Have you ever been maced or pepper sprayed?

[NightWatcher]

Poll question: Have you ever been maced or pepper sprayed?

Be it a protest or other confrontation, it hurts like nobody's business

Having been sprayed a couple times, I feel for everyone in NYC who is suffering at the hands of the cops.

[tosh]

1. Not yet, anyway.

[OffWithTheirHeads]

2. Tear gassed in Berkley during Vietnam protests

[Luminous Animal]

3. No. My daughter's boyfriend recently was tear gassed in Greece. His

description of the experience set me off on a two day intermittent crying jag.

Those young women were crying because it fucking hurt.

[tama]

40. Tear gass

is the sad parfume of Athens. I've lived in Athens, been that way long time, chemical warfare by state against the people.

[aquart]

4. I think so?

I don't know what the stuff was. Cops sprayed the park around the Washington Monument (I think...decades ago) to clear the area of stragglers after the demonstration. I was sitting harmlessly in a bus waiting to leave and the stuff wafted over us, clinging to our coats. Felt like I had pepper in my throat the whole ride back to NYC.

Coat had to be dry cleaned to get it out.

[Drahthaardogs]

5. Yep, worked the summers in college as a park ranger.

We all had to get pepper maced to "know what it felt like" since we carried it. An experience I shall never forget.

[izquierdista]

6. Other

Walked back into the kitchen at a Korean restaurant. Goddamn, I didn't think you could put that many hot peppers into a wok! :cry:

[GReedDiamond]

7. I voted "other." I was...

...pistol whipped about the head, and also had the back of my head bashed against a curb, by a "peace officer."

Never got maced or pepper sprayed, but I probably would have preferred it to being beaten.

[RKP5637]

8. Tear gassed. n/t

[LeftyMom]

9. No, but I carry water and bandanas at protests just in case.

Worst case scenario, I'm hydrated and well prepared to deal with the heat.

edit: I did get my car vandalized while I was at a protest, and I'm pretty sure the cops did it. I have an alarm now.

[Fire Walk With Me]

10. No, but I have gotten some on my skin and of course, various hot sauces in my eye

from not having washed my hands as many times as is required.

The stuff on my skin was awful. It wouldn't come out. And in the eyes? Even the remnants of average hot sauce is enough to send you running to the faucet. I can't imagine something over 10,000 Scovilles across my face...not only the mucous membranes are vulnerable, but also the sensitive skin of the lips, nostrils/airway, etc.

[Contrary1]

11. Other:

As a teenager, I had a little kid spray mace at me while I was babysitting. Had to vacate their house for about an hour.

[grntuscarora]

17. Wow.

Thought I'd heard every baby-sitting horror story.
How did the brat get a hold of mace? Hope the parents gave you a huge f***in' bonus!

[Contrary1]

24. He was only about 4 years old...

His mom went to evening classes, and had to walk to and from the bus stop. I think it probably fell out of her purse. The kid had no clue as to what he was spraying at me.

[grntuscarora]

26. Aaah.

Makes sense now :)

[sunwyn]

12. Yep.. While protesting with Greenpeace

[ChairmanAgnostic]

13. In 1974, while toying with the idea of going Navy, in high school, I joined

NJROTC. They sent us to quantico for basic training, three weeks instead of six, three mile runs/hikes instead of ten. But we learned the basic survival tools, including how to deal with tear gas. We were put in a chamber, they filled it with gas, and we had to take our masks off and march in place. Painful, disorienting, very effective.

While some found the military life oddly appealing, I ran from it as quickly and as far as I could. My best pace ever, I suspect.

[Xipe Totec]

14. The closest was Hell Night at the East Coast Grill, with scorpion peppers

They tell me that's what pepper spray tastes like.

[nevergiveup]

15. Tear gassed at the 1968 Democratic Convention in Chicago

[provis99]

32. you are my HERO!

[pinboy3niner]

34. I was on alert to take an Army 'contingency riot control squad' there from South Carolina

We were so relieved that the final call never came down. We'd been trained for jungle warfare, and had ZERO training for civilian riot control.

If we had been called we might have met as you placed a daisy in the barrel of my rifle. At least, that's the scenario I prefer to think of.

:hug:

[nevergiveup]

43. I starred one of these young guardsmen

directly in the eyes as they all backed us up against the front doors of the Conrad Hilton Hotel. The funny thing was, we were the same generation and there was no hate in either of our eyes. I will never forget that moment or those feelings. If fate would have had us meet I would have saved a daisy for you. :hug:

[av8rdave]

16. Teargassed while in the military

It wasn't pleasant.

[Warren Stupidity]

27. me too - blind for 20 minute

rather ugly.

[Rabblevox]

18. Yup, been sprayed, gassed, baton-ed, and had my face ground into the pavement by police...

and probably not for the last time. (first time was Diablo Canyon, 1975, I was 15...you never forget your first time) :)

[Chipper Chat]

19. Accidentally squirted PERT PLUS in my eyes while showering.

I thought my eyes were on fire. Had to drive to the emergency room even tho I couldnt see (mycar was on autopilot). If mace or pepperspray is like this I dont want to ever experience it.

[Yon_Yonson]

20. Teargassed during Vietnam

[stuckinarut]

21. CS gas in the military

[Abin Sur]

22. Nope. I've never chosen to put myself in a position where such a thing was likely to happen.

[tblue]

23. We accidentally drove thru the fog of pepper spray

during a riot. This was during the Watts riots. We got the effect of the spray, though it wasn't intended for us.

Did you see the slo-mo footage of the assault on those women?

