Non-Lethal weapons have not only evolved over time, use of them has become more common. From rubber bullets and tear gas canisters fired by special “guns” we’ve gotten bean-bag rounds, ‘sponge rounds’, pepper spray balls etc. If struck with any of these it’s painful as hell in with some non-lethal munitions incapacitating. If struck in the head or neck it can life altering or even lethal. It can kill a person. That’s why every law enforcement agency’s people including those with DHS are taught and trained NOT to shoot people in the head or neck with non-lethal munitions (ammo).
The fact is, we are seeing an increase in people being struck in the head with non lethal munitions, and from short, almost point blank range. I don’t know about you but I think there’s been an unofficial directive to ramp up use of force. Renee Good was shot at point blank range with a standard issue handgun that shoots ammo designed to be lethal. There’s no getting around that. However, shooting people in the head or neck with non-lethal ammo like rubber bullets or even pepper balls will at best cause serious injury. And yes, even death. The way things are going it’s only a matter of time, especially if some ICE goober/THUG “accidently” hits someone in the head with a tear gas cannister fired from a weapon designed to shoot the things. (How much to you want to bet some have practiced from 35-30 yards away from a target on a range?)
Recently we’ve seen multiple people blinded. The Guardian reports two people were shot in the head at a recent anti-ice rally in Santa Ana, California. Both are now blind in one eye. “They said it was a miracle I survived” one of the victims, Kaden Rummler said his doctors told him. I’m not surprised:
Widely seen video recorded at the Santa Ana protest showed a homeland security agent shoot Kaden Rummler, 21, in the face with a less-lethal munition at a distance of only a few feet. Doctors found glass shards and plastic fragments in his skull and a fragment of metal lodged just shy of his carotid artery.
Video also showed the federal officer drag Rummler several yards across the pavement and into a federal building after shooting him. The shooting left him blind in his left eye.
“I can’t sneeze or cough because it’s dangerous,” Rummler told KTLA. “They pulled a piece of plastic the size of a nickel out of my eye.”
Rummler it should be noted is a guy but a small one. The Guardian reports him as being 5’1″ and 102lbs. There’s nothing to indicate he had any weapons, not even a Subway Sandwich to throw at the ‘bigly tough brave patriot ICE agents that would require them to leave their position at the top of the steps to grab him and drag him up those same steps before shooting him in the face with a ‘non-lethal’ round. Frankly, it sure as hell look like if they didn’t outright intend to kill him they sure as hell didn’t care if he DID die.
You see, shooting Renee Good at point blank range with ammo designed to kill people didn’t scare off all us “mean” people who take to the streets to protest the intentional cruelty/brutality. How DARE we not only keep protesting but do so in increasing numbers? The Bidgly Bad ICE agents are all butt-hurt that we aren’t cowering in fear in our homes, hiding in a closet! How hurt are ICE’s fee fees? This happened out in CALIFORNIA, so to make their point they shot not one but TWO people in the face with what are supposed to be non-lethal weapons, blinding the second one too!
A second person, 31-year-old Britain Rodriguez, described taking a similar close-range shot to the face with a less-lethal round at the same protest, saying it felt like his “eye exploded in my head”, in an interview with the Los Angeles Times published on Friday.
A common refrain from pundits and experts since the killing of Renee Good is that what happened to her was inevitable. It was just a matter of time. I’ve said before and I’ll say it again here it’s not crazy talk to suggest she was profiled. Minneapolis and the state of Minnesota in general is awfully white. ICE Barbie and no doubt Stephen Miller I believe made a choice – terrorize Americans into submission. Find a WHITE WOMAN to shoot and even kill in some white suburb. With all the folks showing up to honk horns, blow whistles, etc. all over the city sooner or later they’d find some white woman in a soccer mom type vehicle. They did and you know the rest.
Team Trump is truly astounded at the reaction. And they are pissed. Polling indicates an overwhelming number of Americans think their lame-assed justifications are the very bullshit they are. Still, even though another protester in Minneapolis has been shot while in his vehicle, this time in the leg (he survived) people are still showing up to protest. Not just there but all over the country. Are protesters scared? I’m sure many are and with good reason. What is messing with the ugly, twisted, evil minds of Team Trump is that so many regular Americans are overcoming that fear and showing up. Much as Miller wants it to happen he can’t just have each ICE unit issued a minigun mounted on a flatbed, one of those with the rotating barrels that can literally cut a tree in half in seconds and just mow down hundreds, even thousands of protesters.
