Framing Sympathies: A Study of a Visual Icon in Occupy Wall Street

Framing SympathiesA Study of a Visual Icon in Occupy Wall Street

By Coen Berkhout (s2205815)University of Groningen

Professor: D.U. Shim

DECLARATION BY CANDIDATE

I hereby declare that this thesis, “ Framing Sympathies: A Study of a Visual Icon in Occupy Wall

Street“, is my own work and my own effort and that it has not been accepted anywhere else for the

award of any other degree or diploma. Where sources of information have been used, they have

been acknowledged.

Name: Coen Berkhout

Signature: C.B.

Date: May 18, 2015

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Framing Sympathies:

A Study of a Visual Icon in Occupy Wall Street

Coen Berkhout

Abstract:

Like memorable speeches, iconic visuals have the power to transcend time and place, and embody

a certain sentiment. But where speeches are hard to use in unison for international groups, the

power of an icon increases greatly as it is reproduced and re-viewed while not being bound by the

barrier of language. As the mask of Guy Fawkes evokes a sentiment of anarchism, certain pictures

of Occupy Wall Street ooze a sentiment of empowerment, of standing together against

authoritarianism. This article identifies the ways in which visual icons impact the sociopolitical

landscape, and through that shape global politics. The image of the Pepper Spraying Cop puts the

issue of police brutality in a sharable frame and through this the discussion on the role of the police

resurfaces in various regions around the world. The concept of the visual icon is defined, and a

three-step methodological approach is applied to the icon to find that the concepts of 'the national'

and 'the international' are not as rigid and clear-cut as they may seem. Regional appropriations, an

internet meme and inter-iconicity causes a seemingly regional icon to have a large impact on the

global sociopolitical landscape.

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Table of contents

Introduction p. 4

Building the international icon p. 10

Shaping the sociopolitical landscape through international icons p. 12

Empirics: a methodology to assess the impact and internationality of the visual icon p. 16

Case study: OWS and the Pepper Spraying Cop p. 17

Conclusion p. 30

References p. 33

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Introduction

A widely accepted view on social -protest- movements is that they play an important role in

the workings of the modern globalized state. (Prechel 2006) The ability for citizens to rally together

in a large group of like-minded individuals and stand for a social or political interest has shaped

decision making in almost every modern state around the world. This effect was observed in the

Arab Spring, the 2013 Bulgarian protests against the first Borisov Cabinet, and the Indian anti-

corruption movement of 2011. What defines these movements in a positive way is that they can be

seen as the 'vanguard' of society, they are leading the way to new possibilities on issues that are

considered to be 'cutting-edge' or issues that are of seemingly little concern to the general public.

Yet at the same time social movements only seem to reflect concerns or patterns that have been

boiling within-, or even dominating the society in which the movement arises. (Coy 2013, 9) And in

addition to this social movements tend to reflect very local or regional interests of society, and

rarely mount into a global movement that spurs people of all regions around the world. This is what

makes the Occupy Movement an interesting phenomenon to study in the field of International

Relations. As Occupy Wall Street went global on October 15, 2011 -28 days after the initial protests

in Zuccotti Park, NYC- with protests going on in 951 cities across 82 countries in all regions of the

world. (Thompson 2011) It became clear that this movement was unique in it's scope and ideals to

attract support from such a large amount of people from all over the globe.

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Illustration 1: An Infographic Map by newspaper The Guardian (UK) showing Occupy protests around the globe




In the aftermath of the protests journalists, policymakers and academics have fallen over each other

to identify the roots of the movement, and how it shaped political decision making on the issues the

movement raised. To give examples of this, in an article by the Financial Times it mentioned how

the issues of taxation, finance and corporate governance resurfaced in the debate on U.S. policy

thanks to Occupy Wall Street (OWS). (Financial Times 2011) In “The Politics of the ‘Global’,”

Meghana Nayak, examines discourses about OWS’s 'global' connections, such as the “Arab Spring”

and the 15M Indignados uprising in Spain. She argues that OWS is a site for competing discourses

that can potentially reinforce or challenge global power politics. As such, she asserts that it is not

just the actions of OWS participants but also the way both supporters and detractors of OWS make

meaning about or interpret OWS that can have effects on the possibilities of global solidarity.

(Nayak 2013) And Alasdair Roberts wrote how the path dependency of social change caused the

Occupy Movement to fail. (Roberts 2012)

What all these publications have in common is their focus on the organisational structure of

the movement, and the (sociopolitical) ideology the protesters represent. This leads me to believe

that what the current academic analysis of the Occupy Movement lacks is an analysis of the visual

dimension of the movement. In this paper I will aim to discover the impact of important visual icons

created during the occupy movement. Stephen Saunders makes a case for the importance of the

icons from OWS in his article “The Mask of Guy Fawkes”:

“That image captured the imagination of the graphic artists and filmmakers who created “V for Vendetta.” “V”

wears Guy’s mask. He, and it, became the avatar of Anonymous, the hackers who called on masked “redeemers, rebels,

and radicals” to “occupy” Wall Street. So Guy Fawkes has reemerged, a reminder that anti-popery has always been

imbued with class warfare. The mask of Guy Fawkes evokes anarchism.”

With this passage Saunders signifies the power of the visual icon. Like memorable speeches,

iconic visuals have the power to transcend time and place, and embody a certain sentiment. But

where speeches are hard to use in unison for international groups, the power of an icon increases

greatly as it is reproduced and re-viewed while not being bound by the barrier of language. Like the

mask of Guy Fawkes evoking a sentiment of anarchism, certain pictures of OWS ooze a sentiment

of empowerment, of standing together against authoritarianism.

