Oh, Please. Having sprayed "mace" a few times myself as a peace officer, I assure you we don't run around "brutally" spraying people at "point blank range" as a lark. There will always be some people who misuse any tool, but pepper spray has saved more lives than you'll ever know, those of both officers and suspects. If I personally sprayed anybody as close as you described, I'd suffer the effects along with them. And, BTW, all of us had to be sprayed in the eyes at "point blank range" during training to see what it felt like before we ever had it issued to us.
That's amazing. Almost unbelievable, but I believe you. Thank you for the information. I never would have guessed that. Actually, I was thinking of things I had seen on tv during riots. Offensive, Rodney King-like footage and the like. I was under the impression that people have died from that. Anyway, it struck me that if you could die from pepper spray, then both are either examples of serious offenses or not. Based on your and Illbay's input, it would seem that I may have overestimated the seriousness of pepper spray and underestimated the seriousness of putting lime on the floor. On the other hand, maybe both are vulnerable to being down played or up played. I don't know. I'm still inclined to think that, if no one actually died, that the kid does not deserve anything close to life in prison. As far as cops are concerned, without making any judgements, I just think that they should be held to the same standards as everyone else.