Wednesday, November 23, 2011
Sprays From A to Z Deployed For Protester Dispersals
AUSTIN, TX - The debate on the appropriate use of pepper spray by the police to break up demonstrations has brought to light alternative methods used by a number of law enforcement agencies particularly in the southern states. While teargas remains the staple of police departments in the U.S. and throughout the world and pepper sprays differ depending on country of origin, Zyklon B has emerged as the spray of choice in places such as Alabama, Mississippi and Texas.
Zyklon B is the trade name of a cyanide-based pesticide used by Nazi Germany to kill human beings in gas chambers during World War II, but it was also used in the U.S. to disinfect the freight trains and clothes of Mexican immigrants entering the U.S. in the 1920s and 30s. Sprayed outdoors to disperse demonstrators it reportedly causes only temporary respiratory pain and discomfort.
A spokesman for the Southern Police Association, Sgt. Adolf Pepperman, claims that pepper spray does little to deter young demonstrators as they are accustomed to hot peppers on their pizza and in their tacos. “Teargas canisters often are thrown back at the police while Zyklon B missiles are too toxic to touch,” he points out.
In addition to the poison gas, southern police departments are now also using chain saws to separate demonstrators who link arms to block streets and roadways. “When we rev up the saws demonstrators usually disperse on their own,” says Pepperman. “We’ve initially had to amputate only a couple of arms before protestors throughout the south got the message.”
Jewish organizations have expressed outrage that the notorious gas of the holocaust is being used in the U.S. regardless of its purpose. But police officials counter that the gas is used on all races, religions, and ethnic backgrounds and they will continue its use despite the association with the Nazi regime and the swastikas printed on the canisters.
The recent use of pepper spray on students at UC Davis has resulted in the suspension of the campus police chief and two officers as well as calls for the resignation of Chancellor Linda Katehi. Although Katehi claims she admonished the police not to use force and has banned the use of domestic pepper spray from the campus, she has made hot kafteres pepper spray, a dispersant commonly used in Greece, available to the University police.
“Kafteres peppers in food makes Greeks get up and dance,” says Katehi who grew up and attended college in Athens. “I thought it might turn shouting, screaming, and road-blocking students sprayed with kafteres into a happy crowd of Zorbas.”
Exactly which peppy spray used on the UC Davis students is now under investigation. Hungarian, Mexican, and Sichuan pepper sprays are now banned in the U.S. although hot peppers from Southern California may be equally as toxic.
“If you’re attempting to disperse an unruly crowd there’s no point in messing with wussy peppers,” says Sgt. Pepperman. “With Zyclon B we can sneak in with undercover men wearing brown shirts and black boots and gas the hell out of them.”
Zyklon B is the trade name of a cyanide-based pesticide used by Nazi Germany to kill human beings in gas chambers during World War II, but it was also used in the U.S. to disinfect the freight trains and clothes of Mexican immigrants entering the U.S. in the 1920s and 30s. Sprayed outdoors to disperse demonstrators it reportedly causes only temporary respiratory pain and discomfort.
A spokesman for the Southern Police Association, Sgt. Adolf Pepperman, claims that pepper spray does little to deter young demonstrators as they are accustomed to hot peppers on their pizza and in their tacos. “Teargas canisters often are thrown back at the police while Zyklon B missiles are too toxic to touch,” he points out.
In addition to the poison gas, southern police departments are now also using chain saws to separate demonstrators who link arms to block streets and roadways. “When we rev up the saws demonstrators usually disperse on their own,” says Pepperman. “We’ve initially had to amputate only a couple of arms before protestors throughout the south got the message.”
Jewish organizations have expressed outrage that the notorious gas of the holocaust is being used in the U.S. regardless of its purpose. But police officials counter that the gas is used on all races, religions, and ethnic backgrounds and they will continue its use despite the association with the Nazi regime and the swastikas printed on the canisters.
The recent use of pepper spray on students at UC Davis has resulted in the suspension of the campus police chief and two officers as well as calls for the resignation of Chancellor Linda Katehi. Although Katehi claims she admonished the police not to use force and has banned the use of domestic pepper spray from the campus, she has made hot kafteres pepper spray, a dispersant commonly used in Greece, available to the University police.
“Kafteres peppers in food makes Greeks get up and dance,” says Katehi who grew up and attended college in Athens. “I thought it might turn shouting, screaming, and road-blocking students sprayed with kafteres into a happy crowd of Zorbas.”
Exactly which peppy spray used on the UC Davis students is now under investigation. Hungarian, Mexican, and Sichuan pepper sprays are now banned in the U.S. although hot peppers from Southern California may be equally as toxic.
“If you’re attempting to disperse an unruly crowd there’s no point in messing with wussy peppers,” says Sgt. Pepperman. “With Zyclon B we can sneak in with undercover men wearing brown shirts and black boots and gas the hell out of them.”
