What The Police’s ‘Non Lethal Weapons’ Can Do To Human Bodies
Posted in Main Blog (All Posts) on August 18th, 2014 11:08 pm by HL
What The Police’s ‘Non Lethal Weapons’ Can Do To Human Bodies
There’s increasing evidence that crowd control tactics can actually inflict serious pain.
The post What The Police’s ‘Non Lethal Weapons’ Can Do To Human Bodies appeared first on ThinkProgress.
Police advance after tear gas was used to disperse a crowd of protesters in Ferguson, MO on Sunday
CREDIT: AP Photo/Charlie Riedel
The ongoing unrest in Ferguson over 18-year-old Mike Brown’s shooting has illustrated the increasingly blurry line between law enforcement and military combat, as heavily armed police forces in riot gear have repeatedly clashed with unarmed protesters. On Sunday night, that tension was on full display, and police reportedly fired tear gas and rubber bullets into the crowds well before the town’s midnight curfew.
U.S. police are increasingly relying on those so-called “non lethal weapons” for crowd control, a dynamic that’s inspired a national conversation about whether it’s appropriate to arm cops with weapons that are typically used in combat. Indeed, there’s increasing evidence that non lethal weapons can actually inflict serious pain and, in some rare cases, even kill people. Here’s how the police in Ferguson are potentially putting protesters’ health in danger:
Tear Gas
People run from tear gas after police dispersed protesters in Ferguson on Sunday night
CREDIT: AP Photo/Charlie Riedel
Although tear gas is a chemical agent that’s banned in warfare, it’s perhaps the most common method of crowd control at protests around the world. Tear gas activates pain receptors in the body, causing a sensation of burning in subjects’ eyes, noses, and throats. In response to the pain, victims typically cough and choke, and their bodies produce excessive tears and mucous in an attempt to flush out the chemical. Because there are so many pain receptors in the cornea, it’s usually impossible for them to keep their eyes open, and some people report temporary blindness. People who suffer from asthma, or people who have been sprayed with tear gas in an enclosed space, often struggle to breathe.
Although tear gas is classified as non lethal because it’s generally considered to have only short term consequences, some scientists warn that things can quickly go wrong if it’s deployed incorrectly. There have been several reports of people dying in Egypt and Israel after inhaling too much tear gas.
Opponents of this particular chemical agent point out that there hasn’t been enough conclusive research into its potential long term health effects. Physicians for Human Rights has documented several cases in which people in Bahrain have suffered miscarriages, respiratory failure, and persistent blindness after being exposed to tear gas. The Chilean government suspended the use of tear gas in 2011 over concerns that the chemicals could damage women’s reproductive systems and harm their fetuses.
“These agents are certainly not benign,” Sven-Eric Jordt, a professor of pharmacology at Yale University School of Medicine, told the National Geographic in an interview last year. “There is no way to disconnect the pain that is induced from the physiological inflammatory effects of these agents.”
Rubber Bullets
A demonstrator shows injures caused by rubber bullets fired by the police during an anti-government protest in Venezuela this February
CREDIT: AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd
There have been multiple reports of protesters in Ferguson being hit with rubber bullets, which are intended to deter people by inflicting superficial wounds. Some people are posting photos of their injuries on Twitter. One image that’s gotten a lot of attention over the past week is a photo of a rubber bullet wound sustained by Renita Lamkin, an African Methodist Episcopal church pastor. She was reportedly calmly repeating “Jesus, Jesus, Jesus” when she was struck in her side.
These less lethal bullets typically cause abrasions, bruising, and bleeding. In some cases, they can lead to small bone fractures. According to a review of the tactics used by the Isreali police force during riots in 2000 published in the medical journal The Lancet, people often sustain serious injuries from being hit with rubber coated bullets. Researchers found that 152 people were admitted to Israeli hospitals in early October 2000 with rubber bullet wounds; 19 percent of those were considered to “severe wounds,” and three people were permanently blinded. Other studies have found that getting shot in the face with a rubber bullet can lead to serious facial injuries, leading researchers to conclude that they’re “less lethal but extremely harmful weapons.”
