Tear Gas: Too Dangerous for War But Not Our Neighborhoods?
On May 31st the protests and riots happened in downtown Bellevue, the place that I call home. From my apartment on the 25th floor, I witness hundreds of people, all dressed in black, racing towards my building, ready to loot designer stores like Louis Vuitton and Gucci. At the same time, hundreds more marched the roads with brightly colored posters. We want justice! We want peace! Black Lives Matter! In a few minutes, my view of the chaos hindered by a dense layer of what appeared to be smoke, but truly was a crowd control weapon, tear gas.
Later that night, I went outside for a walk. When I stepped out of the building, I could smell the foul stench of gasoline and something burning, my eyes started to tear up, and my throat felt itchy. It had been hours after the protesters had left, but the smoke from the tear gas had decided to stay. For how long? I did not know.
I am an Indian teenage girl living in America. I understand the importance of free speech, racial equality, and movements like Black Lives Matter. I understand there is an issue of police brutality in our nation, and I wish, like many others, for a safe future. But some decisions are made that do not prioritize the safety of civilians. On Saturday, July 25, 2020, the Seattle City Council passed a two-week block on the law banning crowd control weapons such as tear gas.
However, for the safety of everyone, from protesters to police officers to bystanders like me, this ban should not have been blocked.
After World War I, in the 1925 Geneva Protocol, tear gas was considered a chemical warfare agent and banned in the use of war. Although this is true, the ban was placed with an emphasis on war and not other things like police enforcement. So, we kept seeing this crowd control weapon being used in our local police departments. According to the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention), tear gas, more generally known as a riot-control agent, is composed of chemical elements, such as chlorobenzylidene malononitrile (CS), that work to irritate the exposed area of contact. Short term effects of exposure include blurred vision, runny nose, coughing, and vomiting, some of the experiences that I encountered when exposed to tear gas. Meanwhile, long term effects of exposure include blindness and death due to chemical burns in the throat and lungs.
Although the lethality of these weapons may be low, while in a global pandemic, even the short term effects could endanger people. From an article in KUOW, disease physician Rachel Bender Ignacia says, “exposure to chemical irritants certainly makes the airways more susceptible to infection. If people are coughing from any of these chemical irritants, then that increases their risk of spreading [Covid-19] to fellow protesters and law enforcement as well.” Also, having medical constraints such as asthma could even make it more likely to have long term effects when exposed to tear gas.
Sara Grossman, a 22-year-old woman from Ohio, died two days after being exposed to tear gas at a local George Floyd protest. Although her autopsy revealed that she died of natural causes, a spontaneous coronary artery dissection (SCAD), this doesn’t necessarily mean that the crowd control weapons didn’t have an impact on her death. SCAD blocks blood flow in the heart, and although doctors do not have a theory on what causes the blockage, the chemical burns in the throat, lungs, and heart from the exposure to tear gas and pepper spray could have been the cause of Sara’s death.
Furthermore, tear gas, contradictory to its name, is made up of solid chemicals, meaning that when discharged from its container, it adheres to the surface of roads, trees, bushes, and sidewalks, harming the environment and polluting the air. So why did the City Council block the law banning the use of these dangerous weapons? Well, according to the Seattle Times, the Seattle Police Department and City Council believe using tear gas and other crowd-control weapons is safer than using guns to enforce peace during protests. Although it is true that when used, guns are more lethal than tear gas, the probability of using a gun for enforcement during protests is much lower than that of using tear gas. So considering the heavy use of tear gas during recent protests, the weapon is as much of a threat to protesters and police officers as guns.
Yes, I understand that it is important to enforce safety during the rising protests. But I also know that these protests are meant to be peaceful and that it shouldn’t take tear gas or violence to be safely executed. By the first amendment, we have the right to free speech and petition. Risking the lives of hundreds of protesters, police officers, and bystanders should not be the price we have to pay to enforce peace. People come to protests to support a cause that they believe in, and they come from all different medical backgrounds. How is it okay for the council to just decide that no one would be harmed by the use of tear gas? How could a weapon illegal to be used during war be allowed to use during these protests?
The ban on crowd control weapons should once again be placed. Protesters shouldn’t have to risk their lives to speak up about what they believe in, police officers shouldn’t have to unnecessarily risk their lives to enforce peace, and bystanders like me shouldn’t have to constantly worry about risking their health by just walking on the streets.