Shocked and bewilderment. I mean, I saw it and the first thing that came to my mind wasn’t police or students but my own children sitting down, having an opinion, and their being shot and forced by chemical agents. ...Democracy Now!
Kamran Loghman developed the pepper spray that was used on the UC Davis students. He was horrified to watch as this spray was used to punish students for peaceful demonstration. The spray was developed to deal with cases of extreme violence to protect FBI agents and police who were there to protect the public -- or to disable a violent individual rather than having to kill. There is a procedure for using it on people who were dangerous to others. That procedure was not followed at UC Davis.
In regards to why FBI was interested in it, is because prior to that in the use of force by law enforcement, when you encounter somebody who is aggressive, let’s say somebody was under the influence of narcotics or alcohol, and you arrest them and the highway patrol wants to take him out of the car and they become combatant. At that time police officers had really little choice, it was either baton or go to deadly force. By introduction of pepper spray, it was very quick and police officers were trained to do that. They could arrest the individual, take him back to the jail, wash their face, give them proper decontamination and that was the end of the story. In that regard, it was a great weapon. It saved hundreds of thousands of lives in the last 20 years. ...Democracy Now!
And in case you're wondering, pepper spray is not "food" as one of the Fox News gang declared it.
Aspirin also comes from bark of a tree so does wild yam is a natural herbal thing, but then again, what you derive from that becomes birth control pill. That doesn’t mean the end product is still something that you can eat. It is true that it is being derived from capsicum and chili pepper, but by the time it is weaponized and becomes a weapon grade product, you can’t eat it. I mean, it is impossible to eat the end product. ...Democracy Now!
It was grossly misused at Davis. The stuff can be very harmful if the person it's used on isn't put through a decontamination process as soon as possible.
They used a canister that was too large and was not meant for that kind of environment at such a close range. They did not properly decontaminate students where students were screaming and yelling for water, but what is really important is that we keep focusing on what happened at that moment. I really want to take that back because I go around the country and talk about leadership and I just finished one at US Naval Academy. I think the lack of leadership was very important because that is one of the things I train police officers. ...I don’t think anybody was interacting with these people in the right way and they would just let them sit there and then treat them like insects. Let’s go ahead and spray them as if you are watering plants. ...Democracy Now!
Was a crime warranting serious punishment committed at the UC Davis campus that night? Yes, and, thanks to our broken system, the victims were punished while the perps got a slap on the wrist.
