Chemical Weapons

Federal Judge Finds Portland In Contempt For Use Of Tear Gas

December 1, 2020 Conrad Wilson, Oregon Public Broadcasting. Resist! Chemical Weapons, Legal System, Oregon, Police violence

Late Monday, a federal judge in Portland found the city in contempt of a court order that limited police officers’ use of tear gas and other crowd control devices during racial justice protests. In his ruling, U.S. District Court Chief Judge Marco Hernandez said that, on June 30, the city violated his order several times. The order, issued on June 26, mandated police limit their use of tear gas and other crowd control devices to instances in which the lives and safety of police or members of the public were at risk. It also said that such devices “shall not be used” against people engaged in passive resistance.

Black Lives Matter DC Vs Trump

November 7, 2020 ACLU DC. Resist! Chemical Weapons, Legal System, Police violence, Washington DC

Without provocation, the President and Attorney General directed their agents in the U.S. Secret Service, U.S. Park Police, D.C. National Guard, and Federal Bureau of Prisons to fire tear gas, pepper spray capsules, rubber bullets and flash bombs into the crowd to shatter the peaceful gathering, forcing demonstrators to flee the area. Many peaceful demonstrators were injured, some severely, by this unprovoked attack. The President and Attorney had no legitimate basis to assault the peaceable gathering. Their professed purpose–to clear the area to permit the President to walk to a photo opportunity at a nearby church...

Media Silence Marks Ongoing OPCW Cover-Up Of Syria Chemical Weapons Scandal

November 7, 2020 Alan Macleod, Mintpress News. Educate! Chemical Weapons, Media, OPCW, Syria

This should be a global scandal,” said journalist Aaron Maté on the suppression of evidence from experts from the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) in order to push for war in Syria. “This is the U.S. government bombing Syria based on allegations that were later found by the investigating team to be false. But then once that team came back to write their report they were pressured by the U.S. government and had their evidence censored.” Unfortunately, it has not become a global scandal.

DC Police Ramp Up Aggressive Tactics After March On Washington

August 31, 2020 Jenny Gathright, DCist. Resist! Chemical Weapons, March on Washington, Police violence, Washington DC

Friday’s March on Washington brought massive crowds to downtown D.C. and ended without any significant confrontations between police and protesters. But as demonstrations bled into the weekend, the response from authorities took a combative turn. Locals who had been going to demonstrations in the District since the end of May said it was some of the most aggressive policing they had experienced at protests. Police deployed flash bangs and sprayed protesters with chemical irritants. Street medics with Medics for Justice, who have organized to provide medical assistance at protests throughout the summer, rushed to aid protesters who had chemical sprays in their eyes and were injured by what appeared to be nonlethal bullets and flashbangs.

Police Use Violence On Protesters Against Police Violence

August 21, 2020 Jake Mysliwczyk, Pittsburgh Current. Resist! Chemical Weapons, Pittsburgh, Police violence, Rebellion2020

A group of protesters gathered again Wednesday evening at the Point Breeze home of Pittsburgh mayor Bill Peduto to protest the snatching of a protest marshal off the street over the weekend by heavily armed police officers in an unmarked white van. This was the second consecutive night of protests. On Tuesday evening, an even larger crowd showed up at Peduto’s front door and spent the night until they were ordered by Police to leave at 10 a.m. Wednesday morning. A different scene unfolded Wednesday evening though, as the group was met by Peduto sitting on his front porch, waiting to talk.

Activists Blockade Entrance To Chemical Weapons Maker

August 18, 2020 War Resisters League. Resist! Blockade, Chemical Weapons, Pennsylvania, Rebellion2020

Jamestown, PA - Five activists blockaded the entrance of Combined Systems Inc. on Monday with giant tear gas cans and gas masks, refusing to move. These five are with a group of 40 activists from cities across the U.S. who are onsite in Jamestown, PA with the goal of shutting down operations at Combined Systems Inc. for the day. Outside the facility, other activists staked over a hundred yard signs, each with the name of a different city where tear gas has been used against people. By shutting down this facility, we are here to put CSI President Jacob Kravel on notice that his company’s production of tear gas must come to an end.

The Feds Left, But The Battle For Portland Continues

August 13, 2020 Shane Burley, ROAR Magazine. Resist! Chemical Weapons, federal law enforcement, Police violence, Portland

Protests at the federal Justice Center in downtown Portland have become a nightly ritual, but protesters have also been expanding their reach across the city. Demonstrations at various precinct offices and the Portland Police Association, the police union, have drawn crowds of hundreds. In recent days, the demonstrations focused on these “satellite offices,” mainly because now that the federal officers have left, people’s attention turned back to the local police. On both August 6 and 7, the East Precinct, near the edges of the city proper, were overwhelmed by protesters.

Vietnam Veteran Sprayed With Chemical Weapon In Portland Protest

July 28, 2020 Graig Graziosi, Independent. Resist! Chemical Weapons, Police violence, Portland, Veterans

Federal troops were filmed pepper spraying an elderly Vietnam War veteran who was attending a protest in Portland over the weekend. The veteran, Mike Hastie, was standing several feet from a line of federal troops and shouting at them about his time in Vietnam when a troop rushed him from his side and sprayed pepper spray in his face. Mr Hastie was rebuking the troops for following orders he believes are unlawful rather than upholding an oath to the US Constitution. He continued yelling at the federal troops as they walked away despite having the pepper spray in his eyes.

