What does pepper spray do?

I wrote a post for Provoketive magazine on the UC Davis pepper spray incident. I realize that we’re a very uniquely blessed country, because people in other countries like Syria get shot at with live bullets when they protest. What makes us who we are as America is our respect for political dissent. If we lose that, we lose our soul as a country. I don’t agree with everything that the kids at UC Davis were protesting, but they shouldn’t have been pepper-sprayed for sitting on the ground with their arms linked together. Here’s the link: http://provoketive.com/2011/11/23/what-does-pepper-spray-do/