It’s possible to die from a rubber bullet, particularly if you’re hit at close range or struck in the face or neck. Between 1970 and 1975, the British military reportedly killed 13 people in Northern Ireland with rubber bullets. Autopsy reports of Palestinian civilian fatalities between 1987 and 1993 concluded that rubber bullets killed at least 20 people. Here in North America, there have been seven known fatalities in the U.S. and Canada from these weapons.
Rubber bullets have long been a controversial aspect of crowd control. Human Rights Watch, which has spoken out against the use of excessive police force in protests in Brazil, Ukraine, and Egypt, has also recently criticized police for using rubber bullets against the crowd in Ferguson.
Wooden Pellets
CREDIT: Twitter
Several news outlets have confirmed that police in Ferguson have been firing wooden pellets into the crowd. “Those are less lethal wooden baton rounds,” a law enforcement spokesperson told the Guardian in an email.
Wooden baton rounds were designed to bounce at shin height, striking protesters on the leg and inflicting minor injuries. This type of crowd control was popularized in Hong Kong during periods of labor unrest in the 1960s, but was quickly deemed too unsafe for Western European countries, which made the switch to rubber bullets since they don’t carry an increased risk of splintering.
Wooden pellets cause the same type of welts, abrasions, and bleeding that rubber bullets do. Earlier this week, 26-year-old Steve Walsh told the Guardian that he was struck in the neck by a wooden pellet as he was walking to the home of his two-month-old son and got caught up in the protests. It left him drenched in sweat with a bloody wound behind his ear. “I almost fainted,” Walsh, whose photo has been circulating on Twitter, said. “Blood just started coming out. I was just walking through.”
This type of weapon has sparked litigation in the past. After firing wooden pellets on Iraq War protesters in 2003, the Oakland City Counsel paid 24 anti-war demonstrators $145,000 to settle claims that Oakland police officers had violated their civil rights by using excessive force. At least 54 people were injured in that protest from both wooden and rubber bullets. That suit spurred the California Police Department to adopt new regulations prohibiting the use of non lethal weapons for crowd control.
Long Range Acoustic Devices
Carl Gruenler, vice president of military and government operations for LRAD Corporation, displays a Long Range Acoustic Device
CREDIT: AP PHoto/Lenny Ignelzi
Long Range Acoustic Devices, or LRADs, are sound cannons that use loud and high-pitched sounds to induce pain. Developed by the LRAD Corporation, this weapon was initially intended to help the U.S. Navy deter pirates — but over the past several years, they’ve increasingly been used by cops to disperse protesters. The LRAD Corporation’s website notes that the Santa Ana Police Department, the Pittsburgh Police Department, the New York Police Department, and the Boston Police Department have all used LRAD technology in an attempt to control crowds. And now, there are several reports that police in Ferguson have repeatedly used LRADs against the residents.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), being exposed to sounds at or above 120 decibels can put people at risk for hearing loss. (For reference, a normal conversation is typically around 60 decibels and a lawnmower clocks in at about 90 decibels.) LRADs can blast sounds at well above that threshold, reaching up to 160 decibels.
Anyone within 300 meters of a LRAD’s sound path will experience headaches; people within 100 meters will experience extreme pain. “In Pittsburgh, they directed the LRAD at a crowd coming up the center of a wide street, then sent tear gas canisters down the sides of the street. Tear gas is painful, but everyone ran into the tear gas to get out of the LRAD path,” one protester told Salon after participating in a demonstration against a NATO summit in 2009, the first documented case of cops using the weapon against U.S. civilians.
Some people may even experience permanent hearing damage. Karen Piper, an English professor, sued the city of Pittsburgh for using a LRAD against people during that 2009 protest after she was plagued with long term medical side effects. Piper was hit at close range with the sound waves from the weapon; she became nauseous, mucous discharged from her ear, and she developed a severe headache. Since then, she has continued to suffer from permanent nerve damage, dizziness, pain, and a permanent ringing in her ears.
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Alabama Prisons Are Facing A Record-Breaking Tuberculosis Outbreak
This unprecedented public health conundrum comes on the heels of a major court case stemming from the poor medical treatment of prisoners.
The post Alabama Prisons Are Facing A Record-Breaking Tuberculosis Outbreak appeared first on ThinkProgress.
