Some links of general interest

[conuly]

What U.S. police are shooting at protesters

How to protect yourself from rubber bullets—and why these ‘nonlethal’ weapons are so dangerous

Tear Gas Is Way More Dangerous Than Police Let On — Especially During the Coronavirus Pandemic

Quite a flap: the development of the 'Ayrton anti-gas fan' during the First World War

Inside the Taser, the weapon that transformed policing (This one is a repeat)

Comments

[thewayne]

Fuck.

When I worked as a civilian doing IT with a police department in the '90s, they deployed stunbag shotguns as a less than lethal option. These were standard shotguns loaded exclusively with these special shells, the barrels were painted bright orange so the officers wouldn't grab the wrong shotgun by mistake. The shells contains a small beanbag round filled with lead shot that, as I understood it, packed quite a punch and you really didn't want to get hit by one.

Officers responded to a biker gang fight, and there was this one really big dude that just didn't want to stop fighting. Finally the cops decided to tag him with the shotgun. That got his attention, and he turned and charged the cop with the shotgun. He shot him a second time. Biker continued charging. Third shot and he stopped.

They take him to the precinct and start processing him. He asks to go to the bathroom and the take him.

He was peeing blood.

Turns out that the little beanbag requires a certain minimum 'arming' distance for it to spin out flat, if you're within that minimum distance it's effectively (for purposes of discussion) a 2" pouch folded in half, so sort of a U shape, coming right at you. It hit the guy in the abdomen, slid into his side and did some internal damage with very little external bleeding.

He was taken right to the hospital for surgery, and police policy was modified so you didn't shoot people with the beanbag if they were within X feet.

There's no such thing as a non-lethal weapon. There's less than lethal, and those can be deadly on occasion.

Thank you for the links, they were sadly quite informative and rather heartbreaking.

[conuly]

Did he recover?

[thewayne]

I expect he did. I think there would have been a major uproar in the papers had he not: Man Dies From Stunbag Round.

[kengr]

Actually "less than lethal" is no longer considered a proper term as so many things carrying that designation have been found to be able to kill people under the "right" (wrong!) circumstances.

Current preferred etrm is "less lethal" (ie "doesn't kill as often")