[Major Nikon]

25. Teargassed many times in the military

They used to make us go into the gas chamber and remove our masks, then recite our name, rank, and SSN before we were allowed to leave. I think it was an annual requirement. They also used teargas routinely in our exercises so we'd get hit with it again every 2-3 months out in the field.

Nasty shit. Gets into your eyes and nose and turns them into a water faucet. Burns like hell in your lungs. The worst part about it is you can't keep your eyes open, so when used against crowds you can't really tell which way to run to get away from it once you're affected. If you don't have a mask, you're in deep shit. I don't know how effective of a defense a bandanna would be. I can't imagine it helping much.

[mmonk]

28. Tear gassed multiple occasions.

The worst time was when we were on the second level of any arena and they shut down the escalators after we were tear gassed. Everyone was trying to squeeze into the narrow escalators to walk down while our eyes burned.

[doc03]

29. In the Army and once in my car when my pepper spray

canister exploded from the heat.

[krispos42]

30. Accidental discharge of pepper spray caught me with the backblast.

Accidentally put a burst on the wall. The vapors made me leave very quickly after apologizing to my in-laws for macing their kitchen.

[provis99]

31. yep. by an undercover Memphis cop.

A uniform cop was arresting someone on Beale street for public drunkenness and while everybody politely watched the arrest, the undercover cop got annoyed by the attention and whipped out a mace can and sprayed everybody in a 360 degree spin. After that, it was me and about 20 other people lined crowded around a sink in the men's room at a bar, splashing our eyes with water.

He and the uniformed cops didn't do a damned thing about the drug dealer who zoomed down Beale Street at highway speeds about a half hour earlier. Selective enforcement is characteristic of Memphis cops; they don't pay much attention to habeus corpus, either.

[dkf]

33. I got a whiff of pepper spray when one friend was showing another

How it was. It wasn't strong though, just a little bitty exposure, but it was kind of irritating. I think it might be illegal now.

[TheKentuckian]

35. Yes, but not in a way that is remotely cool or tough.

I got my taste (self administered, by the way) "smelling my sister's perfume".

Yup, my little sister tricked me into macing my self and yes it burns like hell.

[lazarus]

36. twice

the first time was around 1980. Some buddies had this newfangled self defense spray, and we were curious about the effects, so we sprayed ourselves.

Second time was in basic training in 1984. Not pleasant either time.

[nadinbrzezinski]

37. I should have said other, but yes

I have had contact to this crap...

It is capsein in it's purest form... what makes chilies hot.

And we had a guy who tried to commit suicide by cop. After the cops turned him over we had to decontaminate him before loading him onto the rig...

There is a lot more to this story though... and it was all but fun... well it was lots of fun after it was over...

As to the patient... he was bipolar having an episode and a lovely 22 rifle... the cops went out of their way to use LESS THAN LETHAL in that call.

[NBachers]

38. In Berkeley during Peoples Park, and other various riots

I was defiantly occupying a bench on campus after the National Guard had cleared the area. A group of guardsmen were standing a ways uphill. I noticed a tan ball about the size of a baseball bouncing its way toward me. It bounced up to head level and exploded, drenching me with horrible tear gas. I made it to a campus building, where some med staff let me in before the pigs arrived. I went down to the Free Church to shower off. While in the shower, one of the righteous "people" liberated my wallet from my tear-gas soaked clothes.

Warrior-rioters developed the tactic of grabbing tear-gas cannisters and hurling them right back at the pigs. This was risky, because sometimes you'd pick up the cannister and it would explode right in your hands.

Whenever something started, a contingent would always stampede down Telegraph Avenue to Bank of America and start throwing rocks through their plate-glass windows.

B of A then installed roll-down metal barriers to protect their windows. It was always a race to see whether the demonstrators would reach B of A first, or whether the bank would get their metal rolled down in time.

Whatever the issue of the moment was, everyone figured Bank of America had their hands in it somehow, and if they didn't, then they were guilty of something else that justified it.

[Warren Stupidity]

41. those were the days, my friend, we though they'd never end...

[Raine]

39. No and hopefully I never will. nt

[Lurks Often]

42. In Basic, I went through the tear gas chamber

during gas mask training. It definitely makes the point about properly sealing your gas mask to your face. I think it affected me for maybe 5 or 10 minutes. As an aside either I had a mild cold or my allergies were acting up and I was congested when I went into the room. The tear gas really cleared out my sinuses, better then any cold medicine and I felt much better the rest of the day. I've not been pepper sprayed and would prefer to avoid it based on what I have heard from friends who have been in the course of their training.

On edit: Tear gas affects people to different degrees, during the tear gas training, I cried and snot running out of my nose pretty good, but I was fine after 5 or 10 minutes. Others drooled and vomited and were still miserable after 20 minutes. I presume the same applies to pepper spray.

[bigwillq]

44. No (nt)

[Cali_Democrat]

45. By accident

When I was a lot younger. It was homemade pepper spray.

[War Horse]

46. In Basic...

We were instructed NOT to go to the bathroom after CS gas training, not until we'd cleaned it off properly. Of course, there's always that one guy who doesn't listen. He went to urinate, and got the stuff on - I guess I don't have to elaborate...

And that video of those women who were sprayed - sickening.

[AngryAmish]

47. My brother in law has been tasered seven times and pepper sprayed multiple times

But he is a taser and pepper spray instructor and they make you do it before you do it to someone else.

He says the taser is better because it ends sooner. But he is a wimp at hot wing time so I'm not sure.

[Blue_Tires]

48. Other -- sprayed myself as a kid

a family friend had a pepper sprayer on her keychain and I thought it was like the breath spray my dad always used...fun times...

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

49. No. But, I got tear gassed a couple of times.

Not a pleasant experience.