Facing Tear Gas

My Teargas experience.

What was strange was not only the suffering that I experienced, but also the numbness of feeling I felt while being gassed.

At Victo, in the crowd, we began to feel the gas—it was both brutal and eerily quiet at the same time. When the gas first enters the atmosphere, one smells it, breathes it—-it is burning you, but you see the others around you taking it, and you must also take it, calmly and quietly. The quiet suffering gives us courage, as we advance because this strengthens us to pushback against the next attack. We advance, we pushback—but then we saw someone at the side of the street, physically hurt, unconscious and covered in blood.

There were waves of panic. We wanted to protect him. We made a human wall in front of him in solidarity.

9 months ago

On July 4, 2012, police in Greensboro, North Carolina used tear gas, a chemical weapon, to disperse a crowd of 1,000 people, most of them young and Black, who were gathered downtown to celebrate the public holiday. Two people were arrested before the tear gas was used to disperse the crowd. One of them was Zannie, who here describes his experience of being threatened with a tear gas canister during his arrest. The other person arrested that night was Jimel Tyrea Leach, who Zannie mentions in his story. The Greensboro police say they use tear gas against people in town roughly 6 times per year.

10 months ago

December 6th, 2010. Athens, Greece: 2 years anniversary from the killing of Gregory, (Alexandros Gregoropoulos) a 15 year old, killed by the police in cold blood. People in Greece gathered to demonstrate, to Gregory’s honour. Also, a movement of social solidarity against the political establishment, the economic measures which were imposed and since then have brought the worst conditions in the lives of the Greek people, creating a social, economic and political crisis.

In the centre of Athens there was a big demonstration. The movement of the people in Greece since May 2010 has become stronger and has increased considerably in numbers. Conservative newspapers reported that 70% of the Greek population at some point has taken part in meetings of the people’s movement.

As we were walking towards the Greek Parliament, in groups, peacefully, there was heavy police presence all along the side streets. The special police force (MAT, in Greek) is heavily armed with plastic shields, helmets, batons, tear gas, guns. We continued the march, holding each other, forming lines of chains. Walking in groups, holding the ones next to us, what is called “forming chains”, keeping a steady march rhythm is a way to protect from police violence. They usually hit people outside groups.

We went to the demonstration prepared, we had scarves, masks, bottle of water and Maalox liquid, an aluminum/magnesium oral antacid, used to help neutralize or reduce stomach acid. People put Maalox all over their face, around their eyes, in order to have some protection against tear gas. Since 2010 the chemicals that the police use against the people are much stronger, with strong effects on the people’s respiration system, skin, nervous system and more…

When we passed the parliament and turned towards Panepistimiou street, we heard the tear gas shooting noise, we kept on walking with our group. The gas was so strong that in a few seconds I had difficulty in breathing. I started coughing. I spit again and again so I would not swallow the poison that was all around us. The skin on my face was burning. People started to brake the “chain lines”. Everyone was trying to hide their face, nose, mouth. People were coughing. Water and Maalox was passed from the one to the next. We were attacked. It was a war and we weren’t armed. We could see fire and police at the side streets. I was scared. I was angry. I knew that we shouldn’t start running and that we should stay together in our group. Some people tried to continue to shout loud the slogans. Our group was broken. The rest of us we walked faster to catch up with the next group. People were shouting don’t leave the groups, stay calm, don’t run.

The demonstration continued to Exarheia and stopped at the place were Gregory was killed.

The city centre was closed for hours. The police had taken over.

We went home. We took of our shoes off before getting in our home. We washed all our clothes. We took a shower. The effects of tear gas are felt for days. - Tina

10 months ago

Occupy Seattle’s Jason describes his experience with tear gas - or as he calls it “a chemical weapon” - used against protesters on December 12th, 2011 in Seattle. This occurred during cross-city West Coast ‘Port Shut Down’ actions in response to the nationally coordinated eviction of Occupy encampments. Interview conducted June 30th, 2012, in Philadelphia.

10 months ago

The day after the 2009 presidential elections in Iran we went to the streets. Before the elections although we were wearing green, we didn’t think we were about to build a movement. That day we went to the streets because for a short time we were given a hope and now it was taken away from us. I was with my parents, cousin, and a few friends…We went towards the national ministry. No one had told us where to go … We just did… On the first couple of days, we went to the streets to take something “back”, perhaps our votes… but soon it became clear to me that there was nothing to be given to us… we had to build everything from scratch…We had to define anew who we were and what we wanted…The day after the election I faced the naked truth of our government for the first time…The truth that I had heard about..Perhaps I should say that I had seen parts of that truth for 24 years of my life but never wanted to accept it… I, like many others, had always thought that “things are not that bad” and a government, which 30 years ago has been brought to power with a people’s revolution would not shoot at the very same people that easily…

I faced tear gas for the first time on the same day… we went to Valiasr Square…we were all shocked…first by the result of the elections and then because of the presence of dozens of Special Guards and Basijs (government sponsored para-military) fully armed riding on their motorcycles on the sidewalks… the guards were attacking us even though we were so shocked that we were just wondering around on the sidewalks… I remember my mother and I were standing in front of a hospital when we saw 3-4 police guards riding right towards us while beating people up with their batons… we ran into the hospital to escape, but they followed us and entered the hospital with their motorcycles… my mom had a big bruise on her back for a few weeks.

