Occupy Wall Street: 84-Year-Old Victim of Police Brutality Speaks Out

The 84-year-old Occupy Seattle protester reportedly attacked and pepper sprayed by police has a released a statement attacking police's strong-arm tactics.

Published on the Anonymous collective's AnonOps website, in the alleged statement Dorli Rainey chronicled the events that led up to the police's reported use of pepper spray.

"Something funny happened on my way to a transportation meeting in Northgate. As I got off the bus at 3rd and Pine I heard helicopters above. Knowing that the problems of New York would certainly precipitate action by Occupy Seattle, I thought I better check it out. Especially since only yesterday the City Government made a grandiose gesture to protect free speech," Rainey allegedly wrote.

Later in her reported statement Rainey reiterated how fellow protesters had come to her aid, pulling her out of the crowd and helping her home.

"Well free speech does have its limits as I found out as the cops shoved their bicycles into the crowd and simultaneously pepper sprayed the so captured protesters. If it had not been for my Hero (Iraq Vet Caleb) I would have been down on the ground and trampled. This is what democracy looks like. It certainly left an impression on the people who rode the No. 1 bus home with me. In the women's movement there were signs which said: 'Screw us and we multiply.'"

The incident occurred Tuesday after police and Seattle protesters clashed. In a subsequent statement Seattle police spokesman Jeff Kappel confirmed that pepper spray had been used.

"Pepper spray was deployed only against subjects who were either refusing a lawful order to disperse or engaging in assaultive behavior toward officers," Kappel wrote on the department's blog.

In the same blog post Kappel alleged that pepper spray was first used after a man threw an "unknown liquid" at an officer's face. A second incident was also confirmed after protesters reportedly moved to stop police arresting a women who had attempted to assault an officer with a stick.

The Occupy Seattle movement is one of the numerous Occupy protests sweeping the globe. Started in September with the opening Occupy Wall Street campaign, the movement soon spread to cities across the world, seeing citizens pitch tents in public squares and mount sit-in-protests against the world's current political and economic systems.