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When keeping this in mind, a seemingly logical next step is to further analyze the impact of

the Guy Fawkes' Mask as the visual icon of OWS. It did after all become, quite literally, the face of

the protest movement, a uniting image that binded the protesters in anonymity and ideology. The

power of the icon for the movement itself is undeniable, yet I am curious to see how the visual

dimension of OWS impacted the minds of the citizens around the world. To do this, perhaps it is

better to look at an icon that spoke of something greater, that is to say an icon that ignited political

discussion in the various nations it circulated, that caused new protests or empowered protests

abroad.

It is important to notice that in the wake of OWS, subsequent protests have adopted the

terminology and style of the afore mentioned movement, changing the way we view and think about

protests movements and impacting our ideas about society and politics. (Van Gelder 2011) This is

seen in the Umbrella Movement in Hong Kong, which started with students boycotting classes, and

eventually joining together in what was known as Occupy Central – 'central' refers to the area that is

at the heart of the financial district – to demand a genuine election of the Chief Executive of the

Hong Kong Special Administrative Region in 2017. The Hong Kong occupation started in

September 2014, almost three years after the very first protests in New York. (Chan 2014, 574-575)

In May 2013, the protests known as the Blockupy Movement started in Frankfurt, a year after

twenty-thousand protestors took part in a similar protests, to voice their anger over the austerity

measures that the euro-zone leaders decided on after the European Debt Crisis. (Spiegel Online

2013) And in his book The making of a protest movement in Turkey: #Occupygezi Umut Özkirimli

makes it clear that the protests in Istanbul are not so much a 'Turkish Spring', but a new, standalone

protest inspired by fresh sentiments in Turkish society to stand up against the classic neoliberal

ideology and authoritarianism. (Özkırımlı 2014) Yet in his discussion of the movement he signifies

characteristics that can directly be found in the 'Declaration of the Occupation of New York City',

approved by the Zucotti Park General Assembly on September 29, 2011, such as sexual orientation,

privacy and students. (Nycga.net 2011)

I believe it is safe to say that the OWS protests changed something in the minds of the

people around the globe, if one looks at the reactionary protests that were ignited in its wake. Yet

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what remains to be seen is why the movement had such an impact. Perhaps its impact lies not in its

demands, as some seem to think (Kang 2013, 59-62), nor is it the moment in time in which the

movement happened (Adams 2014) that has had the most impact. The greatest asset of OWS was in

the response of the authorities to the movement, and in particular the way in which photographs and

pictures of this were circulated around the world, showing every citizen what is looks like to stand

up against authorities, and be beaten down as a result. Street photographer V.C. Ferry writes in his

photo essay for the Huffington Post -which went viral on Twitter in May 2012- that:

“Yet, despite the virtues of the movement, the sheer level of opposition from authorities on local, state and federal levels

has surprised me in covering OWS. Numerous times, I have witnessed unnecessary violence towards those peacefully protesting

under the pretext of "protecting and serving," leaving me to wonder just exactly who is being "protected and served". (…) I hope my

photographs inspire you to question what is important to you in regards to the way our society is run and what you are willing to do

to achieve it.”

Taking a look at some of the photographs -below- he published, it becomes clear that his

portrayal of the movement can have a lasting impact on ones beliefs about its origin and demands of

OWS, and perhaps invoke sympathies for its cause.

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Illustration 2: Occupy Wall Street protesters during a dance and music activity. Copyright: Vrindavan Ferry

Illustration 3: Police officers while watching the protesters at Zuccotti Park. Copyright: Vrindavan Ferry

Illustration 5: An OWS protester writing aletter to his wife. Copyright: Vrindavan Ferry

Illustration 4: A mother and her daughter visiting the OWS campment. Copyright: Vrindavan Ferry




The impact of OWS is increased when one combines these pictures with images of police

officers pepper-spraying seemingly harmless protesters, and a report by researchers at the law

schools of NYU and Fordham that accused the NYPD of unnecessary aggressive force, obstructing

press freedom and making arbitrary and baseless arrests. (Knuckley, Glenn and Maclean 2012) It

becomes clear that the visual dimension of OWS can be seen as having a large impact on the

sociopolitical landscape around the world.

When I look at the various images produced by the coverage of the Occupy protests, and I

ask myself the question: “Of what is this an instance?”, I find that the Guy Fawkes' Mask icon

speaks solidarity with the protest, with the people, more-so than a political demand or issue. Yet

when I see the various pictures of protesters being pepper sprayed by police, or getting bombarded

with tear-gas, there is a profound image of what is commonly perceived as police brutality. This

larger issue transcends the scope of the local protest and speaks to a greater discussion. This is why

the aim of my empirical research is to find the impact of this visual dimension, the particularity of

the icon of police brutality, on the sociopolitical landscape around the world. To do this I will take a

look at the image of The Pepper Spraying Cop that circulated in the United States media a couple of

months after the initial protests and which provoked a discussion on the role of the police security

-on University campuses-. (Kennicott 2011)

Besides proving the impact of the visual icons of OWS on the sociopolitical landscape

around the world, the aim of this article is to situate the study of 'the visual icon' within the field of

International Relations. The coverage of Occupy Wall Street shows -again- that images are

communicative, able to convey sentiments and impact international society. (Campbell 2003, 57)

And where studies in the field of Sociology and Visual culture have developed a vast debate on the

definition and role of the visual icon as a research subject, such as the book No Caption Needed by

Hariman and Lucaites, this has been limited in the field of IR. Michael J. Shapiro (1988) and Gillian

Rose (2001/2012) have made good contributions to the debate about images -or the visual in

general- in international relations, but neither have written about the specificity of icons and their

impact on international politics. That is where this paper tries to make a contribution: to define the

icon and its impact on international relations, thus supporting an international dimension of the

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icon.1

Going from there this paper will first conceptualize the international icon, building on

literature from outside International Relations research. Then it aims to discern the impact of the

international icon on international society, and through this on the sociopolitical landscape around

the world. After that it will lay out an empirical methodology -based on Lene Hansen's research- to

analyze the impact of a specific icon. And finally this method will be used on a case study of the

iconic image of The Pepper Spraying Cop, to question -specifically- what the impact of the Occupy

Wall Street Movement's visual dimension is on the sociopolitical landscape around the world.

