And if one of those stood up and sprayed a cop, then they would have been beaten within an inch of their life and charged with felonious assault on a police officer. At that point, the police (and you, probably) would not think of it as “harmless”
I’m sorry. I lived through the goofy 60s and have already seen all of this goofy crap before. When you are obstructing others from going about their daily business, you shouldn’t be pepper sprayed, you should have your ass kicked.