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‘It’s like having two cigarette butts jammed in your eyes’.[1]
Apart from entrenched corruption within the police service, arguably the most
contentious issue in contemporary policing relates to
police use of force. As
the latest gimmick in law enforcement technologies, OC has been proclaimed as
the solution for many ‘law
and order problems’ such as street
violence and police shootings.
While the use of
OC[2] by police is a relatively recent
phenomenon, other chemical irritants such as Chloroacetaphenone (otherwise known
as CN or Mace)
and Orthoschlorobenzalmalononitrite (CS or Tear Gas) have been
used for the past 40 years.[3]
Capsaicin, the active ingredient in OC, is the chemical responsible for the
burning sensation in chillies, and the pain someone feels
when it gets into
their eyes, or into cuts. The immediate effects of OC are obvious and extremely
painful, but to date, the long-term
effects are largely unknown.
In a
society where police relations with the ‘community’ are already
strained, the use of OC is likely to exacerbate any existing problems.
Some of the people most likely to bear the brunt of this new weapon are young
people,
Indigenous people, homeless people, intoxicated people, and people who
have a mental illness.
OC has been widely used throughout the United
States of America. It should be of enormous concern that it is now being issued
and
used in Australia without sufficient, informed debate or public consultation
about its use — especially in light of its rejection
by some countries and
the contributing role that it has played in the deaths of many people.
While OC in a canister is new, chillies in their unrefined form, have been
used as a ‘natural chemical weapon’ for centuries.
The Chinese used
to grind chillies, and then blow the mixture into their enemies’ eyes,
while the Japanese used to throw paper
bags of ground chillies. The Chinese also
burned chillies in oil and then threw the resultant ‘stink pots’.
‘Native’
police officers in India also used chillies as an
interrogation aid; indeed, one detective commented, that it is: ‘far
pleasanter
to sit comfortably in the shade rubbing red pepper into a poor
devil’s eyes than to go about in the sun hunting up
evidence’.[4]
OC’s
use this century began in World War I, when it was dispensed as an
incapacitating agent in the form of Acylated Vanillylamide.
Since then, the
Ministry of Defence in England at its Chemical Defence Establishment at Porton
Down, has continued ‘researching
analogues of
capsicum’[5] in its ongoing
endeavours to develop debilitating anti-personnel chemicals.
Capsaicin is the purified parent, single chemical entity, of the hundreds of
components of Capsicum Oleoresin. It is usually obtained
by grinding dried ripe
chillies into a fine powder. The fruit of plants in the capsicum family normally
contains between 0.1% and
1.0% Capsaicin.
Oleoresin is usually extracted
by distilling the powder in a solvent and then evaporating the solvent. After
evaporation or distillation,
a thick, reddish-brown oily liquid is left.
Capsaicin forms colourless platelets, which have an intense, burning taste. It
is not
particularly soluble in water, but it is in some organic solvents —
such as petroleum benzene, alcohol, or ether. In order
to make OC more
marketable, it had to be water-soluble. So the manufacturers mixed raw OC with
emulsifiers like Propylene Glycol
or Polysorbate, which cause the OC to be held
in suspension.[6]
There are two
common methods of measuring the intensity of OC, both of which are inadequate.
The first, which measures the burning
sensation that a subject feels when a
particular sample is placed on their tongue leads to a Scoville Heat Units (SHU)
rating. This
test, though, is extremely subjective, as it is based on an
individual’s perception of heat, rather than on any objective,
independent
measurement. The other common method is to measure the percentage of OC in the
product, but this ignores the differences
that can exist in the composition and
pungency of OC, both between manufacturers as well as amongst
batches.[7]
My daughter said it felt like someone lit fire to her face and then poured Tabasco sauce into it.[8]
Within seconds of OC hitting a person’s face, they are usually
temporarily blinded. As their airways swell and lungs constrict,
the person
struggles to breathe and begins to cough uncontrollably. Simultaneously, the
pain from their skin and eyeballs burning
causes them to double up. They start
to sweat profusely and their body temperature drops by 6 degrees, as they begin
to vomit. If
the person is asthmatic, they are likely to suffer from reflexive
bronchoconstriction and bronchospasms as
well.[9]
The immediate medical
risks of OC are severe enough, but the long-term damage that Capsaicin and
Capsaicinoids can cause, are potentially
even more disturbing. In 1993, the US
Army concluded that OC could cause ‘mutagenic effects, carcinogenic
effects, sensitization,
cardiovascular and pulmonary toxicity, neurotoxicity, as
well as possible human fatalities ... [and that] ... there is a risk in
using
this product on a large and varied
population.’[10]
In
1994, the British Home Office commissioned a report to establish whether
Capsaicin could induce unscheduled DNA synthesis (UDS).