Inmates walk the halls in formation at Tutwiler Prison for Women in Wetumpka, Ala. Two advocacy groups filed a lawsuit on June 17, 2014, claiming the state is failing to provide basic medical and mental health care to inmates.
CREDIT: Dave Martin/AP
The Alabama Department of Corrections (DOC) currently faces its worst tuberculosis outbreak in five years. Prison officials reported nine cases so far this year, a significant increase from the fewer than five infections documented annually.
This unprecedented public health conundrum comes on the heels of a major court case stemming from the poor medical treatment of prisoners in Alabama’s DOC and overcrowding of the correctional institutions, including St. Clair Correctional Facility, which holds 300 more inmates than space allows.
Tuberculosis, a contagious bacterial infection also known as TB, infects the lungs and spreads to other organs if not treated immediately. Common symptoms include chronic cough, fever, night sweats, and weight loss. Some experts say it’s common to confuse TB for less deadly illnesses like pneumonia or bronchitis. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, TB is more common in prisons than in the general population.
To prevent the spread of the disease, St. Clair — the site of all but one TB case — isn’t accepting new inmates, and prison officials are transferring other inmates to other institutions.
“This is a very serious outbreak,” Pam Barrett, director of the tuberculosis control, told the Associated Press. “We think we’re at the end of it. The Department of Corrections is a hotbed of TB because of the living arrangements.”
In June, the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) and the Alabama Disabilities Advocacy Center filed a lawsuit against Alabama’s DOC on behalf of 40 inmates after one had his foot amputated upon contracting gangrene and another succumbed to prostate cancer, despite tests that identified “rising cancer markers.”
Joshua Dunn, an inmate with bipolar disorder, also allegedly suffered more than a dozen stab wounds and slit his wrists on a couple occasions. During a press conference, SPLC’s Maria Morris touched on the prison system’s failure to provide Dunn with adequate mental health care.
“The results that we found are shameful,” Morris told NY Daily News. “People are suffering and even dying because their obvious medical and mental health care needs are not being met. [Dunn] begged for mental health care. He wasn’t provided with mental health care. He was provided with razor blades in order to shave.”
The dearth of adequate health care is not unique to Alabama’s prison system. In 2012, more than 33,000 inmates filed a class-action lawsuit against Arizona’s department of corrections for failing to hire medical personnel and withholding mental health care to inmates suffering from thoughts of suicide. According to court documents, inmates had to wait years to receive treatment for broken teeth and fractured bones. Other inmates’ mental health reportedly declined after 24-hour stints in solitary confinement.
Earlier this year, a neutral assessment of the California prison system found that severe overcrowding led to instances preventable illness, death and suicide. According to a report compiled by the County of Monterey and a plaintiff in a high-profile case against the prison system, inmates were often hospitalized because prison officials neglected injuries and did not administer the appropriate medication. Inmates on pretrial detention also suffered fractured skull bones and vision loss upon violent contact with offenders.
Rikers Island in New York has also had its share of bad press. A four-month investigation by the New York Times found that more than 120 mentally ill inmates at the correctional facility often suffered deafening blows to the body at the hands of corrections officers during an 11-month period. Five of the reported beatings followed inmate suicide attempts. New York mental health officials said that the prison system’s inability to treat the growing mental health population — which now stands at more than 40 percent — plays a role in the violence between inmates and assaults by officers not trained to provide adequate mental health care.
According to a 2007 issue of the Journal of American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law, the majority of the nation’s prisoner population — many of whom come from economically disadvantaged backgrounds and have substance abuse problems — suffers from ailments including major depression, personality disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, and Asperger’s syndrome, a high-functioning form of autism. State prison systems have not been able to keep up.
Some experts link the overcrowding of American prisons and deterioration of mental health services to policies enacted during the Reagan administration that deinstitutionalized mental health care in the country. The prison population, which has tripled in the last 30 years, includes nearly 70 percent of inmates that suffer from mental ailments and substance abuse problems. A shift in resources from clinics and hospitals to prisons has made the Cook County prison system in Illinois, Los Angeles County’s prison system, and Rikers Island in New York three of the nation’s largest mental health care providers to date.
The post Alabama Prisons Are Facing A Record-Breaking Tuberculosis Outbreak appeared first on ThinkProgress.
