A Rubber Bullet Is Still A Bullet — And It Can Kill You
“Less-Lethal” does not mean “Non-Lethal.” And it’s time we stopped pretending otherwise.
These weapons have been around for decades. In 1970, the British army developed the first “rubber bullet,” a purportedly non-lethal crowd control method first used against protestors in Northern Ireland. Despite its name, it became quickly apparent that this invention was a deadly one. Before the UK made the change to supposedly safer plastic bullets in 1975, British soldiers had already killed three protestors with their “non-lethal” bullets — including an 11-year-old boy, Francis Rowntree. Even after the change, rubber and plastic bullets killed 19 people. The majority of these deaths were from head injuries.
Since their invention, rubber bullets have been used by police and military around the world — in Chile’s November 2019 protests against inequality, a bullet to the eye was so common amongst protestors that it became a rallying symbol. During that month’s protests, 285 people suffered severe eye trauma due to rubber bullets and tear gas, and in just a short 33 days, over 200 people were permanently blinded in at least one eye. Since the Hong Kong protests began in June 2019, police have fired hundreds of rounds at protestors, resulting in serious injuries and permanent disfigurement. In August of 2019, Hong Kong protestors wore eye patches in solidarity with a protestor who police shot with a “bean-bag” round, causing fractures to her nose, jaw, and damaging her eye permanently.
Now, as Americans take to the streets to protest the murder of George Floyd and entrenched systemic racism, they’re being met with tear gas, rubber bullets, and an army of police batons. Public perception of what this really means may be skewed by the terms we use — a “rubber” bullet doesn’t necessarily sound like it can kill you, and neither does “bean-bag.” But the reality is far more deadly than we’ve been lead to believe. Rubber bullets are much larger than most people assume, and can cause deep tissue bruising, broken bones, organ damage, and, especially in cases where they are fired at someone’s head, skull fractures, brain damage, or death. Even a bean-bag round is closer to a deadly weapon than the name implies— the rounds themselves are packed lead pellets fired out of a regular 12-gauge shotgun.
A quick jump to twitter shows us the reality of what “less lethal” can really mean. Over the past week, protestors have shared images of horrific bruises, bleeding heads, and blood-covered hands. Of rubber bullets, “It feels like getting hit with a brick at 15 mph,” said a protestor on Twitter. Linda Tirado, a writer from Tennessee, lost her eye during a protest this week when police shot her in the head with a rubber bullet.
In Austin, police shot a black pregnant woman in the stomach with a “less lethal” bean-bag round. In that same protest, 16-year-old Brad Levi Ayala spent 7 hours in surgery after police shot him with the same ammunition in the head. “I saw police officers not seeing the humanity in him,” said his brother, Edwin Sanchez, to CBS Austin. “Not seeing the kindness that he is — not seeing him for what I see. They saw a monster and they treated him like that.” Ayala, whose family started a GoFundMe to cover his extensive medical bills, was standing quietly on a hill when police shot him twice in the body and once in the skull. Another Austin protestor, who police said threw a water bottle “towards” them — as if this action warranted physical retaliation — is in critical condition and fighting for his life after police shot him with yet another bean-bag around. Black 20-year-old protestor Justin Howell is in critical condition, likely with brain damage, after police shot him in the head, then shot the medics trying to help him.
In Philadelphia, police deployed rubber bullets and tear gas on a completely peaceful protest. To justify their actions, Philadelphia police issued a statement that “While on the roadway, the crowd surrounded a State Trooper, who was alone and seated in his vehicle, and began rocking the vehicle, with the trooper having no safe means of egress,” but have not produced any evidence of that claim being true — while protestors share videos of the incident and claim that the police simply opened fire.
In New Orleans, a middle-aged woman’s skull was split in two when she was struck by a tear-gas canister that police fired into the crowd. In Sacramento, a grandmother remains in the ICU after police shot her with a bean-bag round and fractured her skull (Her family has set up a GoFundMe for her medical bills here). Again in Sacramento, the family of Dayshawn McHolder, an 18-year-old protestor, says he is seriously injured and will need jaw surgery after being shot. “Nobody deserves to be shot in the face just by protesting peacefully,” said his cousin, Devon Jones. “Protesting violence, you know, or police violence.”
Devon’s words highlight what everyone needs to know: the police shot his cousin. The protestors are not simply being dispersed, or controlled, or chased off. The police are shooting protestors, regardless of the type of bullet. They are beating them with batons. They are tasing them. Police are putting protestors in the hospital for speaking up, and it won’t be long before they put them in the groud.
The story continues across America. Police fire into crowds, protestors throw their hands up, police do not hold back. The list of incidents goes on and on — far too many for one article to even scratch the surface.
But protestors are not giving up, even in the face of state-sanctioned violence. As Linda Tirado says: “Rather have rubber in my eye from a projectile than in my mouth from a boot.”
Want to help the movement and the protestors? Here is a list of resources for those in America and abroad— donate, speak up, make your voice heard. Any and all revenue made through this article will be donated to BLM-Toronto.
