What incidents are the lawsuit based on?
The federal civil rights lawsuit claims law enforcement used unlawful excessive force against non-violent forest activists in three incidents in the fall of 1997. The activists were engaged in peaceful sit-ins with their arms locked to one another inside metal sleeves designed to prolong the demonstrations. Using a tactic never before used anywhere, county sheriff’s deputies stuck pepper spray drenched Q-tips into the protesters’ eyes to try to coerce them to unlock. When most of the protesters still held fast, officers applied a second dose of the searing chemical agent, and then sprayed some of them directly in the eyes with canisters held a few inches from their faces. Where and when did these incidents happen? They happened in Humboldt County, California, in the Coast Redwood forest region about 200 miles north of San Francisco. The first incident occurred on September 25, 1997, in the office lobby of Pacific Lumber in Scotia, the second was at a Pacific Lumber logging site in Bear