1 To the question of the importance of the international dimension of the icon, Lene Hansen writes: “These international dimensions fall in three parts. First, some icons gain recognition and generate responses across state borders (…) Second, to theorise the icon as international is to ask how ‘the international’ itself becomes constituted as a particular space separate from ‘the national’. Third, it is to theorise icons as inherently contested and always invoking national and international ‘wes’ [plural].” (Hansen 2014, 267)

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Building the international icon

Aside from company logos, religious symbols, and famous humans, the word 'icon' -in

academic research- refers to widely circulated, photographic images. (Brink 2000, 137) For the

purpose of this paper, the definition of the international icon will build on the last mentioned

category. This is not to say that company logo's -and in particular appropriations thereof- were not

relevant in most protest movements, or that religious symbols do not have an international political

impact. I adopt this 'narrow' definition on the basis that photographs of the OWS movement are a

distinct phenomenon that impacts on international politics and society in such a way that sets them

apart from logos and symbols. In this paper I will adopt the definition by Robert Hariman and John

Louis Lucaites of the icon as:

“iconic images [are] those photographic images appearing in print, electronic, or digital media that are widely

recognized and remembered, are understood to be representations of historically significant events, activate strong

emotional identification or response, and are reproduced across a range of media, genres, or topics.”

A broader definition can be found in the works of Jeffrey C. Alexander, who combines

various definitions of the icon in the field of sociology. (Alexander, Bartmanski and Giesen 2012)

While David Perlmutter considers a more narrow definition of the 'hyper-icons', which takes into

account the speed of circulation of the icon. (Perlmutter 2006) However for the purpose of my

research question, I will use the former definition of the icon. As might be deduced from the

definition by Hariman and Lucaites, they focus on photographic icons and more specifically

photojournalistic photographs. While many amateur photographs of OWS have had a wide

circulation, they lack the emotional effect that the photojournalistic images of the protests evoke,

therefore I choose to focus on the photojournalistic icon in my research. It should however be noted

that the lines between photojournalism and 'citizen journalism' are becoming increasingly blurred,

(Mortensen 2011, 7) especially as international newspapers start publish the work of street

photographers to support their articles.2

2 This photo-essay in The Guardian uses photos made my press photographers together with pictures by independent street photographers to report on the Blockupy Frankfurt protests. http://www.theguardian.com/world/gallery/2015/mar/18/blockupy-anti-ecb-protest-in-frankfurt-in-pictures

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http://www.theguardian.com/world/gallery/2015/mar/18/blockupy-anti-ecb-protest-in-frankfurt-in-pictures




I must acknowledge the power of icons in other visual media, such as comics, and their

impact on international society. This was evident not only with the OWS movement and the drawn

appropriation of the 2008 'Hope' poster depicting and almost Che-esque Obama -see below-, but

also in the paintings of most anti-war protests. (Craven 2009, 644)

When narrowing down the photographic icon, a distinction can be made between a chronic

'generic' icon, and a singular 'discrete' icon. The former categorization sees the icon as describing

different images, but which all share the same elements to make it representative of an event; like a

visual cliché. The latter refers to a single image with a definitive set of elements –the famous photo,

or footage- like the Tiananmen Square photograph. (Perlmutter 1998, 11) In this paper I will use the

definition of the generic icon, because there are cases of photographs that comply with our general

definition of the event even if one particular image cannot be picked out as ‘the’ iconic

representation. (Hansen 2014, 269) The coverage of OWS is a case where such images are found. It

is not, as we will see later, once specific icon that came to represent the OWS protests, but rather a

similar combination of elements that was found in the most circulated ('viral') photographs that

covered the event. The concept of elements of one icon returning in other widely circulated images

is that of the visual appropriation. The appropriations of an icon are instrumental in giving the icon

its international impact, particularly when the icon is considerably 'regional' in its compositional

elements. In addition, the generic icon gains social impact because it can refer to other, older icons.

In the case of OWS, an iconic image might refer to an icon that represents the events of a previous

protest, and through that evoke more sentiments on behalf of the current protesters. This effect can

be described as 'inter-iconicity'. (Mortensen 2011, 13)

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Illustration 6: Appropriation of the 2008 Obama 'HOPE'poster

Illustration 7: Artist: Shepard Fairey




Shaping the sociopolitical landscape through international icons

Having defined the concept of the visual icon, it is important to add the international

dimension to make it relevant as an object of research in the field of International Relations. It is too

simplistic to say that the international dimension of the icon is created when an icon complies with

the criteria in the last section, but does so on an international level. The international system has

clear regional devisions, (Farrell, Hettne and Langenhove 2005) and it is possible that an icon might

find circulation in a certain region, like the European continent, while being virtually ignored in

others. An example of this would be the photograph(s) of Bosnian prisoners from 1992, which was

circulated heavily in Europe and North America, but not so much in other parts of the world. Thus,

for an icon to be truly 'international', perhaps it is better to speak of it as a 'global' icon.

