Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Pepper spraying of the Occupy Wall Street demonstrators


 * The following discussion is an archived debate of the proposed deletion of the article below. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review).  No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was merge to Occupy Wall Street, per WP:SNOW -- near unanimous consensus to merge after several days of discussion (non-admin close). Moogwrench (talk) 07:22, 3 October 2011 (UTC)

Pepper spraying of the Occupy Wall Street demonstrators

 * – ( View AfD View log )

Minor incident that will never meet notability standards LoveUxoxo (talk) 02:42, 1 October 2011 (UTC)
 * Keep — the article meets the Notability test as per WP:SIGCOV. The incident received "significant coverage" in the major news outlets. The cited sources address the subject directly in detail and no original research is needed to extract the content. Disclosure: I am a minor contributor. --Fayerman (talk) 02:55, 1 October 2011 (UTC)
 * Comment The cited sources rely on major news outlets blogs, not on actual news stories (I counted only 3 actual news articles from the NYT, and one from "The Villager"). The CBS News cite is a good example: it is a Tech blog, and the content is just hearsay, with the cited content stating that the NYT or Guardian reported "x", or "In a Tweet yesterday, CabinCr3w says"... its not a real cite at all. LoveUxoxo (talk) 03:35, 1 October 2011 (UTC)


 * Keep or Merge into parent as the material meets general notability guidelines but may exist better as a subsection of Occupy Wall Street. Ich (talk) 03:01, 1 October 2011 (UTC)
 * Merge into Occupy Wall Street. It certainly fits there, and there's no need for a second article. Inks.LWC (talk) 03:30, 1 October 2011 (UTC)
 * Merge until further developments, as Officer Bologna may face disciplinary measures or criminal charges in the future, but all that's known now is the video and the reaction. Andrewlp1991 (talk) 03:47, 1 October 2011 (UTC)
 * Merge - nonnotable  Bevin  bell  03:51, 1 October 2011 (UTC)
 * Merge with Occupy Wall Street or Keep if size justifies a breakout article. More than enough coverage/importance to justify inclusion in Wikipedia one way or another. Gamaliel (talk) 04:40, 1 October 2011 (UTC)
 * Merge or Delete Merge if there is anything useful, otherwise delete. We don't need an article every time pepper spray is used. Monty  845  05:32, 1 October 2011 (UTC)
 * Merge/Delete/Redirect No need for an article on this when you can simply keep it in the Wall Street article. Truthsort (talk) 07:17, 1 October 2011 (UTC)
 * Keep as an article on the police officer. He seems to be a notable figure in the NYPD and worth his own article. Paul, in Saudi (talk) 08:58, 1 October 2011 (UTC)
 * Comment No, that would fail WP:BLP1E. Truthsort (talk) 22:57, 1 October 2011 (UTC)


 * Merge - seems to the parent article seems about the correct weight for the incident - its only a bit of pepper spray, its not like we have stand alone articles about all the pepper spraying incidents is it? Off2riorob (talk) 09:44, 1 October 2011 (UTC)
 * Merge This is an obvious attempt for some kind of advocacy regarding what is (by WP:N standards) a very minor and single incident. Yes, there are daily news reports that officer X was accused of bad act Y—however those reports in no way justify a permanent name-and-shame article. After something notable has happened, naming those involved can be considered. Johnuniq (talk) 10:19, 1 October 2011 (UTC)
 * Merge - This is just one aspect of a major event. It is being covered in the media in the context of the parent event and should be one article on said parent event. We don't have a Police mistreatment during the Pullman strike article either as one aspect of an event taken out of context is not enough for its own article. かんぱい！ Scapler (talk) 11:38, 1 October 2011 (UTC)
 * Merge per clear consensus above.  Wikipedia is not here to give articles to every incident which occurs at every demonstaration in the world with factoids.  Further, note that sources which are not RS have plagued this article and related articles, and placing it in the main article should make enforcement of Wikipedia policies easier as well. Cheers. Collect (talk) 13:04, 1 October 2011 (UTC)
 * Merge or delete. Per others and particularly Rob - does anyone know how many policemen are accused of "excessive force" because of pepper-spraying?--Bbb23 (talk) 13:26, 1 October 2011 (UTC)
 * Comment I tried to do a news search and count, but I lost track. Here are 63 deaths associated with pepper spray, of which I wouldn't be surprised if none had a specific article in WP. LoveUxoxo (talk) 16:46, 1 October 2011 (UTC)
 * Heh, my question was rhetorical, but I appreciate your research zeal. My point was that there are no doubt many, many accusations of inappropriate use of pepper spray by citizens (that's not counting the number of suits brought by prisoners against correctional officers). The source you found was a 2004 study of deaths and is focused on the medical safety of using pepper spray.--Bbb23 (talk) 17:01, 1 October 2011 (UTC)
 * OK, a perfect analogue to this incident is what happened in Eureka, California in 1997. LOTS of news coverage for that incident at the time, wound its way all the way through the courts, but in the end you don't have more than a concise paragraph or two of content suitable for WP, which would be appropriate in an article "Law enforcement and pepper spray" article, "Controversies" subsection or whatever. LoveUxoxo (talk) 17:09, 1 October 2011 (UTC)


