zlacker

>>hhs+(OP)
In my city we have seen several peaceful protesters (some quite some distance away from police) be nearly killed by less lethal ammunition. Being hit in the head or neck by a rubber bullet will drop a person to the ground unconscious instantly. This means they can even hit their head again against pavement. Nobody has died yet, but they are clearly extremely dangerous.

We have also seen the use of tear gas. I don't want the police to hurt anyone, but I haven't seen any long term damage from its use.

If police are going to use force, from what I have seen, tear gas is less dangerous. It is still awful. I'd rather it not be used, but I just wanted to share what I've seen.

>>montec+M6
17 people were killed in Northern Ireland during the Troubles by "rubber bullets" so they are quite capable of killing people:

https://cain.ulster.ac.uk/issues/violence/rubberplasticbulle...

>>arethu+ga
3 of those people are listed there as killed by rubber bullets, the other 14 as being killed by plastic ones.

>>boogie+Jg
A distinction without a difference.

>>splitr+kM
According to Wikipedia's separate article for plastic bullets, they were developed to be less lethal than rubber (no citations for it though). IMHO, this could teach a useful lesson, that even the ones intended to harm less can be made harmful to the point of deadliness. I think it depends on the (ab)user, even dihydrogen monoxide is deadly when abused.

Just wanted to "[point] out some consideration that hadn't previously been mentioned" and "[give a tiny bit] more information about the topic" (https://news.ycombinator.com/newswelcome.) :/