When trying to find the impact of an icon on the sociopolitical landscape around the world,

it is important to confirm that an icon is truly 'global. However, this is also wherein the difficulty of

this approach lies. Because it is already difficult to confirm if people are aware of the importance of

images, even within a domestic context. (Perlmutter 2005, 9-11) This becomes even more difficult

when looking at a global scale. In the case of OWS, a report by Ipsos for Reuters News found that

global citizens across 23 countries were “in the dark about, but sympathetic with OWS”. (Thomson

Reuters 2011) What this means is hard to say, is it enough that four out of ten global citizens are

aware of the Occupy protests? And if not, how many should have seen the coverage -the icons- of

the event for it to be considered 'global'?

Another critical question comes from research into the CNN-effect; have new media

technologies created a 'political realm' that goes beyond states borders? Piers Robinson argues that

the basic structures of language and nationality keep citizens reliant on domestic -news- media,

(Robinson 2011, 9) but on the other side of the debate there is the notion that eventually the power

will shift away from states towards more -international- non-governmental actors. (Livingston 2011,

27-28) The categorization of the internationality of the icon based on political regions works with

the established concept of political regions. Yet when that concept loses power, as it seems to do

with the current increase of global communities and international -non-governmental- media

producers, so does its merit as a category.

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Perhaps a better way to define the internationality of the icon is how the icon situates itself

in the discourse of the international. Does the site of the audiencing of the image promote certain

sentiments or concepts of 'internationality'? (Rose 2001, 24-28) This relates to the questions of who

or what -in the image- are the subjects, enemies, threats, opportunities, and with which character

they are represented. (Hansen 2006) For example, in the iconic image “Saigon Execution”, who is

seen as the enemy? The Vietcong soldier, bound and shot in the head, or the armed South

Vietnamese general? These questions of 'us' against 'them', 'inside' against 'outside' are what binds

people internationally, and can give icons an international dimension.

When looking at OWS, this is where the international dimension of the icons becomes very

clear. In most of the pictures there seems to be a large variety in ethnicity, gender and generation

between the protesters, yet they all seem to unite under a common cause -We are the 99%!- or

against a common enemy -the police forces on the other side of the proverbial fence-. The question

of who 'you' are in this situation becomes very clear and makes it easy to sympathize with the

protesters no matter where you are, or who you are in the world.

In the introduction I pointed out that the initial OWS protests ignited other protests around

the world, even years after the movement itself had vanished. For me this must mean that icons

have a manner of political impact, or effect if you will. But how can we find this impact? The first

question we should ask is if images themselves can cause political action, or if images need text to

activate people to take political action. Visual theorist W.J.T. Mitchell claims that images

themselves are inherently cryptic and always in need of text to 'frame' the picture. (Mitchell 1986)

However, in extreme cases, a depiction of violence can evoke a feeling that 'something needs to be

done', think of the image of the burning towers on September 11. At the same time, this mere

feeling that action has to be taken needs to be directed somewhere, and that direction is provided by

the text that accompanies the image. (M öller 2007) Is this any different for icons? As discussed, an

icon is an image that provokes a strong emotional reaction, but then it is still merely a -somewhat-

bigger sign that still does not point in any particular direction. Assuming this, even icons need

context to spur people into action, and thus icons can be framed in such a way that they cause action

in the desired direction, perhaps one icon can cause opposite reactions, depending on the contextual

discourse.

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Establishing that icons need contextual discourse to cause political action, this brings us

back to the question of the CNN-effect: can images, as broadcast by media, change foreign policy?

Robinson established in his research that two factors impact the ability of media to influence

policymaking on an issue: the level of political elite-consensus and where an issue falls in terms of

high-low politics. (Robinson 2002, 6) The more dispersed the political elite is, the higher the chance

that the media will influence descisionmaking. At the same time, when an issue is considered to be

high politics, the influence of the media is diminished. Given that most icons relate directly to

questions of national security, with predominant types of icons being of war or international crises,

it seems that there is little room for icons to influence foreign policy. (Hansen 2014, 274-275) In the

case of OWS, the protests shifted the political discourse from questions of government spending

and economics to questions about the economic system and inequality. (Mitchell, Harcourt and

Taussig 2013, 98) But other than that, it did not seem to impact actual descisionmaking in the

United States, perhaps because the elite-consensus was fairly united in the view that capitalism was

the correct economic system.

If visual icons can not influence policimaking directly through causing political

descisionmaking, perhaps they can influence the public opinion to such an extent that it impact

electoral politics. In 2012, in the United States, the voice of OWS became so strong that it certainly

impacted the electoral debate, prompting Obama to address the movement in New Hampshire:

“A lot of the folks who’ve been down in New York and all across the country in the Occupy movement, there

is a profound sense of frustration, a profound sense of frustration about the fact that the essence of the American Dream

… feels like it’s slipping away … Families like yours, young people like the ones here today—including the ones who

were just chanting at me—you’re the reason that I ran for office in the first place.”

Aside from directly influencing electoral politics, icons can enter into the political debate,

forcing politicians to deal with the implications of the icon. A characteristic of icons, and

particularly a generic icon, lies in the inter-iconicity. Icons stay around for a long time, surfacing

again when a relevant appropriation comes to light, and thus icons influence political discourse in

the long run.

