This way to the gas, kids
A day that will live in infamy.
A little girl from Honduras stares into the camera, her young features contorted in anguish. She’s barefoot, dusty, and clad only in a diaper and T-shirt. And she’s just had to run from clouds of choking tear gas fired across the border by U.S. agents.
A second photograph, which also circulated widely and rapidly on social media, shows an equally anguished woman frantically trying to drag the same child and a second toddler away from the gas as it spreads.
Tear gas – shot at people who were seeking asylum from violence in their home countries. Yes, I understand that no country can simply invite in all people who are fleeing violence in their home countries because that would be billions of people, but there’s plenty of space between that extreme and gassing people seeking asylum.
#NowReading: Mothers carried sobbing children away from tear gas fired by U.S. officers at the Mexican border. https://t.co/SilXZ4cKtw via @HuffPostPol
— Amnesty International (@amnestyusa) November 26, 2018
The Post continues:
The three were part of a much larger group, perhaps 70 or 80 men, women and children, pictured in a wider-angle photo fleeing the tear gas. Reuters photographer Kim Kyung-Hoon shot the images, which provoked outrage and seemed at odds with President Trump’s portrayal of the caravan migrants as “criminals” and “gang members.”
Trump officials said that authorities had to respond with force after hundreds of migrants rushed the border near Tijuana on Sunday, some of them throwing “projectiles” at Customs and Border Protection personnel.
No, actually, they didn’t “have to.” Trump told them to, because he’s a murderous racist. It’s pretty much as crude and simple as it looks.
We have become a nation of shame. How can we even hold up our heads anymore?
Is there not an international law regarding one country firing lethal or noxious substances across borders into neighbouring countries when those countries are not at war? Does this, therefore, constitute an act of undeclared war by Trump?
AoS, I wondered that too and was told that – for no reason at all – tear gas is not classed by the government as a weapon even though it is quite obviously a weapon. So it’s totally OK to fire it at people. Sounds a bit fishy to me, especially since tear gas is banned pretty much world-wide in warfare, but that’s what the guy said.
latsot, my response would be that if tear gas isn’t a weapon, why are civilians in most countries barred from carrying canisters for self defence, and most police forces (prison guards, security personell, military, etc.) are permitted to use it only after completing specific weapons training.
If it wasn’t a weapon, it would be on sale in every corner shop.
Exactly so, it is very definitely treated as a weapon by police in the UK and you will go to prison if you’re found carrying it. Whether what’s classified as a weapon or not is different if they are wielded by soldiers, I do not know.
Regardless, America is firing chemical weapons into Mexico. It’s hard to imagine that Mexico will take it lightly.
Further, Wiki has a good section on tear gas, which is banned in warfare as a chemical weapon, but can be used minimally in riot control situations and can be owned in certain countries but in linited quantities (150ml max), but is still classed as a weapon if used for anything other than self defence in public hands.
There was no riot on American soul, so by my reckoning the US use across the border was a crime.
Not that it matters in your part of the worfld. It takes more than a bit of pepper spray to make a Geordie flinch. I know; I married one (well, Ashington, but near enough).
http://www.police.govt.nz/faq/am-i-allowed-to-use-import-or-possess-mace-or-oc-spray