Using Chemical Agents On Peaceful Protesters In A Pandemic

July 27, 2020 By Benjamin G. Davis, Jurist. Educate! Chemical Weapons, COVID-19, health, Police violence

Remember the protestors with guns walking into statehouses and protesting the stay at home orders? Do you remember a single case where teargas or pepper spray was used against those nearly all white protestors who were protesting in the sense of trying to encourage reopening which is what the Executive has been imprudently pushing? Fast forward to this last week. Were teargas and pepper spray used on looters? No. It was used on peaceful protestors who were protesting after the murder of George Floyd. Now, given teargas and pepper spray have the nefarious quality of causing people to cough and sneeze and rub their eyes, you see where I am going. If 5 percent of the protestors were infected with COVID-19, these riot control agents were operating as accelerants of community spread.

Judge Rejects Oregon’s Motion For A Restraining Order Against Federal Police

July 25, 2020 Aaron Mesh, Willamette Weekly. Educate! Chemical Weapons, Legal System, Portland, Rebellion2020

A federal judge on Friday afternoon denied a request by Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum to issue a temporary restraining order against federal officers making arrests of Portland protesters without probable cause. In his ruling, U.S. District Judge Michael W. Mosman said Rosenblum had failed to provide sufficient evidence that such arrests were occurring widely in the streets of Portland or were part of a federal policy. (Disclosure: Rosenblum is married to the co-owner of WW's parent company.) He ruled that because the state of Oregon couldn't establish a pattern or policy, it lacked the legal standing to seek to halt future incidents.

Federal Agents Use Tear Gas To Clear Portland Protest

July 25, 2020 Gillian Flaccus and Sarah Cline, AP News. Educate! Chemical Weapons, Freedom of Assembly, Portland, Rebellion2020

Thousands of protesters gathered outside the federal courthouse in Portland, Oregon, into the early hours of Saturday shooting fireworks at the building as plumes of tear gas, dispensed by U.S. agents, lingered above. The demonstration went on for hours until federal agents entered the crowd around 2:30 a.m. and marched in a line down the street, clearing remaining protesters with tear gas at close range. They also extinguished a large fire in the street outside the courthouse. The Federal Protective Service had declared the gathering as “an unlawful assembly” and cited that officers had been injured.

How Tear Gas Became A Staple Of US Law Enforcement

June 29, 2020 By Lauren Vespoli, JSTOR Daily. Educate! Bonus Army, Chemical Weapons, Police violence, Tear Gas

On July 28, 1932, President Herbert Hoover dispatched federal troops and tanks to disperse the “Bonus Army,” tens of thousands of jobless World War I veterans and their families who’d been protesting in the nation’s capital. The troops used tear gas. Two men and two infants were reported dead. As one of the first major protests in which the American government used tear gas—which is considered a weapon of war—on its own citizens, the Bonus Army incident created public outrage, ruining any chance of Hoover’s reelection. For the chemical companies trying to sell tear gas to law enforcement, however, the Bonus Army was a successful demonstration of their product.

Police Under Pressure To End Training Programmes With Israel

June 27, 2020 Sharen Khalel, Middle East Monitor. Resist! Chemical Weapons, Israel, Police violence, Policing

The video of a white police officer kneeling on the neck of George Floyd, an unarmed African American, for nearly nine minutes as he slowly died, gasping for air, has struck a familiar chord with many Palestinians and anti-occupation activists. Since his death in late May, footage of Floyd pleading: "I can't breathe" and "they're going to kill me," has emerged alongside videos and stills of Israeli security forces taking similar positions over the necks of unarmed Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and besieged Gaza Strip. The Israeli police force has tried to distance itself from any perceived similarities, issuing statements denouncing what happened and stating that its officers are not trained to use knee-to-neck techniques. But photographs taken as recently as March have shown Israeli forces using the same restraint on unarmed protesters just yards from the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem's Old City.

Oakland: Restraining Order Restricts Teargas, Flashbangs And Projectiles

June 20, 2020 IndyBay.org. Create! Chemical Weapons, Militarized police, Oakland, Police violence

On June 18, 2020, at 1 pm, an Oakland judge issued a Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) and Order to Show Cause against the Oakland Police Department. The order was filed by civil rights attorneys Dan Siegel and Walter Riley and National Lawyers Guild - San Francisco Bay Area attorney James Burch. This initial victory is part of a larger lawsuit by the attorneys on behalf of two organizational plaintiffs, Anti Police-Terror Project and Community Ready Corps, and individual plaintiffs, Oakland Tech student Akil Riley and protestors Ian Mcdonnell, Nico Nada, Azize Ngo, and Jennifer Li on behalf of themselves and similarly situated individuals. As described by Dan Siegel, "The temporary restraining order issued by the court at 6 pm tonight is an important victory for the people of Oakland and the struggle against police terror.

Here’s What ‘Nonlethal’ Weapons Can Do To The Body

June 18, 2020 By Amy McKeever, National Geographic. Educate! Chemical Weapons, health, Police violence, Rebellion2020, Tear Gas

Civil unrest in the wake of George Floyd's death has spread around the world, and in some places, protesters are being met with tear gas, rubber bullets, stun guns, and other tactics intended to control crowds without taking lives. Known as nonlethal or less-lethal weapons, many of these tactics were originally pitched as a way to make warfare more humane by incapacitating a person or encouraging them to flee. Law enforcement agencies later adopted these weapons from the military as an alternative to using firearms. Yet people who study nonlethal weapons wonder if reclassification is in order, as research continues to reveal their damaging ramifications on the body. When misused, these weapons break bones, burn the skin, and cause internal injuries that can be fatal. Here’s a look at when and why serious injuries occur with nonlethal weapons, and what people can do to protect themselves.

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