If you're in dire danger ... you may be prompted to take dire action.
Image Source: counterassault.com
Bear Spray does have a legitimate value, IF you're about to be mauled -- by a Bear.
In other cases, its indiscriminate use is questionable and cowardly at best. At worst, it's horrific, and possibly an illegal use of force.
In Depth -- Pepper spray
Is pepper spray an appropriate tool for police?
by Muriel Draaisma, CBC News -- July 16, 2007
[...]
People subjected to pepper spray have said it feels like torture. It causes coughing, a runny nose, gagging, shortness of breath, and can lead to momentary blindness. It works by inflaming the membranes of the nose, throat and lungs. Eyes swell and can seal shut. Effects can last for up to 45 minutes.
There have been reports of people who have died in police custody after being pepper sprayed -- though not in Canada. But according to Sgt. Richard Groulx, a national training coordinator for the RCMP in Ottawa, there is no direct medical proof that the spray itself actually causes death. He believes the problems stem more from pre-existing conditions, such as asthma.
The California branch of the American Civil Liberties Union, however, has linked pepper spray directly to 27 deaths in that state alone in the early 1990s. And some U.S. newspapers have come up with higher totals from time to time.
One of the legal ironies of pepper spray is that it appears to be outlawed for international use in war by the 1972 convention on biological weapons but not for internal use by countries for security. However, use of pepper spray by the public is widely restricted around the world.
Good Bear Spray Works
http://youtu.be/...
Ouch! No wonder those Bears head for the hills, ... or more likely the nearest stream.
4 out of 5 Doctors agree ...
No Pepper Spray on Nonviolent Activists
reprinted from the North Carolina Medical Society's:
North Carolina Medical Journal -- 1999;60:268-74*
Health Hazards of Pepper Spray
by C. Gregory Smith, MD, MPH, and Woodhall Stopford, MD, MSPH
[...]
The ill effects of OC [Oleoresin capsicum]. Dermal exposure to OC spray causes tingling, intense burning pain, swelling, redness, and, occasionally, blistering (capsaicin alone causes redness and pain, but not vesiculation). A severe dermatitis, called "Hunan hand," is found in people who process chili peppers in Mexico.
[...]
Respiratory responses to OC spray include burning of the throat, wheezing, dry cough, shortness of breath, gagging, gasping, inability to breathe or speak (due to laryngospasm or laryngeal paralysis), and, rarely, cyanosis, apnea, and respiratory arrest.(3)
Nasal application of capsaicin causes sneezing, irritation, and reflex mucus secretion.(9) Its inhalation can cause acute hypertension (similar to ammonia inhalation), which in turn can cause headache and increase the risk of stroke or heart attack. Animal studies show various and sometimes profound reflex effects on respiratory and cardiovascular function. These include apnea, airway edema and constriction, systemic vasodilation, hypotension, bradycardia, and sometimes atrioventricular blockade and even asystole.(8-10)
[...]
Eye symptoms. Common ocular symptoms associated with OC spray exposure include redness, swelling, severe burning pain, stinging, conjunctival inflammation, lacrimation, blepharospasm and involuntary or reflex closing of the eyelids. In the rat, application of 1% capsaicin to the eye causes neurogenic inflammation and loss of reaction to chemical and mechanical stimuli for up to a week. In humans, superficial anesthesia and loss of the blink reflex may lead to corneal abrasions from contact lenses or foreign bodies. [...] Ocular exposure to OC should be treated by flushing for at least 15 minutes with water.(3,7,20)
Sounds stingingly pleasant ... What's the harm?
Bears get over it ... eventually.
Elderly woman who was pepper-sprayed known for activism
by Casey McNerthney, seattlepi -- Nov 16, 2011
[...]
Dorli T. Rainey described herself as “an old lady in combat boots” in a Wednesday interview with The Associated Press and said she’s a former school teacher. A Seattle police spokesman did not discuss her specifically, instead referring to a statement saying demonstrators sprayed were refusing a police order to disperse.
[...]
Rainey has been a longtime activist, and wrote several letters to the editor of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer print edition.
[...]
In June 2007, Rainey was outside the Westin Hotel in Seattle protesting a visit by Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. In November of that year, she wrote in a letter of an “eerie similarity” between a government crackdown on protestors in Pakistan and a crackdown by Olympia Police Department and others “on peaceful and unarmed protesters at the Port of Olympia.”
Image Caption: Seattle activist Dorli Rainey, 84, reacts after being hit with pepper spray during an Occupy Seattle protest on Tuesday, Nov. 15, 2011 at Westlake Park. She was a short-time Seattle mayoral candidate in 2009 and is known for previous political activism. (Joshua Trujillo/seattlepi.com)
Nothing to see here people -- Now disperse already!
Bears know when they've been tagged, and skedaddle ... So what's your problem!?
America, didn't you get the memo?
If 84 year old ladies, are serious "public safety threats" now ... maybe there is seriously something wrong here. Something direly wrong, if the truth be told.
And it is "bearly" tolerable, anymore ...