Pepper Spray

the police officers as well as the suspect. When Humboldt County police officers arrived at the scene of the (supposed) crime, Earth First activists were already restrained by handcuffs; therefore the police officers had no cause to use the pepper spray. The police officers endangered the lives of the activists by not knowing whether or not the pepper spray could interact with a preexisting medical condition.Many law enforcement officials believe that pepper spray causes less physical damage than a gun or an attack dog, yet there are people who have died after being spray repeatedly with pepper spray. According to the ACLU, "the number of deaths in which OC has been a contributing factor may be much higher than ... documented" (Wilson 10).Although none of the autopsy reports for twenty-six post-spray deaths studied by [ACLU's] southern California branch listed pepper spray as a cause of death, the group concluded that documents recorded ... established that [California] state scientists have warned for more than two years that so little is known about residual effects of pepper spray that medical examiners may not know what to look for during an autopsy. (Wilson 11)Pepper spray has not been thoroughly researched by the Federal Government. In fact, "there is not a single federal agency currently responsible for [the] regulation" of pepper spray (Wilson 25). The American people should not tolerate this blatant act of negligence. Police officers nation wide have proven themselves to be careless with the use of pepper spray, especially against non violent activists, therefore, it is imperative that police officers only use pepper spray during life threatening situations. ...