Three Times Pepper Spray - An Operation That Crosses Every Line

What happened near the Riverside Plaza housing complex in Minneapolis was neither a misunderstanding nor a gray area. It was a documented operation that shows how quickly state power turns into open violence when it believes itself unobserved. A woman was watching an ICE operation. Peacefully. Unarmed. She attacked no one, blocked no one, threatened no one. The agents were sitting in their vehicle. From that position, they sprayed pepper spray at the observer. Without warning.

That was not the end of it. The agents got out of the car, moved closer, and used pepper spray again - from point blank range. The woman turned and ran, visibly panicked and in severe pain. One of the agents chased her from behind and continued spraying as she tried to escape. Then something happened that destroys any remaining justification. The agents got back into their vehicle, as if they were about to leave. But they stopped again, got out once more, and sprayed a third time. They continued until the canister was literally empty.

The woman later described the consequences. She lost her voice. She was blind for about 30 minutes. The pepper spray used was so strong that she became completely disoriented. This was not about preventing danger. It was not about self-defense. It was about enforcement. The operation raises fundamental questions. Why is a peaceful observer attacked. Why is pepper spray used repeatedly while the person is fleeing. And why do agents return to spray an already injured person yet again.

ICE has so far not publicly commented on the incident. But images and witness accounts leave little room for doubt. Anyone who deploys pepper spray three times until the canister is empty is not acting in the heat of the moment. They are acting deliberately. The location was not a remote operational zone but a residential neighborhood in Minneapolis. People watched. Cameras were running. And yet the agents apparently felt secure enough to carry out this operation until the final spray. For the victim, physical and psychological consequences remain. For the public, the question remains how many such operations occur without being documented. And for a state governed by the rule of law, there remains the obligation to clarify how such an operation was possible - and who bears responsibility.