Gardai test lethal weapons

national | miscellaneous | news report Monday May 05, 2003 00:13 by Noone aracegoneinsane at hotmail dot com

The Garda have ordered a new range of non-lethal weapons for testing, which have claimed dozens of lives.

TWO supposedly 'non-lethal' weapons being tested by the gardai as a result of the fatal shooting of John Carthy in Abbeylara have been involved in dozens of deaths when used by police in the US, Canada and Australia, it has emerged.

Several police forces have withdrawn the weapons and at least one force is suing

manufacturers.

The 'bean bag' round, which manufacturers say is fired from a 12-guage shotgun, is supposed to be a safer alternative to the live round. It is one of two 'non-lethal' weapons recently acquired by the gardai for testing. The other is a highly controversial 'pepper' spray, using oleoresin capsicum - chilli pepper in an aerosol form - which is claimed to be highly dangerous when used near people with respiratory illness like asthma. It is being associated with dozens of deaths in the United States and elsewhere.

The gardai are testing the weapons as part of its response to the controversy over the Carthy killing in April 2000. Gardai at the scene had only automatic shotguns, machine guns and hand guns.

Sources say that in recent weeks the gardai have taken delivery of two 'non-lethal' weapons for testing, presumably prior to deployment to officers in potentially dangerous situations.

Many other police forces have already been issued with the weapons around the world but assessment of their effectiveness is still in its early stages. Aerosol pepper sprays are very widely used and are reported to have caused deaths in as many as 60 cases.

Opponents of the sprays which used capsaicin, the active chemical ingredient in chillies, say it is most commonly used as a crowd control weapon, particularly at demonstrations. It is widely used as a 'deterrent'.

The bean bag is being dropped by police forces across the US who had been using it since the mid-1990s as an alternative to shooting people with live rounds.

Claims by the manufacturers that the bean bag round, a tea-bag sized pouch made of synthetic material filled with lead shot, are being hotly disputed following the deaths of at least 12 people in the United States and Canada.

The bean bags are supposed to bounce off their human targets, yet experience has shown that they are capable of penetrating people's chests, pulverising limbs, rupturing eyeballs and, in at least one instance, penetrating deep into a man's chest.

In Los Angeles, the weapon was withdrawn following the death of a mentally ill man hit by a bag. Police concluded that the rounds frequently failed to work as designed and the Huntington Beach Police are suing the country's largest bean bag manufacturer, claiming that the company failed to properly warn police about the dangers of the rounds.

Bean bag manufacturers defend the accuracy and safety record of their products, saying the ammunitions should only bruise or graze a target when used correctly. They maintain that many of the deaths and severe injuries have been caused when officers fire from too close a range or aim for sensitive areas.

The bean bags are designed to unfurl when fired, slapping a suspect with their open face but tests discovered that the rounds often strike on an edge or while still curled up, turning them into sometimes deadly projectiles.

Sales of the bean bag have dropped dramatically as a result of their re-evaluation by police.

Police dispute claims by manufacturers that injuries are caused by firing the weapons too close to the targets.

Capsicum spray is also under re-evaluation following reports of serious incidents worldwide and at least 60 connected deaths in the US.

When sprayed into a person's face, it causes blood vessels to dilate rapidly, bronchial passages to constrict, mucous membranes to secrete freely and eyes to burn and close tightly. The pain can be extreme.

JIM CUSACK

(Wasnt sure if URL would work, so I posted the article itself.)