 * Keep or Merge into parent This incident continues to increase in importance and media coverage so deletion should be out of the question. Frugen (talk) 16:23, 1 October 2011 (UTC)
 * Merge with Occupy Wall Street as per most of the above points. ViniTheHat (talk) 17:28, 1 October 2011 (UTC)
 * Merge This incident got more airplay on the news channels than all of the other protest coverage combined(I don't know if that's true, but it seemed like it to me) but if the pepper spraying investigation determines the actions are appropriate then it should indicate that the officers on the scene had to resort to pepper spraying and if the pepper spraying is deemed excessive than it should include the punishment that was doled out to the officers.Racingstripes (talk) 18:54, 1 October 2011 (UTC)
 * Merge all info per overwhelming consensus Til Eulenspiegel (talk) 23:52, 1 October 2011 (UTC)
 * Merge not a stand alone. part of the greater whole. Dloh  cierekim  04:14, 2 October 2011 (UTC)
 * Merge this really doesn't need its own article! the very few people who say keep it are obviously biased. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 141.165.191.73 (talk) 04:59, 2 October 2011 (UTC)
 * Merge & Delete. I suggest, with consensus here crystal clear, that this be done immediately.--Johnsemlak (talk) 06:33, 2 October 2011 (UTC)
 * MERGE - deletion should be out of the question: this event is iconic and represents thousands of similar events, only this one is getting tons of unusual media attention. Melba1 (talk) 07:00, 2 October 2011 (UTC)
 * Merge This looks like it can be adequately covered in the Occupy Wall Street article. Adambro (talk) 11:20, 2 October 2011 (UTC)
 * I would like to congratulate the deletionists on outstanding gamesmanship. First they took a fairly reasonable article about a person, Anthony Bologna, which I left three days ago with some lingering problems but nothing insurmountable, and moved it to a new article Pepper spraying of the Occupy Wall Street demonstrators.  Then they delete everything not relevant to that, or which they didn't like.  They then present the remaining typo-ridden police POV two-paragraph fact-free muddle to you for deletion.  They ignore all prior discussion that this is not a BLP1E, should not be merged, should not be retitled etc. because "BLP overrides consensus"..  So I have restored the content to Anthony Bologna from the time it was moved, and maintain that it is not the article discussed here and not subject to any decision from this AfD. Wnt (talk) 12:45, 2 October 2011 (UTC)
 * Comment -- OK, it's understandable how you feel, let's have an admin close this AfD and merge the child article. I am nominating the Bologna article for AfD now. LoveUxoxo (talk) 16:21, 2 October 2011 (UTC)


 * Merge I think this is a case of recentism in action. There are sources covering this event, but it's really sub-event of Occupy Wall Street and should be covered there. Steven Walling &bull; talk   19:11, 2 October 2011 (UTC)
 * Snow Merge into Occupy Wall Street, As pointed out above there are many reasons to merge this into the main article. - Knowledgekid87 (talk) 02:21, 3 October 2011 (UTC)
 * The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the debate. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.