Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler bans use of CS tear gas in ongoing protests - OPB News

kodikod.blogspot.com

After more than 100 days of demonstrations for racial justice, Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler has banned the city’s police force from using CS gas, a widely used form of tear gas, to disperse protesters.

For the last four months, the Portland Police Bureau, which Wheeler oversees, had routinely used the gas to try and end a night of protest and get the crowd to leave. In June, as demonstrations were beginning, Wheeler had restricted the use of the gas to times where violence at the protests threatened “life safety.” The gas had been deployed more sparingly since the mayor’s June orders, but its semi-regular use continued to outrage protesters subject to clouds of the chemical. Local advocacy group Don’t Shoot PDX had filed a lawsuit against the city for “indiscriminate use” of the gas.

THANKS TO OUR SPONSOR:

He is now directing his police force to stop using the chemical completely.

“During the last hundred days Portland, Multnomah County and State Police have all relied on CS gas where there is a threat to life safety. We need something different,” Wheeler said in an emailed statement. “We need it now.”

The ban will take effect immediately. According to the mayor’s office it will last for the “foreseeable future.”

THANKS TO OUR SPONSOR:

In his new direction, the mayor addressed CS gas, which has regularly been deployed onto the streets of Portland filling the areas with clouds of the chemical. But the move keeps the door open for police to continue using OC, another type of tear gas. Deployment of the OC gas is more targeted, fired with impact munitions that have caused serious injuries among protesters.

The Portland police had used the CS gas as recently as this past weekend. After large demonstrations marking the 100th day of protests, the police had deployed large quantities of the gas in the area around Portland’s East Precinct where it quickly filtered into residential homes. One city employee whose home was filled with the chemical told OPB he placed the blame squarely with the mayor.

As had many protesters who drew a straight line between the gassings and the mayor at the helm of the police bureau. Three months of protests had earned the mayor an unenviable nickname: Tear Gas Teddy.

Since protests began, the mayor had faced criticism from both sides over what sort of restrictions to place on the gas. Protesters insisted the chemical had no place being released on the city streets, pointing to the unknown health impacts of the gas and the fact that it was banned in warfare by the Geneva Convention. Portland city commissioners Chloe Eudaly and Jo Ann Hardesty had joined the call, pushing in early June for the city to issue a ban on the gas. Police, meanwhile, had insisted it was the safest option to disperse crowds, and curbing its use would leave them with few ways to get people to leave.

In his statement, the mayor said the ban was him taking a step to stop the nightly violence and encouraged others to follow the lead.

“I call on everyone to step up and tamp down the violence. I’m acting. It’s time for others to join me.”

There is little known about the environmental and health impacts of tear gas. Lawmakers had called for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality to investigate the impacts of the gas as well as pepper spray and other chemicals, citing OPB’s reporting that showed possible reproductive health impacts from the gas. In July, OPB had spoken with 26 protesters, who all said they believe regular exposure to tear gas has caused irregularities within their menstrual cycles.

THANKS TO OUR SPONSOR:

Let's block ads! (Why?)

"gas" - Google News
September 11, 2020 at 04:19AM
https://ift.tt/2ZrLXc1

Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler bans use of CS tear gas in ongoing protests - OPB News
"gas" - Google News
https://ift.tt/2LxAFvS
https://ift.tt/3fcD5NP

Bagikan Berita Ini