Image of Gas Attack Against Lone Brazilian Woman Goes Viral

Shocking images of police violence draw much-needed attention to protests and larger issue of police brutality

A captured instance of brazen police brutality against a civilian has, once again, grabbed the attention of the global community. The shocking photograph of a lone woman being pepper sprayed at close range by Brazilian police has gone viral, drawing criticism and attention to the ongoing mass demonstrations in Brazil—at which the attack took place—and the chronic undercurrent of police violence that so often follows peaceful citizen uprisings.

New York Magazine's Daily Intelligencer spoke with the photographer behind the image, Victor Caivano, who said , long after "the protest was over, riots included."that the attack happened at around 11:20 Monday evening

The woman appeared to be a "normal, middle-class university student," he said, adding that she was standing alone on a "deserted corner" after the police had cleared the area.

He continued:

Three riot officers approached the woman and told her to leave. When she objected — the woman either questioned the order or insisted that she wasn't doing anything wrong, Caivano recalls — she was pepper-sprayed. "This policeman just didn't think twice," Caivano says.

The woman stumbled backward, "screaming and cursing." She was detained and taken to a police van. Caivano says local reporters are now trying to track her down.

The photograph has drawn obvious comparison to two similar images of the unbridled use of pepper spray, each encapsulating the fierce police brutality that too often goes hand-in-hand with such demonstrations.

One is of a woman named Ceyda Sungur—the 'woman in the red dress'—who, during arecent protest in Istanbul's Gezi Park, was bombarded by an officer who shot pepper spray directly into her face.

Ceyda Sungur is gassed in Gezi Park in Istanbul, Turkey on June 4, 2013. (Screenshot via Osman Orsal /YouTube)

"The jet sent her hair billowing upwards," wrote the Guardian at the time. "As she turned, the masked policeman leapt forward and hosed down her back. The unprovoked attack left her and other activists choking and gasping for breath; afterwards Sungur collapsed on a bench."

The second image is of the infamous incident at the University of California at Davis when a peaceful Occupy protest was met with an overly aggressive show of police force. This culminated in Officer John Pike directly and deliberately spraying burning yellow chemicals into the faces of the protesters.

"To see unarmed, unaggressive bystanders who, by virtue of their location at a time and place where trouble was brewing, were assaulted by authority figures spraying burning, toxic, chemicals, is an unforgettable visual," writes columnist Lorraine Devon Wilke. She continues:

Likely there are many more that occur every day; these particular ones exist as iconic moments that symbolize bigger movements, of countries, of people, even of students. These images are important historical documents of what happened, how, and to whom. Hopefully they will contribute, by sheer virtue of their shock value, to change, progress, and needed solutions; the agony of those attacked has to account for something of value. More

One has to question who our countries actually belong to, for if this is how citizens are treated it certainly does not belong to us. Editor

 

Al Gore's Climate Reality Workshop, Istanbul 2013

Having arrived in Istanbul on June 12 at midnight and checked into my hotel, the Sultan House in Sultan Ahmed I have not had a dull minute.

I spent Thursday exploring the Old City and revisiting places I had first visited in 1976. I had lunch at the Pudding Shop and then went the Blue Mosque, Aya Sophia and the Grand Bazaar. Since then I have had long days in Al Gore's Climate Reality Leadership Training course http://climaterealityproject.org/leadership-corps/

Tonight I am having a good meal of lamb chops. They were very good, served with bread and rice, chillies and tomatos. The tomatos were so good, sweet with great taste, not like you get in the west! If in Sultan Ahmad try the

This morning in trying to get to to the conference venue at Istambul Congress Centre http://www.iccistanbul.com/planing/location/ was some what difficult by taxi as many of the roads neat Taksim Square were closed by burning barricades. So my taxi driver said 'Get out and walk, only fifteen minutes. So I paid him off and started walking. My eyes soon started burning and not having any, what looked like swimmer's goggles, tears were running down my face. All is can say is that it clears the sinus's very well, that being said I don't recomment it. I got to the conference only five minutes late. The organizers closed the event early as attendees were unsure of the difficulties they may face going back to their hotels, many of which were in the Taksim area. Many of them had spent the night in hotel lobbies and friends apartments.

This was actually a good move as the security forces were already moving in. I high-tailed it back to Sultan Ahmad where everything was calm.

