“I can’t breathe.”
The last words of George Floyd sparked a Black Lives Matter movement across the US, and it has now become a global movement against police brutality and racism. However, some peaceful protests have turned into violent assaults upon the public, namely looting stores, smashing windows, and setting buildings afire. In response to these violent demonstrations, the police department fired rubber bullets into crowds and also utilized tear gas. To make matters worse, President Trump posted on Twitter, “When the looting starts, the shooting starts.” However, is the use of such weapons a justified measure for defense?

Currently, there are no national standards or restrictions regarding the use of rubber bullets. As such, police are not restricted from firing the bullets nor mandated to report their usage. This raised public concern and outrage over the extent to which police could fire weapons at the crowd.

Dr. Douglas Lazzaro, a professor at NYU Langone Health, stated, “When aimed at the legs, rubber bullets can stop a dangerous person or crowd from getting closer to a police officer. But when fired at a close range, rubber bullets can penetrate the skin, break bones, fracture the skull and explode the eyeball.”

Research published in the medical journal ‘The BMJ’ revealed that three percent of the people hit by rubber bullets have died of the injury, and fifteen percent of the 1,984 people studied were permanently injured by the rubber bullets. Last week, a grandmother in La Mesa, California, was hospitalized in an ICU after being hit between the eyes with a rubber bullet. Furthermore, the media has captured scenes of tear gas rising above the clash between protesters and police. Protesters have reported incidents of burning eyes and throats during the protest, and they have filed a lawsuit against President Trump for violating their constitutional rights by clearing the demonstration area with the use of harmful weapons.

As such, until a solid guideline is established for the use of weapons against protesters for defensive purposes, the government should restrict the indiscriminate use of weapons by police officers.

안다인 강남포스트 학생기자  webmaster@ignnews.kr

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