff Kappel says, "Pepper spray was deployed only against subjects who were either refusing a lawful order to disperse or engaging in assaultive behavior toward officers."

If protesters pose a physical threat to police or civilians, then police obviously need to act. But in several instances, they seem to have acted in the absence of such a threat — was 4-foot-10-inch octogenarian Dorli Rainey really perpetrating a dangerous assault? And in other cases, they've failed to protect protesters themselves, as when they refused to cite the driver who hit pregnant Brandy Sippel and her family. Dealing with Occupy protests has been an important test of officers' ability to keep protesters and others safe while guaranteeing free speech for all. Unfortunately, some police forces are failing.

PubliCola covered last night's clashes between protesters and police, including the fact that Rainey got pepper sprayed,  in Fizz this morning.