Tear gas is a chemical weapon banned in war. But Ferguson police shoot it at protesters.

[SummerSnow]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2014/08/14/tear-gas-is-a-chemical-weapon-banned-in-war-but-ferguson-police-shoot-it-at-protesters/?tid=hp_mm

Despite its ubiquity across the globe and in United States, tear gas is a chemical agent banned in warfare per the Chemical Weapons Convention of 1993, which set forth agreements signed by nearly every nation in the world — including the United States. The catch, however, is that while it’s illegal in war, it’s legal in domestic riot control. That means Turkey got to use it on its protesters last year. That meant Bahrain got to the do the same. And now, in Ferguson, cops are likewise blasting residents protesting the police for the killing of an unarmed teen named Michael Brown.

“I was just trying to get to my sister’s house,” one 23-year-old sobbed on his lawn, according to this harrowing report by The Washington Post’s Wesley Lowery, who was arrested by police Wednesday. The man said police had pelted him with rubber bullets and sprayed his face with tear gas.

While that appears to have held true as of Thursday morning, some scientists and international observers contend the tactic of spraying people with tear gas, which commonly uses the chemical agent 2-chlorobenzalmalononitrile (CS), can pose serious dangers. “Tear gas under the Geneva Convention is characterized as a chemical warfare agent, and so it is precluded for use in warfare, but it is used very frequently against civilians,” Sven-Eric Jordt, a nerve gas expert at Yale University School of Medicine, explained to National Geographic. “That’s very illogical.”

[Dawson Leery]

1. If: tear gas used during the OBL raid: illegal.

Tear gas used against American citizens exercising their protected rights: legal.

[cui bono]

2. I did not know that. Thanks. n/t

[Dark n Stormy Knight]

3. Hey, the US doesn't feel constrained by the Geneva Conventions, so why should they let a lesser

known, silly little convention get in the way of punishing dissidents?

[LuvNewcastle]

6. Hell, we're torturing people and holding

them indefinitely without trials. What's a little tear gas at a protest?

[Dark n Stormy Knight]

7. Plus, these are our own people, so MYOB, World Community!

You damn Buttinskis! USA! USA! USA!

[Uncle Joe]

4. And anyone suffering from asthma would have a tough time dealing with it, this could be fatal

especially using it in a tightly packed neighborhood as was done in Ferguson.

Tear Gas makes no discrimination in its affects against protesters or neighbors.

Thanks for the thread, SummerSnow.

[myrna minx]

5. K&r n/t