Although the Hazelton
Report found that UDS did not occur in its tests on rats, it was unable to
establish any direct information
about the number or type of DNA lesions that
the exposure to Capsaicin caused. Furthermore, it did not investigate whether
the human
body can repair the DNA damage caused by
Capsaicin.[11]
Capsaicin has
a neuropeptide effect on the nervous system, which causes a release of substance
P from the C fibres,[12] that
ultimately reduces a person’s sensation of
pain.[13] Interestingly, the
phenolic components of the Oleorisin have the opposite effect to the pure
Capsaicin — increasing neuropeptide
synthesis and exacerbating pain and
inflammation.[14] There are also
reports that high levels of Capsaicin can cause nerve damage and possibly kill
pain fibres.[15]
The propellant in OC can constitute up to 95% of the product and is often
flammable, poisonous, toxic and carcinogenic. Two components
commonly found in
OC are Methylene Chloride which is classified as being poisonous, toxic,
carcinogenic and a hazardous waste, and
Isopropyl alcohol, which is highly toxic
and causes corneal burns and eye
damage.[16]
Following 30 in-custody deaths in the USA in 1994, the American National
Institute of Justice (NIJ) commissioned several research
projects into the use
of OC. Two of the resultant reports (by the International Association of Chiefs
of Police — ‘Pepper
Spray and In-Custody Deaths’ and by the
NIJ — ‘Oleoresin Capsicum: Pepper Spray as a Use of Force
Alternative’)
dismissed OC as having been a relevant factor in any of the
deaths.[17]
In 1995, the
American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) investigated the deaths of 26 people
against whom OC had been used by Californian
Police Officers. Although the ACLU
found that OC had not been identified as the cause of death in any of these
cases, it revealed
that scientists knew so little about OC’s residual
effects that medical examiners may not even know what to look for.
Astonishingly,
ten of the 26 autopsy reports did not even mention OC, which
suggests that either the police never told the medical examiners that
OC had
been used on the suspect, or that OC was not considered as having, in any way,
contributed to their death. Alternatively,
when they were determining the cause
of death, there were no available tests for
OC.[18]
Twenty-four of these
26 people were reported to be ‘high on drugs’ or suffering from a
‘serious psychiatric disorder’.
Interestingly, though, the autopsy
reports found quantities of lethal drugs (Methylamphetamine or Cocaine) in only
one quarter of
them. The two people who had histories of serious mental illness
had no traces of drugs in their bodies and ‘all had died of
the
frightening effects of schizophrenia or because their hearts failed as they
fought with police after being pepper
sprayed’.[19]
The ACLU
reported that there had been no studies on the long-term health risks or special
risks to particular groups, such as asthmatics,
heart patients, the mentally ill
or pregnant women. When the British Home Office’s scientific research
branch found that OC
posed too great a danger to asthmatics and pregnant women,
it abandoned plans to introduce it in
Britain.[20]
The ACLU Report
was also concerned at the serious health risks if a person is sprayed with more
than one burst of OC, corresponding
with manufacturers’ advice that
‘if you hit a suspect’s target area, and it doesn’t work,
it’s not
going to work, and improperly prolonged spraying poses a health
risk to the suspect’.[21]
However, the temptation to just keep spraying may well prove
irresistible.
The most widespread, documented use of OC has been in the USA, where between
June 1994 and May 1995, Californian police, sheriffs
and correction
departments’ officers used pepper spray nearly 9000
times.[22] The growth in the use of
OC has taken place, in spite of the revelation that the head of the Less than
Lethal Weapons Programme at
the FBI (Agent Thomas Ward) was paid $57,000 by an
OC manufacturer (Capstun) to ensure approval of OC’s use by police
throughout
the US. Despite this lack of independent, objective assessment of the
use of OC, the FBI’s findings are yet to be subjected
to independent
scrutiny.
Whereas OC is marketed as an alternative to the lethal use of
force, the US experience of the last decade is littered with examples
of its use
as a tool to gain compliance and as a method of punishment. Indicative of this
are the OC attacks on:
Perhaps the most well-publicised ‘uses’ of OC concerned several separate
incidents, over a five-week period, in Eureka,
California, in which sheriffs
used OC against non-violent
demonstrators.[24] The protesters
were peacefully opposing attempts to clear a forest in their region, and in
doing so, locked themselves together inside
steel pipes and refused to move. On
each occasion, the police applied OC from a cup with q-tips to their eyes. An
application was
made to stop the Humboldt County police from applying the OC
directly to the faces of passive protesters. However, Judge Walker of
the
Federal Court, refused to grant an injunction, declaring that ‘to restrict
the officers to negotiation in these circumstances
would impair their ability to
enforce the law and thus be a significant
hardship’.[25]
The
television footage of the demonstration outside the Eureka office of Rep. Frank
Riggs showing four women writhing in pain and
screaming caused so much outrage,
that the Federal Government announced an inquiry to determine whether any
federal, criminal civil
rights violations
occurred.[26]
All of these
examples illustrate that OC, rather than being an alternative to lethal force,
may well be used as a method of summary
punishment. If OC is supposed to prevent
fatalities, then why do people continue to die after being attacked with OC?