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Before moving to the case study of the icons of OWS, I will discuss the role of

appropriations -images that build on an existing image to reinforce it- and how they contribute to

the impact of visual icons. According to Campbell, images have the inherent ability to “help build

or reinforce a moral position.” (Campbell 2003, 72) And as discussed, the way in which a picture is

discursively framed or in which format it is presented can change the way in which we act upon an

image. (Butler 2007, 142) It is partly thanks to appropriations that the sentiment of an icon stays in

the minds of the public, and this gives visual icons a greater chance to impact politics or public

opinion. (Hariman and Lucaites 2007, 203) Lene Hansen identifies two types of appropriations in

her paper: one is where the icon is copied, but where new elements are added or certain elements

are left out of the new image. And the second one is where the scene of an icon is adopted into a

different format of delivery, such as a comic being made of a photographic icon. (Hansen 2014,

276) I would add to this a third category of appropriation, one wherein the essential element of the

icon is placed in a different setting seemingly unrelated to the original icon. An example of this are

the internet memes that are created of iconic photographic characters placed in other famous

pictures.

When studying the effect of appropriations we can apply a three-step approach: first, as with

the original icon, the impact of an appropriation is reliant on the textual discourse that conducts it.

Second, wether or not the appropriation causes a critical intervention -impacting the way we view

the original icon-. And third if there have been appropriations that contradict the original effects of

the icon, or if there are no appropriations while we would expect them to be there. (Ibid, 276-277)

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Empirics: a methodology to assess the impact and internationality of the visual icon

Above I have discussed the concept of the visual icon, its international character, and its impact on a

theoretical level. Based on this I will adopt a three-tiered methodology to empirically assess the

impact of the OWS icon on the sociopolitical landscape around the world.

In step 1 I will look at the site of the iconic image itself.

• What is the composition of the image, what do I actually see?

• What 'facts' does the image convey, can I speak of “seeing is believing”?

• What inter-iconicity can I observe with this icon?3

Step 2 concerns the international status and sociopolitical impact of the icon.

• What power structure is visible in the image through inclusion and exclusion?(Shim 2014)

• What is the impact of the contextual discourse surrounding the image?

• What societal impact has the image made in various regions around the world?

Step 3 deals with the appropriations of the icon.

• What is the range of appropriations in terms of media formats and geographical location?

• To what extent have these appropriations achieved iconic status within their region?

• Which appropriations made a critical intervention and in what way?

3 Unlike Lene Hansen's method, who applies it to a discrete icon, I am looking at generic icons, and therefore I will not concern myself with the question why this picture rose to iconic status over the other images that may exist.

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Case study: OWS and the 'pepper spraying cop'

In the last part of the paper I will apply the methodological framework I built on one of the

iconic images of the Occupy Wall Street movement: the pepper spraying cop. I chose this image

because it is one of the more controversial iconic images of the OWS movement, which caused a

large response in the community. In my introduction I already mentioned the particularity of this

icon. It is unlike the icons that have dominated visual icons research because it does not clearly

communicate an international event. However, the discourse in the media surrounding this picture is

that this is undoubtedly the most iconic image from the United States Occupy protests. And when

we look at the appropriations later, we will see that through them the elements of police brutality

depicted in this image impacted the sociopolitical landscape in various regions. This makes the

image a 'unique' icon in a way that it only becomes an impactful icon through its appropriations.

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Illustration 8: LT. JOHN PIKE with the University of California, Davis police department pepper sprays a line of Occupy Wall Street protestors at the campus on Nov. 18.Photo: Louise Macabitas




Step 1: The iconic image itself

The image of Lieutenant John Pike pepper spraying a group of OWS protestors at point

blank range is different to the other images of the OWS movement. It does not depict the protesters

as a large group that intrusively occupy a public space, nor does it depict the protesters as having a

common goal. When only looking at the image, this could be a depiction of any instance of police

brutality. The people sitting on the ground seem defenseless against the imposing structure of the

police lieutenant using the pepper spray against them. The image is very busy, not pleasing to the

eye, yet the essential compositional elements are very clear: the victims and the cop are at the center

of the image, and seem the center attention for the people who are standing by the scenario. In

regards to the bystanders: most seem to be filming the scenario, as if it is of great importance, or

otherwise seem to react shocked. Perhaps the image is a still from a movie that was made of the

scenario, but the quality of the image makes it seem like it is not.

The question of what factual meaning is attributed to the image seems easy to ascertain. We

see a police officer who used his pepper spray against a group of defenseless students while his

colleagues keep the bystanders at bay. If we follow the idea of 'seeing is believing' then we can

expect a large outcry against this police brutality, which is exactly what happened in the days

following the circulation of this image. Many media referred back to the 1963 Birmingham protests

and the “Bull Connor” moment, during which the Birmingham police chief used attack dogs and

fire hoses against the children of the protesters against racial segregation. 4 Subsequently the footage

of this became an icon of police brutality, and the fact that media now refer back to it speaks for the

impact the picture has, as it provokes a reaction of such magnitude.

This brings me to the question of inter-iconicity, the pepper spraying cop invokes the

sentiment of different icons of different protests. One of these is the photograph from 1963 of

protesters being sprayed by a water-hose -seen below-. What connects these icons is the apparent

sentiment that the protesters are defenseless against the seemingly unnecessary force used by the

4 For footage of this event, see BBC Motion Gallery footage of Bull Connor: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j9kT1yO4MGg&feature=related

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authorities. United States political strategist Ron Christie said about the California incident: “I

wouldn't call that pepper-spray, I'd say that was a pepper-hose” providing some intertextual

discourse between the two pictures. (today.com 2011)

Another icon that provides some inter-iconicity is an icon of the recent Baltimore riots that

went viral in the last couple of days, where we see a black man being pepper-sprayed at point blank

range by a police officer. While the situation is different, a violent riot as opposed to a peaceful

students' protest, the compositional elements reflect again the same sentiment of the defenseless

victim against the authority. This way of 'framing' the pictures that come to represent the event are

instrumental in shaping public opinion about the event itself. As these pictures frame a sympathy in

favor of the protesters, the context surrounding the image -aggression by the protesters, multiple

warnings by the police- becomes less important as people 'feel' the pain that is portrayed in the

image.

