📢 Why Is a War Crime Tool Being Used on American Streets?
Tear gas is banned in war but still used against protesters and immigrant detainees. It is time to ban chemical force against civilians.
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Banned in War, Unleashed on the People
Friends,
Tear gas is not “crowd control.” It is chemical force. It is dangerous enough that several countries and the Chemical Weapons Convention prohibits the use of riot-control agents, including tear gas, as a method of warfare, yet the same chemicals are being used by ICE and domestic law enforcement.1 That double standard should outrage every person who believes in freedom: too dangerous for war, but somehow acceptable against protesters, journalists, neighborhoods, and detained immigrants.
Tear gas does not “restore order.” It burns eyes, chokes lungs, irritates skin, and can cause coughing, wheezing, shortness of breath, nausea, and vomiting. The CDC warns that prolonged exposure or large doses can cause severe harm, including blindness, glaucoma, respiratory failure, and even death, with greater danger in closed indoor spaces where people cannot escape.2
And now, new reporting shows this crisis reaches inside America’s immigration detention system. The Washington Post reported that internal ICE records revealed at least 780 incidents in which staff used physical force or chemical agents to control immigrant detainees during the first year of Trump’s second term, including guards firing chemical pepper balls into a communal room in Alaska and using pepper spray on detainees in Georgia who said they had not been seen by medical staff.3
This is not safety. This is state violence. In Portland, a federal judge restricted federal officers’ use of tear gas at protests outside an ICE facility after evidence showed peaceful protesters and journalists being sprayed, gassed, and hit with munitions. The court described DHS officers spraying peaceful protesters in the face and firing tear gas and pepper-ball munitions into crowds of peaceful and nonviolent protesters.4
A free people cannot be gassed into silence. Protest is not a crime. Demanding food, water, medical care, dignity, and justice is not violence. We need a nationwide ban on the use of tear gas and chemical crowd-control agents against civilians, protesters, journalists, and people in detention. A democracy cannot survive if dissent is treated like an enemy force. And a government that uses chemical agents against the people is not protecting order—it is exposing its fear of people power.
We must demand a nationwide ban on the use of tear gas against our civilians. Protecting public safety means ensuring the right to gather, speak out, and petition for change without fear of chemical attack. A free people cannot be gassed into silence. Proper security lies in justice, not in repression.
💥 Take Action NOW
Take Action to Tell Congress: Don’t silence dissent with tear gas
Take Action to Stop Trump from Deploying Troops in U.S. Cities
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Together, we can protect and empower those we love, champion our rights, freedoms, and democracy, hold our leaders accountable to the people’s will, and inspire voters to make a meaningful difference.
Laurie Woodward Garcia (paid with hugs and kisses, not bought by special interests), People Power United
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I just sent letters to my State Reps. This should be a crime .
The fact that we went to war “because Saddam Hussein used chemical weapons on his people” and the American people backed it, but we’re cool with using those same weapons on our own people frustrates me to no end