PHILADELPHIA, PA – On Thursday, October 29, the Philadelphia city council voted 14-3 to ban the use of tear gas, rubber bullets, and pepper spray on protesters.
That’s because “protesters” don’t like to be shot with rubber bullets, tear gas, and pepper spray.
What they may not realize is that those crowd control methods are used in place of more lethal methods, like real bullets.
They complained about those too, that’s why we have tear gas. Would they prefer to be sprayed with the vomitous raw sewage odor of Israel’s special “skunk water”?
Israel uses skunk water fired from a water cannon to disperse protesters who throw rocks and threaten violence. It is non-lethal and effective. Once it has been used, the area becomes saturated with an odor so foul that no protester wants to be near it for days or weeks.
Anyone hit with the spray will continue to emit a pungent gag-reflex-inducing odor for about three days. It is not pleasant, but it is safe. This is why some American police departments, such as the St. Louis Metropolitan Police, have bought it.
Skunk water is made of food grade chemicals. It is harmless. And yet, even this is another thing to protest for those who have experienced it. “It’s degrading” says one protester who has had the experience.
Protesters have found media partners willing to describe skunk water as far more dangerous than it is.
For instance, they’ll do it by conflating the force of the water cannon that fires it with the skunk water itself.
The water cannons are powerful enough to shatter windows or knock a person off their feet if close enough. It can also stink up a house or a street for weeks if it fires skunk water instead of water.
What isn’t mentioned in these complaints is that the use of skunk water effectively disperses violent crowds. Israeli soldiers aren’t harmed, nor are protesters.
And yet they complain anyway. It can even be used to put out fires started by protesters. The protesters say it must be stopped. They say it is inhuman.
In other words, as progressively less lethal crowd control measures are developed, whatever they happen to be, there will always be a complaint. That is because the complaints conceal the real motive behind their objection.
Protesters who complain about tear gas in Philadelphia may get skunk water instead. If they protest against that, and they likely will if Israel’s experience is anything to go by, something else will be developed.
That will be objected to in turn, then on to the next thing. The reason for the objections is not that these law enforcement tools are dangerous or “inhuman”. It is that they effectively end illegal and potentially violent or dangerous demonstrations.
The “protesters” want to have their illegal demonstrations without interference from the people harmed by them or those sworn to preserve law and order.
If anything proves that criminals are weak-kneed sissies, this is it. They are willing to burn down stores, assault pedestrians and police alike, fire guns into crowds, but let any of their victims lift a finger to defend themselves, and they cry foul.
Their objections to police methods for crowd control are a distraction only. Undoubtedly, it is uncomfortable to be sprayed with tear gas but it wouldn’t happen if not for the illegal gathering. The simplest way to avoid tear gas is to avoid participating in riots.
It is like complaining about the presence of man-eating lions after intentionally and illegally jumping into the lion enclosure at a zoo.
Whatever you want to call the people involved, the events they participate in lead to riots as predictably as water boils when heated.
Describing the precursor state of the riot as “peaceful” on the basis that it hasn’t boiled yet, though heat is constantly applied in the form of violent rhetoric and physical agitation, is disingenuous. The same is true of describing rioters as “peaceful protesters” and “demonstrators”.
The bottom line is that riots are caused by rioters who, after ignoring lawful police orders to disperse, must be dispersed, whether they like it or not.
No rioter has a right to destroy public or private property. They don’t have a right to disturb the peace, to steal, to engage in acts of assault and battery, arson, and murder. Police have an obligation to protect the citizens of their jurisdiction from such heinous activities.
Police have been given the tools they need to do their jobs. By taking those tools away, the Philadelphia city council does nothing to defuse the danger posed by rioters, but they do increase the potential danger to police.
Elected officials aid and abet crimes when they handicap police by removing tools used to carry out their duties.
One could be forgiven for thinking that Philadelphia DA Larry Krasner or mayor Jim Kenney secretly want rioters to injure or kill law enforcement officers. More likely, they are following the axiom, “he who cries the most, gets the most attention.”
The protesters, sissies that they are, cry loudly because they can’t handle the simple task of obeying the law. They have compulsions to break it. Everyone around them has to tolerate their vicious and dangerous law-breaking behavior or they will complain about injustice.
Elected officials let them do it because they foolishly believe that allowing bad behavior will somehow cause it to stop.
Philadelphia was the first capital of the United States of America. British forces occupied it, forcing George Washington and his army to make camp nearby in Valley Forge.
They endured a harsh winter with scant provisions, some of them naked, many of them felled by disease. Eventually, they made their way down to Philadelphia and took it back. It was tough work but it had to be done.
Philadelphians today face a similar situation. BLM, Antifa, their supporters, and traitorous elected officials have endeavored to take their city away or to destroy it. They must be stopped.
One way to do it is to restore law and order. The first step of that job is to let the police do their job.
Don’t constrain their options, give them more options. Don’t treat them as outcasts, but as a necessary force for good that can and will free your city from the lawlessness it now suffers from.
Another thing you can and should do, is elect city officials who care more about the people of Philadelphia than the jackals who would tear it to pieces if you let them. If any of your faithless city officials are up for re-election next week, vote them out of office.
—
Want to make sure you never miss a story from Law Enforcement Today? With so much “stuff” happening in the world on social media, it’s easy for things to get lost.
Make sure you click “following” and then click “see first” so you don’t miss a thing! (See image below.) Thanks for being a part of the LET family!
