{"id":20555,"date":"2014-08-19T11:06:41","date_gmt":"2014-08-19T17:06:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/?p=20555"},"modified":"2014-08-19T11:06:41","modified_gmt":"2014-08-19T17:06:41","slug":"ferguson-mo-enjoys-neoliberal-repression-shared-by-bahrain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/?p=20555","title":{"rendered":"Ferguson, MO enjoys Neoliberal Repression shared by Bahrain"},"content":{"rendered":"

What The Police\u2019s \u2018Non Lethal Weapons\u2019 Can Do To Human Bodies<\/strong>
\nby Tara Culp-Ressler – 18 August – Think Progress<\/p>\n

\"riotpoliceferguson\"<\/a>
\nPolice advance after tear gas was used to disperse a crowd of protesters in Ferguson, MO on Sunday – AP Photo\/Charlie Riedel<\/p>\n

The ongoing unrest in Ferguson over 18-year-old Mike Brown\u2019s 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\u2019s midnight curfew.<\/p>\n

U.S. police are increasingly relying on those so-called \u201cnon lethal weapons\u201d for crowd control, a dynamic that\u2019s inspired a national conversation about whether it\u2019s appropriate to arm cops with weapons that are typically used in combat. Indeed, there\u2019s increasing evidence that non lethal weapons can actually inflict serious pain and, in some rare cases, even kill people. Here\u2019s how the police in Ferguson are potentially putting protesters\u2019 health in danger:<\/p>\n

\"fergusongassed\"<\/a>
\nPeople run from tear gas after police dispersed protesters in Ferguson on Sunday night – AP Photo\/Charlie Riedel<\/p>\n

Although tear gas is a chemical agent that\u2019s banned in warfare, it\u2019s 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\u2019 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\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

Although tear gas is classified as non lethal because it\u2019s generally considered to have only short term consequences, some scientists warn that things can quickly go wrong if it\u2019s deployed incorrectly. There have been several reports of people dying in Egypt and Israel after inhaling too much tear gas.<\/p>\n

Opponents of this particular chemical agent point out that there hasn\u2019t 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\u2019s reproductive systems and harm their fetuses.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese agents are certainly not benign,\u201d Sven-Eric Jordt, a professor of pharmacology at Yale University School of Medicine, told the National Geographic in an interview last year. \u201cThere is no way to disconnect the pain that is induced from the physiological inflammatory effects of these agents.\u201d …more<\/a><\/p>\n

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What The Police\u2019s \u2018Non Lethal Weapons\u2019 Can Do To Human Bodies by Tara Culp-Ressler – 18 August – Think Progress Police advance after tear gas was used to disperse a crowd of protesters in Ferguson, MO on Sunday – AP Photo\/Charlie Riedel The ongoing unrest in Ferguson over 18-year-old Mike Brown\u2019s shooting has illustrated the more \u00bb<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[247],"tags":[537,4344],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20555"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/27"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=20555"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20555\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20558,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20555\/revisions\/20558"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=20555"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=20555"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=20555"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}