Previously, if you searched on “seattle” and “pepper spray” you just got this Yelp thread about where a good place to buy pepper spray might be. And a poll taken November 10 through 13 showed public support for Occupy Wall Street-style protests dropping: “33 percent voiced support for Occupy Wall Street, down from 35 percent in a previous poll.”

But as of this morning, Seattle’s police department has made an 84-year-old woman into the chemical-irritant-caked face of the movement. Occupy Seattle actually would like you to know others pepper-sprayed included “a priest and a pregnant woman who as of this writing is still in the hospital.”

Still, it’s activist Dorli Rainey who has netted the AP interview dedicated to her hosing with law and order:

Rainey is a former school teacher who is well known in local political circles. A self-described “old lady in combat boots,” she briefly entered the 2009 Seattle mayoral race. She quit that contest, saying she was too old.

She said Wednesday she’ll still be taking part in the local Occupy Seattle movement.

“I’m pretty tough, I guess.”

The police department’s vigorous response to the protesters occupying a downtown intersection comes in contrast to other news out of City Hall, where the Seattle City Council unanimously approved Resolution 31337 “committing to a number of actions in response to the Occupy movement.”

Councilmember Nick Licata was quoted as saying, “I am pleased to work with my colleagues on a comprehensive approach for Seattle that can also provide a template for other cities to adopt as we all struggle with how to best respond to the Occupy Movement. The Occupy message is one of a broken economy due to a growing disparity in this country’s wealth, and we can at the very least review the City’s banking and investment practices to ensure that public funds are invested in responsible financial institutions that support our community.”

UPDATE: Mayor McGinn released a statement this afternoon, saying in part:

To those engaged in peaceful protest, I am sorry that you were pepper sprayed. I spoke to Dorli Rainey (who I know personally) to ask how she was doing, and to ask for her description of events.

I also called in Seattle Police Chief John Diaz and the command staff to review the actions of last night. They agreed that this was not their preferred outcome. Here are the steps we are taking in response, to achieve a better outcome next time:

• Reviewing with our officers the deployment of pepper spray last night
• Developing a procedure to ensure appropriate commanders are on the ground at these kinds of events.
• Making sure that we have appropriate levels of police resources at protest events.

Elsewhere, Rage Against the Machine’s Zack de la Rocha was quoted as saying: “This poem is dedicated to the Occupy movement whose courage is changing the world. Stay Strong. We are winning.”

The beginning spills through city veins
Into the arteries
And under powers poison clouds
We move like the shadows
Through the alley ways
Through nightmares bought and sold as dreams
Through barren factories
Through boarded schools
Through rotting fields
Through the burning doors of the past
Through imaginations exploding
To break the curfews in our minds

Our actions awaken dreams of actions multiplied
A restless fury
Once buried like burning embers
Left alone to smolder
But together stacked under the walls of a dying order
All sparks are counted
Calloused hands raised in silence
Over the bonfire of hope unincorporated
It’s flame restores tomorrows meaning
Across the graveyards of hollow promises
As gold dipped vultures pick at what is left of our denial

And the youngest among us
Stare at us stoned like eyes determined
And say
Death for us may come early
Cause dignity has no price
At the corner of now and nowhere
Anywhere
Everywhere
Tomorrow is calling
Tomorrow is calling

Do not be afraid