In the midst of the chaos in downtown #LNK early Sunday morning, I found this on the ground outside the City-County Building on 10 Street. By this point, photographer @justin_wan and I, who were documenting the protest-turned-riot, had been tear gassed at least twice.
Here's a link to the website of the maker of the product, Defense Technologies, which describes it as being ideal for "crowd control as well as tactical deployment situations...but was designed with the barricade situation in mind."
defense-technology.com/products/chemi…
From @propublica:
"CS activates a specific pain receptor, one that’s also triggered by eating wasabi...But CS is much more powerful, up to 100,000 times stronger than the sting from wasabi." propublica.org/article/tear-g…
"The compound degrades the mucus membranes in your eyes, nose, mouth and lungs — the layers of cells that help protect people from viruses and bacteria."
"Scientists know little about how CS affects the general public."
WTF
Welp.
From a 1989 Journal of the American Medical Association: researchgate.net/publication/20…
Here’s another grenade remnant from the Near South neighborhood. This one splits into three parts before it gases the area. For “non-military police riot control.”
This tear gas cartridge is designed to be fired grenade launcher style and has an effective range of 75 meters.
“To be used by trained law enforcement, corrections, or military personnel.”
Here's a look at the bean bags and pepper ball munitions, which deploy an irritant powder after they hit someone, that were used by law enforcement against protesters in #LNK on May 30-31.
And another tear gas grenade that was thrown towards protesters standing by the U-Stop gas station on May 31. I found a spec sheet for a similar product: nonlethaltechnologies.com/pdf/DS/MPG.pdf
Thanks to everyone who collected these weapons off the street and got in touch with me. It is certainly helping to inform my reporting.
If anyone else has pictures or videos of tear gas canisters, rubber bullets, etc., please shoot me a DM!
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