Sometimes "what is standard procedure" is the scandal:

"When you start picking up human bodies, you risk hurting them," Kelly said. "Bodies don't have handles on them."

http://tinyurl.com/7hk3rca

I can't see any legitimate basis for police action like what is shown here. Watch that first minute and think how we'd react if we saw it coming from some riot-control unit in China, or in Syria. The calm of the officer who walks up and in a leisurely way pepper-sprays unarmed and passive people right in the face? We'd think: this is what happens when authority is unaccountable and has lost any sense of human connection to a subject population. That's what I think here.

Less than two months ago, it seemed shocking when one NYPD officer cavalierly walked up to a group of female protestors and pepper-sprayed them in the eyes. The UC Davis pepper-sprayer doesn't slink away, as his NYPD counterpart did, but in every other way this is more coldly brutal. And by the way, when did we accept the idea that local police forces would always dress up in riot gear that used to be associated with storm troopers and dystopian sci-fi movies?

Maybe it's time to Occupy more than Wall Street. I mean, I see that it's all wound together. I really do appreciate the focus on crony capitalism and the revolving door between Washington D.C. and Wall Street. But the increasingly scary portrait of an ever more powerful, unhampered system of law enforcement really does worry me. These incidents illustrate why it should worry everyone, regardless of your class or political stripe.

Consider what has precipitated the vast majority of the disorderly conduct arrests in this movement: using a megaphone, writing on the sidewalk with chalk, marching in the street (and Brooklyn Bridge), standing in line at a bank to close an account (a financial boycott, in essence) and occupying a park after its closing. These are all peaceful forms of political expression. To the police, however, they are all disorderly conduct.

anything can be used as a weapon, it needn't be a gun or knife. a rock or stick, propelled with sufficient force, can cause an awful lot of physical damage, even death. a well sharpened branch, applied with enough force, will penetrate most chest armor, of the non-ceramic variety. a baseball bat, normally a toy used in a game will, when swung hard enough, crack a police riot helmet, and possibly the skull ensconced inside. just ask any veteran of vietnam, or the gulf wars, how dangerous everyday objects can be, when applied with malicious intent.

These people supposedly surrounded the cops, and this was considered threatening.  They were told to move back.  They didn't.

Now yes if you have linebacker cops that can just reach out and pick up a protestor that has linked arms with his fellows and gently move him back, that might work.

I can see the new police academy requirements now.  Want 300 pound candidates that can gently snatch 5 people (about 800 to 1000 pounds) from the side walk and deposit them back 10 feet.

If the policemen have to engage physically (hand to hand) with these people there will be a lot more violence, because then the police will really feel they have to be more violent to protect themselves.

Tear gas, pepper spray, water cannon are more gentle than tasers or rubber bullets and a great deal more gentle than police batons or flashlights.