In Boston, a 21-year-old journalist student celebrating the Red Sox victory died yesterday after she was shot in the eye by a police officer with a so-called non-lethal projectile. Police shot projectiles doused in pepper spray at a crowd who took to the streets to celebrate the Red Sox victory over the New York Yankees. Police Commissioner Kathleen M. O'Toole, while taking responsibility for the shooting, qualified her apology by referring to the victims as "punks."
The use of pepper spray has become commonplace by police, both during "crowd control" actions and during individual arrests. Pepper spray has been linked to 60 deaths in the U.S. and has often been used by police forces not as a substitute for more lethal methods but rather as a additional way of inflicting pain.
