Private pepper spraying scrutinized

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Joe Copeland

Joe Copeland Feb 6, 2018

Feb 6, 2018

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                <h1>Private pepper spraying scrutinized</h1>
                <h2><p>Seattle City Councilmember Bruce Harrell, chair of the public safety committee, tells Publicola that he will look closely at policies regulating private security guards in the wake of a weekend incident where a guard apparently pepper-sprayed the wrong person during a protest. The pepper-spray victim, 26-year-old Raymond Wilford, was walking</p></h2>
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               <p>By <a href="/author/joe-copeland-crosscut-com/">Joe Copeland</a></p> 
              <p><time datetime="2025-02-04T05:00:00-08:00">Feb 6, 2018</time></p>
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            <p>Seattle City Councilmember Bruce Harrell, chair of the public safety committee, <a href="http://www.seattlemet.com/news-and-profiles/publicola/articles/harrell-calls-westlake-scene-disturbing-august-2014?ref=dev.cascadepbs.org">tells Publicola</a> that he will look closely at policies regulating private security guards in the wake of a weekend incident where a guard apparently pepper-sprayed the wrong person during a protest. The pepper-spray victim, 26-year-old Raymond Wilford, was walking past a demonstration where a man without a shirt was reportedly yelling at opponents of Israel's use of force in Gaza. Wilford tried to avoid the shirtless, vulgarity-shouting man, but was unsuccessful. (Thankfully, no punches were thrown). When Seattle Police arrived they quickly released Wilford, but officers are <a href="http://spdblotter.seattle.gov/2014/08/11/police-investigating-pepper-spray-altercation-in-westlake-park/?ref=dev.cascadepbs.org">still investigating</a> the pepper-spraying, along with a report that one other woman may have been squirted. NW Cable News has an interview with the pepper-spraying vic. — J.C.</p>
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Seattle City Councilmember Bruce Harrell, chair of the public safety committee, tells Publicola that he will look closely at policies regulating private security guards in the wake of a weekend incident where a guard apparently pepper-sprayed the wrong person during a protest. The pepper-spray victim, 26-year-old Raymond Wilford, was walking past a demonstration where a man without a shirt was reportedly yelling at opponents of Israel's use of force in Gaza. Wilford tried to avoid the shirtless, vulgarity-shouting man, but was unsuccessful. (Thankfully, no punches were thrown). When Seattle Police arrived they quickly released Wilford, but officers are still investigating the pepper-spraying, along with a report that one other woman may have been squirted. NW Cable News has an interview with the pepper-spraying vic. — J.C.

By Joe Copeland

Joe Copeland is the former senior editor&nbsp;for Crosscut, where he has been an editor since 2010. Before that, he was an editorial writer and columnist for the Seattle P-I and editorial page edi