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A2 UP FRONT
Thursday 23 March 2023

Report: 119K people hurt by riot-control weapons since 2015

Continued fromfront protests after the killing of
George Floyd by Minneap-
Produced in collaboration olis police in May 2020. Po-
with the Omega Research lice and protesters clashed,
Foundation, the report took with officers firing tear gas,
2 1/2 years to compile and pepper spray and other
used medical literature. devices, turning parts of
Some of the injuries were the city into battle grounds.
fatal but it was impossible Then-President Trump sent
from the data to estimate militarized federal agents
the total number of deaths, to protect federal property
said the report’s lead au- and the violence esca-
thor, Rohini Haar, an emer- lated, with agents dousing
gency room physician and the crowds with tear gas
researcher at the University and other irritants. Bystand-
of California School of Pub- ers and nearby residents
lic Health in Berkeley. choked on the fumes, their
The vast majority of the eyes watering and burning.
data comes from cases in Some protesters launched
which a person came to fireworks at agents and
an emergency room with shined lasers in their eyes.
injuries from crowd-control Portland Police Bureau
weapons and the attend- spokesperson Terri Wallo
ing doctor or hospital staff A demonstrator hides under a barrier as federal officers release tear gas during a Black Lives Strauss noted that the de-
made the effort to docu- Matter protest at the Mark O. Hatfield United States Courthouse, July 29, 2020, in Portland, Ore. partment’s updated policy
ment it, Haar said in an in- Associated Press emphasizes “the goal of
terview. avoiding the use of force,
The report calls for bans chemical irritants. Govern- Democrat from Oregon, schools and against pro- when feasible.”
of rubber bullets and of ments should also ensure said the study underscores testers when most were This month alone, crowd-
multi-projectile devices in these weapons are subject serious issues. peacefully exercising their control weapons were used
all crowd-control settings to rigorous independent “These troubling global First Amendment rights,” in Bangladesh, Ethiopia,
and tighter restrictions on testing, with testing, evalu- numbers echo the con- Wyden said. “The report’s France, Georgia, Greece,
weapons that may be used ation and approval involv- cerns I raised locally when recommendations are very Israel and the Palestinian
indiscriminately, such as ing law enforcement, tech- Donald Trump first dis- worthy of consideration by territories, Italy, Kenya, Mo-
tear gas, acoustic weap- nical specialists and health patched armed troops to the Department of Home- zambique, Pakistan, Peru,
ons and water cannons, professionals, among oth- Portland in 2020 with no land Security.” South Africa, Sri Lanka, Tur-
which in some cases have ers, the report said. guidance on their use of Portland, Oregon, was an key and the United States,
been loaded with dyes and U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden, a chemical munitions near epicenter of racial justice the rights groups said.q

U.S. review of Afghanistan withdrawal to

be released in April

results of the long-delayed which the U.S. had support- National Security Council
government review of the ed for nearly two decades, spokesman John Kirby said
chaotic U.S. withdrawal and the return to power Wednesday that the work
from Afghanistan will be of the Taliban. In the after- was nearly complete and
released next month, the math, President Joe Biden that the administration was
White House announced directed that a broad re- readying the release next
Wednesday, with Congress view examine “every as- month.
and the public set to see an pect of this from top to bot- “We expect to be able to
assessment of what went tom.” share those takeaways with
National Security Council spokesman John Kirby speaks during wrong as America ended It was originally set to be re- the public by mid-April,”
the daily briefing at the White House in Washington, Tuesday, its longest war. leased at the one-year an- Kirby said. He said the ad-
March 21, 2023. The August 2021 pullout of niversary of the withdrawal ministration would share
Associated Press U.S. troops led to the swift but was delayed while classified sections of the
By AAMER MADHANI and Associated Press collapse of the Afghan agencies continued their report with congressional
ZEKE MILLER WASHINGTON (AP) — The government and military, work. oversight committees.q