The BBC is saying Fresh unrest has erupted in Ankara and Istanbul, with police firing tear gas and water cannon amid continuing anti-government protests. The unrest flared as PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan's supporters gathered for a huge show of strength in Istanbul. Some local reports are stating that security forces are mixing pepper spray into the water cannon reservoir.

Tomorrow will be a relaxing day. I need to go to the Grand Bazaar to look for Evil Eye pendants.The Turkish Evil Eye Pendant or the Nazar Boncugu, which literally means the "evil eye bead", is actually a stone bead, which is worn to protect oneself from evil looks. The stone is an amalgamation of molten glass, iron, copper, water and salt. This particular combination of minerals and metals is believed to provide a shield from the forces of evil.

 

Istanbul: Here I come

I am off to Istanbul tomorrow to join the Climate Reality Leadership Corps with former Vice-President Al Gore. I want to help change the world and raise awareness of climate change. After four years of trying I have finally been invited to undertake the training.

All around the world, members of the Climate Reality Leadership Corps trained by Chairman and former Vice President Al Gore are standing up and making a difference on the climate crisis. They’re leading by example, speaking to their communities about how climate change affects their daily lives—and what we can do to solve it. They’re appearing in the media, activating social networks, and—most of all—inspiring people everywhere to join us in confronting the defining issue of our time.

I have not been in Istanbul since 1976 so it will be good to be back and revisit some of the wonderful places to see. I am staying in the old city close to the Blue Mosque. One of the other places I want to see is the Basilica Cistern given my interest in water harvesting and storage.

This cathedral-size cistern is an underground chamber approximately 138 metres (453 ft) by 64.6 metres (212 ft)^[5] - about 9,800 square metres (105,000 sq ft) in area - capable of holding 80,000 cubic metres (2,800,000 cu ft) of water. The ceiling is supported by a forest of 336 marble columns, each 9 metres (30 ft) high, arranged in 12 rows of 28 columns each spaced 4.9 metres (16 ft) apart. The capitals of the columns are mainly Ionic and Corinthianstyles, with the exception of a few Doric style with no engravings. One of the columns is engraved with raised pictures of a Hen's Eye, slanted braches, and tears. This column resembles the columns of the Triumphal Arch of Theodosius I from the 4th century (AD 379-395), erected in the 'Forum Tauri' Square. Ancient texts suggest that the tears on the column pay tribute to the hundreds of slaves who died during the construction of the Basilica Cistern. The majority of the columns in the cistern appear to have been recycled from the ruins of older buildings (a process called 'spoliation'), likely brought to Constantinople from various parts of the empire, together with those that were used in the construction of Hagia Sophia. They are carved and engraved out of various types of marble and granite.^[6]

Fifty-two stone steps descend into the entrance of the cistern. The cistern is surrounded by afirebrick wall with a thickness of 4 metres (13 ft) and coated with a waterproofing mortar. The Basilica Cistern's water came from the Eğrikapı Water Distribution Center in the Belgrade Forest, which lie 19 kilometres (12 mi) north of the city. It traveled through the 971 metres (3,186 ft)-long Valens (Bozdoğan) Aqueduct, and the 115.45 metres (378.8 ft)-long Mağlova Aqueduct, which was built by the Emperor Justinian.^[7]

The cistern has the capacity to store 100,000 tons of water, despite being virtually empty today with only a few feet of water lining the bottom.

The weight of the cistern lies on the columns by means of the cross-shaped vaults and round arches of its roof.

The Basilica Cistern has undergone several restorations since its foundation. The first of the repairs were carried out twice during the Ottoman State in the 18th century during the reign of Ahmed III in 1723 by the architect Muhammad Agha of Kayseri. The second major repair was completed during the 19th century during the reign of Sultan Abdulhamid II (1876–1909). Cracks to masonry and damaged columns were repaired in 1968, with additional restoration in 1985 by the Istanbul Metropolitan Museum. During the 1985 restoration, 50,000 tons of mud were removed from the cisterns, and a platforms built throughout to replace the boats once used to tour the cistern. The cistern was opened to the public in its current condition on 9 September 1987. In May 1994, the cistern underwent additional cleaning.

I believe that water security is going to be a large issue in the future and have been unfertaking a sturdy of of traditional methods of harvesting and storing water, methods with do not require huge amounts of energy.