19

Illustration 9: Civil Rights protestors demanding an end to segregation in Birmingham, Alabama's public facilities, are hit with high-pressure firehoses in this photo from 1963.Photo:Charles Moore/Black Star




Step 2: International status and sociopolitical impact

So far we have seen that the image of the pepper spray cop caused outrage in the United

States national media, and that its inter-iconicity reflected a sentiment of police brutality that spoke

to images dating back to the anti-segregation protests of 1963 in Birmingham. But what impact has

the icon had around the world? Did the icon help increase support or sympathy for the cause of

Occupy Wall Street worldwide?

Aside from the already stated disparity in power between the police officer and the

protesters, where the officer holds all the physical power, and the protesters lack any way to defend

themselves, this image does not speak directly for international power relations. Aside from the fact

that the image does not portray an apparent international event, which is usually the case for the

more well-know icons, the compositional elements to not speak an international discourse either.

The image shows what can be seen as a cliché of the 'American police officer': slightly overweight,

using force with little regard for the victims, and carrying a casual and uninterested demeanor while

doing so. This view alienates international viewers from feeling the immediacy of the picture,

because it may cause them to think: “Police officers in my country are not like that.” However, in

countries where police brutality is a more common occurrence, the image could invoke sentiments

of sympathy with the protesters. Even having said this, on an emotional level the sympathy for the

protesters is very clear. The viewer can rationalize around the pain of the protesters, but on a very

emotional level a connection is made with the suffering students.

Another particularity in the picture is that the victims are not clearly shown. We do not know

their ethnicity or gender, and can merely see that they seem to be young people, quite possibly

students. This does increase the international impact the image has through social media. Since

young students are the group most active on social media and blogs, they are drawn into the feeling

that it is a case of us -the students- against them -the authorities-. In that way the image speaks an

international power relation, not by showing international conflict, but by depicting a base conflict

that exists everywhere around the world, and of which this icon is merely one of the depictions.

Every student can sympathize with the students that are pepper sprayed, because they seem to share

in their misery. However, for non-students or more specifically citizens who have no direct relation

20




to students, the image might not cause a similar response. This creates a discrepancy between the

different groups that view this image, and some might react more intensely than others. For the

group that identifies closely with the victims the effect of the picture is very clear and we might

expect an intense reaction. The group that identifies less with the victims might need to be

'convinced' of the glaring political issue that the icon depicts through the context and discourse

provided by the channels through which they view the image.

Perhaps when looking at the contextual discourse that accompanies the image we can find a

larger impact, after all, when looking at the image the lines of who is wrong and who is right are

slightly blurred, perhaps the students are actively blocking an important public space and need to be

removed. In most media reports of the pepper spray event, the picture was accompanied by an

analysis of the event. The first thing that most media mentioned is that the pepper-spray was used at

'point blank range', while actually the recommended distance for using the pepper-spray is six feet.

(CNN 2011) Knowing this invokes a stronger sentiment against the actions of the police officer,

knowing that he not only used excessive force against the defenseless protesters, but also did so in

an unreasonable and dangerous manner. After the incident, eleven protesters received medical

treatment, and two of those were hospitalized to be treated for nerve damage as a result of being

pepper-sprayed. (Golden 2011) Most media coverage of the pepper-spray incident was also

accompanied by mobile phone footage of the incident, which gives an insight into the role of the by

standing crowd. In most of the videos that circulated the media, the crowd can be hear shouting

“shame on you!” and “let them go!” at the police officer. In addition most news coverage included

witness reports saying that it was a non-violent protest, that the protesters were only sitting there,

linking arms (cbslocal.com 2011) The discourse frames the icon in such a way that the viewer

becomes increasingly sympathetic for the protesters and their cause, and it caused the subject of

police brutality to resurface in the national media of the United States.

While the icon does clearly have an impact on the sociopolitical landscape in the North-

American region thanks to its compositional elements and the contextual discourse, it did not attract

a lot of international attention. This can be attributed to the compositional elements that were

discussed, but I think the biggest cause for the lack of international circulation is that initially, the

21




icon itself was not picked up by many international media outlets, and thus the icon relied entirely

on social media for international circulation. As we know, photojournalistic images are not very

social-media friendly, (Mandiberg 2012) and that explains why the icon itself was not shared to a

large extent. When the icon was posted on social media platform Reddit, (Reddit 2012) the image

had an up-vote percentage of 97%, which is considerable, however the image did not make it past

this platform. Yet, through its appropriations, the icon of the pepper spraying cop did achieve

international notoriety.

Step 3: Appropriations of the icon

The earlier steps showed that the icon of the pepper spraying cop did not speak

'internationality' in itself, and that perhaps because of that the image was not picked up by enough

international media outlets to have a global impact on the sociopolitical landscape. But as discussed

in the introduction, the discussion on police brutality was very much present in all countries where

Occupy protests took place. Perhaps this particular icon relied heavily on its appropriation to make

an international and global impact. The photojournalistic image of the “Pepper Spraying Cop” had a

hard time circulating internationally through classic media as well as through social media channels.

