This gripping iconic photo was taken two days ago by seattlepi.com photographer Joshua Trujillo at an OccupySeattle protest at Westlake Park. The image is of an 84 year old woman who has just been pepper sprayed by the police only moments before. Her eyes are red and swollen, seared with dripping chemicals and painful tears.

The name of the brave woman in the photo is Dorli Rainey. She is an activist and former school teacher who was on a downtown bus on Tuesday night, on her way to a transportation meeting, when she suddenly heard swarms of loud helicopters circling outside and thought:

“Oh boy, I’d better go show solidarity with New York.”

OccupySeattle protesters were demonstrating in solidarity with the Occupy Wall Street activists, who had just been savagely brutalized in the dead of night by police in Zuccotti Park earlier that day. The Seattle Post Intelligencer quotes Rainey explaining what happened when the local police started attacking the peaceful protesters demonstrating:

“They picked up their bicycles and started shoving them at us and confining us in a very small place and they started to pepper spray.”

A pregnant woman and a priest were also among those attacked by the police with pepper spray during the OccupySeattle march. Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn has apologized for the police brutality and excessive use of force inflicted upon the peaceful demonstrators.

Old Lady in Combat Boots

Dorli Rainey has been politically active for decades, and is a self-described “Old Lady in Combat Boots”, which is also the name of her blog. This person is so immensely capable, beautiful and singularly inspiring to me. She completely embodies the tremendous strength, power and tenacity of our growing Occupy movement.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xfLSXddsLhA