Rubber bullets far from safe
Projectiles are being widely used to quell unrest, but critics point out dangers.
The projectiles sometimes used to quell unrest can maim or blind.
In Los Angeles and cities across the country, police departments have attempted to quell unrest spurred by the killing of George Floyd by firing rubber bullets into crowds, even though five decades of evidence shows such weapons can disable, disfigure and even kill.
In addition to rubber bullets — which often have a metal core — police have used tear gas, flash grenades, pepper spray gas and projectiles to control crowds of demonstrators demanding justice for 46-yearold George Floyd, who died after a Minneapolis police officer knelt on his neck, while other officers restrained his body. Some peaceful demonstrations have turned violent, with people smashing windows, setting buildings afire and looting stores.
The use by police of rubber bullets has provoked outrage, as graphic images have flashed on social media showing people who have lost an eye or suffered other injuries after being hit.
A study published in 2017 in the BMJ found that 3% of people hit by rubber bullets died of the injury. Fifteen percent of the 1,984 people studied were permanently injured by the rubber bullets, also known as “kinetic impact projectiles.”
Rubber bullets should be used only to control “an extremely dangerous crowd,” said Brian Higgins, the former police chief of Bergen County, N.J.
“Shooting them into open crowds is reckless and dangerous,” said Dr. Douglas Lazzaro, a professor and expert in eye trauma at NYU Langone Health.
In the past week, a grandmother in the San Diego suburb of La Mesa was hospitalized in intensive care after being hit between the eyes with a rubber bullet. Actor Kendrick Sampson said he was hit by rubber bullets seven times at a Los Angeles protest.
In Washington, D.C., the National Guard allegedly fired rubber bullets Monday to disperse peaceful protesters near a historic church where President Trump was subsequently photographed.
In a statement, Atty. Gen. William Barr defended the actions of local and federal law enforcement officers, in Washington, saying they had “made significant progress in restoring order to the nation’s capital.”
Barr did not mention the use of tear gas or rubber bullets.
Freelance photographer Linda Tirado said she was blinded by a rubber bullet at a protest in Minneapolis.
In an email, Minneapolis police spokesperson John Elder said, “We use 40 mm less-lethal foam marking rounds. We do not use rubber bullets.”
No one knows how often police use rubber bullets, or how many people are harmed every year, said Dr. Rohini Haar, a lecturer at the University of CaliforniaBerkeley
School of Public Health and medical expert with Physicians for Human Rights. Many victims don’t go to the hospital.
Police are not required to document their use of rubber bullets, so there are no data to show how often they’re used, said Higgins, an adjunct professor at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York. There are no agreed-upon standards for their use.
When aimed at the legs, rubber bullets can stop a dangerous person or crowd from getting closer to a police officer, Lazzaro said.
But when fired at close range, rubber bullets can penetrate the skin, break bones, fracture the skull and explode the eyeball, he said. Rubber bullets can cause traumatic brain injuries and “serious abdominal injury, including injuries to the spleen and bowel along with major blood vessels,” said Dr. Robert Glatter, an emergency physician at New York’s Lenox Hill Hospital and a spokesperson for the American College of Emergency Physicians.
Firing rubber bullets from a distance decreases their force and accuracy, increasing the risk of shooting people in the face or hitting bystanders, Lazzaro said.
Physicians for Human Rights, a nonprofit advocacy group based in New York, has called for rubber bullets to be banned.
“Rubber bullets are used almost every day somewhere in the world,” Haar said. “Using them against unarmed civilians is a huge violation of human rights.”
Many so-called less-lethal police weapons can cause serious harm, according to Physicians for Human Rights.
▪ Acoustic weapons, such as sound cannons that make painfully loud noises, can damage hearing.
▪ Tear gas can make it difficult to see and breathe.
▪ Pepper spray, while painful and irritating, doesn’t cause permanent damage, Lazzaro said.
▪ Pepper spray balls can be deadly when used incorrectly. In 2004, a 21-year-old Boston woman was hit in the eye and killed by a pepper spray pellet fired by police to disperse crowds celebrating the city’s World Series win.
▪ Disorientation devices that create loud noises and bright lights, known as concussion grenades or flash-bangs, can cause severe burns and blast injuries, including damage to the ear drum.
▪ Water cannons can cause internal injuries, falls and, during cold weather, even frostbite.
▪ Physical force, such as hitting someone to subdue them, causes about 1 in 3 people to be hospitalized, said Dr. Howie Mell, a spokesperson for the American College of Emergency Physicians and former tactical physician, who worked with SWAT teams.
Rubber bullets are less harmful than subduing people by “physical force or regular bullets,” Mell said. “But we’re firing a lot more of them this week than we usually do.”