However, in the days following the event the internet was flooded with images of the “Pepper

Spraying Cop”, but these were not the initial photograph, rather they were photoshopped

appropriations of the police officer and his 'chemical weapon'. (Matyszczyk 2011) Indeed

Lieutenant John Pike, on the internet famous under the alias “Pepper Spraying Cop”, had become

an internet meme.

The study of memetics is based on the book by famous atheist Richard Dawkins: The Selfish

Gene. Dawkins states that ideas are not merely created by people, but that people are shaped by

ideas, and that these ideas can spread horizontally through global society, like a virus. (Dawkins

1989) The study of memetics thus does not concern itself with the question of wether an idea is

true, but rather if an idea is successful in surviving in the minds of a large group of people. (Lynch

1996, ix) The meme started with an image of Lieutenant Pike walking through the painting “A

Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte” by George Seurat, and casually pepper

22




spraying one of the inhabitants of the painting. After this, many more depictions of the cop in

famous paintings surfaced on social media and in mainstream news media. (Judkis 2011) After that

it was the turn for meme-mashups, where the icon of the pepper spraying cop was incorporated into

exiting memes or icons. It even sprang a Tumblr page that collected these memes under the caption:

“Little did we know that Pepper Spraying Cop has cracked down on so many famous

moments in history!! We will help document the long pepper spraying arm of the law! Send all text

inquiries to [email protected]. Got photo evidence? Submit this to Tumblr!”

(peppersprayingcop.tumblr.com 2015) The meme did not just stay on the internet and social media.

After the initial memes, the icon of the pepper spraying cop spread to other media formats. Street

art incorporating the icon surfaced, in the style of famous artist Banksy, in various cities around the

world -below-. And the meme even sprang a forty-two page online comic book, relaying the events

of the incident and what happened afterwards.

23

Illustration 11: Spraying in the park

Illustration 13: A nod to Banksy

Illustration 12: Pepper Spraying Cop, incorporated into the NBA logo

Illustration 10: Pepper Spraying Cop by -assumed- Banksy




In addition to these memetic appropriations that were made in different media formats, and which

helped spread knowledge about the incident of police brutality during the OWS protests, there have

been other photographic appropriations that made a critical intervention in news media in other

regions. This concerns images that, while not replicas of the original icon, appropriate the key

elements of the icon in a new regional setting.

Through these appropriations, the same sentiments that the original icon invokes are brought

closer to the global citizen. As already discussed the excluding properties of the icon hampered its

international circulation, and through that its impact on the international sociopolitical landscape.

However, the appropriations of the image that surfaced around the globe gave a change for the icon

to impact other regions as well.

Taking a look at images that rose to iconic status in their region, we can clearly see a

recurring theme in these images. In Turkey with #OccupyGezi, Germany and #Blockupy and China's

#OccupyCentral, the images show similar elements of defenseless and harmless protesters, against

excessive use of force by the police authorities depicted in the photograph.

24




25

Illustration 14: A police officer uses a baton on a pro-democracy protesters near the office of the Chief Executive in Hong Kong on Dec. 1, 2014. Reuters




26

Illustration 15: A Body of Gezi Park. 31 May 2013. From Yücel Tunca via Nar Photos.




27

Illustration 16: Policemen detain members of 'Blockupy' anti-capitalist movement near theEuropean Central Bank (ECB) building before the official opening of its new headquartersin Frankfurt March 18, 2015. (Reuters / Michael Dalder)




All these iconic images gained their status considerably later than the original icon, but as

Lene Hansen accurately states:

“First, even in the case of ‘instant’ icons their effect on policy might not occur within the relatively short time-

frame adopted by studies in the news events tradition. Rather, icons might ‘influence public debate in a more indirect

and long-term fashion’.”(Hansen 2014, 275)(Bennett, Lawrence and Livingston 2006, 481)

The long-term effect of the icon lies in its inter-iconicity. These three appropriations link

back to the original icon, and make a critical intervention on the sociopolitical landscape. In the

case of the Blockupy protests, which started with 6,000 protestors, after the image went viral, the

number of protesters increased to 17,000 people. And the protests turned increasingly violent.

(rt.com 2015) In the case of the Occupy Gezi protests the events during the protest, and namely the

acts of police brutality against the protesters, remain a topic of discussion in domestic and

international media. (Letsch 2014)(Jadaliyya.com 2013) And again the tactics employed by the

authorities, and the quick circulation of the images of protesters being tear-gassed on blogs caused

and increase in support for the protests. (Bianet - Bagimsiz Iletisim Agi 2013) In the case of the

Occupy Central for Love and Peace movement in China, the three instigators of the protest

eventually turned themselves in to the authorities out of fear for more police crackdowns on the

protesters. In a letter they write:

“In the past two weeks, the police have cracked down hard on protesters in the occupied sites. Our young

people have used their bodies to withstand the blows of police batons, their blood and broken bones have brought us the

deepest sorrow. We respect the students’ and citizens’ determination to fight for democracy, and we are furious at the

government’s heartless indifference. A government that uses police batons to maintain its authority is a government that

is beyond reason. For the sake of the occupiers’ safety, for the sake of our original intention of love and peace, as we

prepare to surrender, we three urge the students to retreat – to put down deep roots in the community and transform the

movement to extend the spirit of the Umbrella Movement.“5

Yet before this, images of Hong Kong citizens being tear-gassed circulated in international

5 The letter in its entirety can be read online on the website of the Occupy Central for Love and Peace movement: http://oclp.hk/index.php?route=occupy/eng_detail&eng_id=61

28

http://oclp.hk/index.php?route=occupy/eng_detail&eng_id=61




media, and gave the Umbrella Movement -as it became known as internationally- a much larger

sociopolitical impact. The umbrellas that the protesters used became an iconic international symbol

for peaceful resistance. (Branigan and Kaiman 2014) New protesters keep joining the movement in

the wake of the coverage of the tear-gassed students, "Before Sunday, people were numb, hopeless.

