‘Lachrymator’: Banned In Warfare, Used Freely By Police

That's right: the most common lachrymator (also spelled lachrimator) known as tear gas is banned in international treaties as a weapon of war, but various Missouri police departments (along with many others) use it to "keep the peace," i.e., suppress demonstrations. msmolly at FDL provides a few details.

The 1993 Chemical Weapons Convention explicitly exempts domestic law enforcement use of tear gas, pepper spray etc. from its prohibition under the terms of the treaty. What nation insisted on the inclusion of that provision? The United States of America, of course. Our powers-that-be have been planning this kind of thing for a long, long time.

U-S-A! U-S-A! Welcome to the land of the free and the home of "if you know what's good for you, you'll confine your protests to staying home and quietly writing letters."

Examples of Police Use of Tear Gas
Thailand	Turkey
Brazil	USA, Ferguson, MO

In the first three examples, I admit I don't know what prompted the police to use tear gas; it could have been genuine riots... or not. But in Ferguson, MO? Apart from the inevitable agents provocateur, are there even enough people in Ferguson to foment a riot? Police are to all appearances determined to suppress African American protest of the killing of Michael Brown; it is hard to put a positive spin on their use of a toxic chemical on demonstrators.

AFTERTHOUGHT: Just as things begin to settle in Ferguson, there is now a web site (sorry; no link from here) where you can contribute money to the officer who shot Michael Brown. I do not approve, but I am not surprised: if "no good deed goes unpunished," I suppose no bad deed goes unrewarded.