With so many people continuing to show up to protest and more importantly film goings on with their cell phones (since people can live stream it can go into the cloud so just seizing the phones might not do ICE any good) they are going to have to be careful now about creating situations like they did (again I say ICE was hoping to create, or at least take advantage of the situation in which Good was killed) so new tactics are needed.
It’s not like non-lethal weapons and munitions haven’t been misused by both ICE and state/local LE in the past. With awful and even tragic results. However as I said there seems to be an increase. Including and especially shooting people with non-lethal impact weapons from close, even point blank range. Even striking someone over or near the heart can be lethal itself. And shooting people in the head or neck? As with Good it’s only a matter of time until someone is dead from this form of ESCALATION by DHS/ICE. Even though as with other LE those who use such weapons are taught and trained to avoid shooting people in the head/neck:
Homeland security use-of-force policies describe “uses of impact weapons to strike the neck or head” as a form of “deadly force”.
Deadly Force is exactly what the term implies – force that can kill. It’s only supposed to be used as a last resort. I’ve mentioned before that while on active duty in the Corps I was a grunt but for a good chunk of my time I wore a badge having been assigned to the Provost Marshal’s Office (MPs) at HQMC which all those decades ago was in Arlington, VA. Like every other LE we had it pounded into us to avoid use of Deadly Force if at all possible. Even to attempt things that are now called de-escalation to prevent things from getting to that point.
From where I sit it looks like ICE Barbie and Miller have concocted a plan to dramatically increase the instances where non-lethal weapons/munitions can be and ARE used in a manner that can be lethal. And will wind up killing someone. The talking points, bullshit on how it was all ‘tragic’ and ‘accidental’ but it’s actually all the victim’s fault for ‘attacking’ agents are already prepared. Team Trump WANTS it to happen.
You know what? They remained stunned that the public hasn’t backed down after Good was killed. Even after ramping up the THUGGERY people still aren’t backing down! I’m betting that when one or more people get killed by a non-lethal rounds that were in fact AIMED and INTENDED to result in death people still won’t back down. My latest weird fantasy is Stephen Miller and Kristi Noem panicking and going into hiding with Jonathan Ross, the asshat who killed Renee Good. Much as I’d like to see them all rotting in prison I’ll settle for them hiding away somewhere in fear.
In the meantime contact your federal elected officials. Point out the fact that ICE is increasingly and in violation of DHS (and everyone else’s policy) shooting people IN THE FACE and at close range with impact rounds that are meant to be non lethal but can be deadly if used in the wrong way. Lawmakers should know that if they aren’t speaking out and starting right now to rein Noem/Miller in on this come November it will come back to haunt them Their silence is tacit permission and we will do all we can at the voting booth to make them pay for standing by as people are maimed and even killed.
Friends, I know everyone begs you for money. I promise, among all those asking for spare change, we are the smallest and the hardest working. We’re a group of old, disabled people, except for one writer in his mid-50s. The rest of us are in our sixties and seventies, and this is a labor of love. All we’re asking for is the chance to keep telling the truth about Trump and help ensure democracy survives. If you can help, please do. Thank you. Ursula
Being hit by a rubber bullet is like being hit by a 250 mph baseball.
I’d start wearing a helmet if I thought I’d be hit by one.
Just like batters do when they face slower ones.
Think back to the 1960s, when unarmed peaceful “demonstrators” (aka “protestors” today) were attacked with lethal force by law enforcement for daring to object to the overt racism of the time. The more force was used against them, the more people rallied in support and eventually Jim Crow laws were ended, the Civil Rights Act was passed and America began the long, slow process of healing its wounds. The Trump regime has re-opened those wounds now and the same shit is happening all over again. Stephen Miller would be right at home inside a KKK bedsheet, but those “patriots” didn’t exactly welcome Jews, no matter how fascist or racist they were.