Then we went to Valiasr Street … Where there were a lot of people… Here some people were shouting slogans, and some were throwing rocks at the police…But most people, like us, had not yet believed that in less than a day we were being treated like enemies… I was standing alone on the sidewalk when I saw tens of people just start running…they were shouting “run, run!”… My instincts told me I should run too but more than that I wanted to see what was going on, so I just stood still… Many people were covering their faces. I thought they just didn’t want their faces to be seen…then I felt there was something in the air…I saw a big group of guards riding in our direction in the street and on the sidewalk…It all happened in a few seconds… I think it was my father who grabbed my hand and forced me to run… we ran into an alley, I was running so fast I felt my heart would stop at any moment…I could feel the motorcycles and batons behind me…the sidewalk was very narrow and we were many people… the woman who was running next to me got hit in the head… all I could do was to run faster…a guy fell in front of me and I caught a glimpse of a baton going after him… But I had to run so I almost jumped over him and I don’t know what happened to him… Next thing I knew someone opened up the door to their house and took some of us in… I have never been as scared in my life as I was in that alley.

After that day I was tear gassed many times… even though on that first day, unlike the other days, it did not burn that much… my eyes and throat didn’t burn, and I didn’t feel suffocated. I did realize though, how tear gas works as a mean of oppression… In Iran, the police usually use tear gas before an attack in order to disperse and arrest people… usually they throw 6-7 gas canisters into a crowd and since people cannot see and function normally, arresting them becomes much easier… However, after a while we started fighting back… Soon we learned how to be prepared for tear gas attacks… we would build fire and a lot of smoke…the smoke would quickly heal the burn…we would burn garbage cans and make fire in the streets… My friends and I always had cigarettes and lighters with ourselves…If you blew smoke into someone’s face who’s been tear gassed, it had an immediate affect …some people would throw the canisters back at the police… I tried to do it once but I couldn’t…I’ve seen many people get head injuries by canisters… the gas had the worst effect people with asthma and children… I heard that a woman with asthma died because of being gassed, I am not sure if it’s true or not… I think many people, including myself got used to the gas after a while…or at least we were not scared of its physical effects…but what made it terrifying was that we knew it was a signal that they were about to attack…It also meant that you are going to lose your friends…once I lost my cousin after they threw tear gas at the crowd… She had just had eye surgery and that’s why I was very worried about her… after a while I finally found her next to a burning garbage can… it meant the world to me when I was saw that she was not arrested.

Besides tear gas, police and the militias in Iran use pepper spray as well… I was sprayed by it once and I thought the burn was a little worst than tear gas and the effect stayed longer… the Iranian police also uses regular batons, electric batons, and guns… I would say that tear gas has played an important role in oppressing the green movement protesters in Iran… It made it easy for the police to arrest and disperse the protesters. It may have not killed anyone directly, but I’m sure that it led many to get arrested, injured, or perhaps even killed. - Sohalia (translated from Farsi)

10 months ago

Teargas was used frequently during popular protests in Berkeley in the late 1960s. One of those I remember was around 1968, the Peoples’ Park struggle. A small block in Berkeley was fenced off and claimed by the university as its “owner,” but people liberated it, arguing that first the Indians had held the land; then it was stolen from the by the Spaniards, the British, finally the University’s claim was based on theft. People moved in, put up tents, camped out and named it “peoples’ park.” Demonstrations grew. Police were called out, and the inevitable tear gas. We grabbed the popular bandanas, put them around our heads to ward off the gas with water, and went out. It was a good struggle! - Gail

10 months ago

On the fourth of May 2012, in Victoriaville, Québec during the congress of the corrupted Liberal party of Jean Charest, several dozens of gas bombs were thrown on families, activists, old people, and students that where protesting against high tuition fees by 75%. -Hauban

11 months ago

On the 19th of April 2012, I was protesting around the Palais des congrès in Montréal, Québec. That day our corrupted prime Minister Jean Charest had organized the “Salon du Plan nord.” A sell out of all natural resources in northern Québec. I came with a group of students who are protesting against a proposed 75% tuition fee increase, also referred as the Red Squares Movement. Marching with us where Innu Indians and environmentalists. Things rapidly went wrong after protesters tried to enter the convention center, and Jean Charest made jokes about them. One person received a flash bang in his face. All types of dispersion agents where used against us: flash bangs, rubber bullets, tear gas and mace. On my behalf I was agressed by all of them. At one point the tear gas made me enter a state of primal pain, luckily someone had malox to ease the pain. For the first time of my life, I felt agressed in my liberties. - Olivier

11 months ago

I recall that the first time that I was tear-gassed was at the 1968 Democratic Convention demonstrations in Chicago. The demonstrations were organized by the National Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam (The Mobe), which, in Chicago, was a loose coalition of mainly militant radicals like the Yippies and the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS). Virtually all of the participants were opposed to the War in Vietnam. For some, there were other items on their agendas, such as discrediting the Democratic Party. In Chicago, The Mobe was not committed to nonviolent tactics. I participated as a kind of, “participant observer.” I wanted to protest the war, but wanted also to try to keep the protests nonviolent, and to see what actually would happen.

My first encounter with tear gas was at an August 28 rally held at the south end of Grant Park, whose center was a band shell (that since then has been torn down). About 6,000 people had gathered for the rally. To the north, several hundred blue-helmeted riot police were assembled in a line. Officers handed out a leaflet saying that the rally had been permitted, but not a march to the Amphitheater, and asking the demonstrators to cooperate with them. To the south, there were lines of National Guardsmen, and Guardsmen on the roof of the Field Museum.

Facing Tear Gas

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