But after the tear gas, we all came out to support each other," says Kason, a 23 year-old engineering

student who was tear-gassed. Cindy Chu, a retired 60-year-old nurse, decided to help after she heard

students were tear gassed. "I was outraged at how casually the government could hurt young

people."(Chan 2014) In these three cases it become very clear that the appropriations all contain

elements of police brutality, and through that have become very effective in governing sympathies

for the Occupying protesters. While the images are not direct appropriations of a discrete icon, the

inter-iconic elements of the generic icon allow these images to impact their own regional

sociopolitical landscape, while linking to the 'larger' icon of police brutality.

In conclusion it can be said that the icon of the “ Pepper Spraying Cop ” has had a

considerable regional impact on the public opinion and sociopolitical landscape in its own region,

but it has relied on its appropriations -in the form of the international meme and the regional

appropriations- to have a global impact. The meme caused a large outcry in the internet community

world-wide, with many young people debating police brutality on blogs and social media. The

regional icons that came to exist later managed to find larger international circulation, because they

referred through inter-iconicity to the icon of the pepper spraying cop that everyone had come to

know. This increased the sociopolitical impact of the subsequent movement greatly, as discussed in

the last section of the case-study.

29




Conclusion

This paper has shed light on the visual dimension of the Occupy Wall Street movement, and

in particular how the visual icon of the Pepper Spraying Cop -through its appropriations- impacted

the sociopolitical landscape around the world. First the concept of the icon was discussed and

defined according to the definition of Hariman and Lucaites as freestanding images that are widely

circulated and became to represent the particular event they covered. This definition was further

narrowed down by introducing the concepts of the generic and discrete icon, and how the concept

of inter-iconicity contributed to the impact of the icon. The way the 'international' is seen in icons

can be approached in two distinct ways: by looking at the circulation in the media which happens

regionally, internationally or globally or by looking at how particular discourses of 'the

international' are communicated through the image. This paper opted to go for the second route on

the basis of critique by the CNN-effect theory that with increasing online -social- media the classic

regional division begins to fade. This article also noted the importance of how an image can

influence the sociopolitical landscape in the long term through its inter-iconicity and its

appropriations. The direct impact of the OWS icon on politics was hard to identify, but it influenced

public opinion enough to impact electoral politics and to shape the discussion in society on the issue

of police brutality.

The framework for analyzing international icon created by Lene Hansen was adapted

slightly to account for the particularities of the icon of the Pepper Spraying Cop. The difference

between the generic and discrete icon, the importance of inter-iconicity and its appropriations, and

the fact that the image did not speak international discourse in a way we would expect international

icons to do were taking into account when shaping the three-step approach that was used in the

case-study of the sociopolitical impact of the icon.

During the case-study it became apparent that the internationality of the icon can be seen

through more than its circulation or how it speaks an international discourse. The icon of the pepper

spraying cop did not circulate internationally nor did its compositional elements speak a particular

international discourse. The icon had significant international impact through the appropriations it

created, both the internet meme and regional appropriations caused a global discussion on the issues

of police brutality and the role of the police as well as increasing the support for the Occupy

30




protests around the world dramatically. This is an important discovery because it opens up the

possibility of memetics -the study of memes- as a valid object of research in both Visuality and

International Relations research. In addition it contributes to the discussion of -international- visual

icons by showing that an icon can have considerable international political impact by showing us an

instance of a greater discussion, in this case police brutality.

When it comes to future research, the study of visual icons shows a lot of promise as a

research subject. As the world becomes increasingly globalized and technological advancement

causes for example citizen journalism -through cellphone pictures and videos- to impact global

politics, International Relations researchers might be forced to really think about these concepts and

pay close attention to theories of visuality and media. This paper already showed that the difference

between what is a 'national' icon and what is a 'global' or 'international' icon is not so clear cut in

this day and age. Another interesting idea is that of hyper-circulation. When information is spread

around the world so fast and in such large volumes, we might see that a significant event creates

multiple icons across different channels. Social media might show one iconic image, where

mainstream media and internet blogs show others, and icons may fade from memory more quickly

as new icons are created to replace them. This calls for a discussion to redefine how temporality

plays into the concept of the icon: does an image have to be lasting in order to be considered iconic,

or is a considerable sociopolitical impact enough to qualify as being iconic? Perhaps the icon I

discussed today will eventually fade from our collective memory, but that does not mean this image

loses its value.

This paper also showed that iconic images have distinct regional qualities in regions other

than the United States and Europe. Previous research focused on icons that were either considered

global, or regional in the United States and Europe, but it is interesting to look at the study of icons

from a more Orientalist perspective. Perhaps the visual is perceived differently in other regions, and

does our obsession for the visual stem from an increasingly visual societal and media-influenced

landscape. Lastly there is still ample opportunity to study other visual aspects of protests

movements. This paper discussed a particular visual icon of the Occupy Wall Street movement, but

there are many other visual dimension to protest movements that can be researched. For example

the role of the visuality of public space and architecture in protest movements, how does the way

we see public space and buildings as occupied by a group of protesters change our view on the

31




protest? And of course how the visual of masks or other identifying visuals changes the

effectiveness of protests.

32




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Framing Sympathies: A Study of a Visual Icon in Occupy Wall Street

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