Since the 1995
ACLU Report, there have been many more unresolved cases. In one
instance, private security guards were ‘escorting’ Luis
McIntyre out
of a party in Boulder, Colorado, when off-duty police assisted and sprayed him.
McIntyre stopped breathing and was pronounced
dead at Boulder
Hospital.[27] In another case, in
Marietta, Georgia, police sprayed 32-year-old Edward Wolfertz three times after
they had been called at 1.30
a.m. to a pancake house following a report of a
suspicious person. Wolfertz was supposedly wanted for probation violations. The
next
morning, Edward Wolfertz was dead in police
custody.[28]
In 1996, the
continuing deaths prompted the San Francisco District Attorney’s office to
order its investigators not to use pepper
spray, stating ‘there’s
got to be a better way out there ... there are too many problems with pepper
spray’.[29]
OC has not
yet been routinely issued to police throughout Australia. However, there are
already some disturbing reports of its use.
By the end of 1996 it had been
issued to 1200 sergeants in
Victoria.[30]
Although some
police guidelines in Australia prohibit abuses like those referred to earlier,
scenes reminiscent of those in Humboldt
County took place in Brisbane
Magistrates Court on 24 November 1997. After a fight broke out in Court, when
one of 11 prisoners refused
to change seats, one of the prisoners was dragged
into an adjoining room where waiting Safety Response Team officers sprayed
pepper
spray into his
eyes.[31]
In another
incident, on 16 January 1997, Sheryl Black was sprayed with OC while inside her
cell, at Knox Police Station. Police said
it was a necessary measure, in order
to prevent harm to her and others. Sheryl Black had been ‘armed’
with a plastic
knife. Sheryl was an intellectually disabled, epileptic,
asthmatic woman who had been in and out of institutions for most of her
life.
Two months after being sprayed with OC she was found dead in her cell. At the
time she was sprayed, Sheryl had been in a cell
by herself threatening nobody.
Her alleged ‘threatening and violent behaviour’ included making
threats to officers and
against herself, and pressing the duress
alarm.[32]
Last year,
Australian viewers were confronted by the harrowing description of Belinda
Morris’ experience of being ‘sprayed’
when she refused to get
out of a police van at the Melbourne Custody Centre. Contrary to
Commissioner’s Instruction Number
5, the police used OC on her in the
confined space of the van, in a situation that did not involve ‘violent or
serious confrontation’.
Ms Morris suffered the prolonged affects of asthma
for a week and a half following the incident.
It is obvious from the
above examples that police discretion to use OC is very wide; for although there
are ‘Instructions’
governing its use, senior police have referred to
them as merely ‘advice’ and that officers should look at each
situation
in its totality.[33] For
instance, requirements that a verbal warning be given can be dispensed with if
the gravity of the situation makes it impracticable.
Another restriction on its
use is that ‘OC must not be carried by members rostered for duty at crowd
control situations’.
However, this clearly would not prevent special
response teams, or back-up police arriving on the scene from using OC.
In 1996 Victoria became the first State in Australia to introduce OC. The
decision to introduce OC into the armory of Victoria Police
was justified as a
response to growing public concern over the high number of people being shot by
the police. More States have since
followed suit. On 1 April 1998, the Minister
for NSW Police stated in a media release that training for NSW Police in the use
of
OC had begun, and more than 500 canisters had been issued to the
‘frontline of the 11 police regions’. Sections of the
Queensland
Police Service have now been issued with OC. Police in South Australia have
undertaken trials of OC, and in Tasmania,
officers are being trained in its use.
The Northern Territory has also announced its intention to introduce OC. Police
in Western
Australia, however, did not want to be issued with OC, with Assistant
Commissioner, Bob Kacera, stating that: ‘We would need
to be firmly
convinced that it was thoroughly effective. We are not yet convinced that it is.
And we are not convinced as an organisation
that it needs to be put into our
hierarchy of
weapons.’[34]
Between
1988 and 1995 Victorian Police were involved in 24 fatal shootings. In 1994
alone, nine people — six of whom had a history
of mental illness —
were shot dead by police.[35]
Although police argued for OC’s introduction in response to two fatal
shootings that occurred just 36 hours apart in early
1994, police in that State
had, in fact, been discussing its use for at least the previous 12 months as
part of the recommendations
carried out by Project Beacon. The Police had been
investigating the use of OC overseas, as well as conducting tests on police
recruits
at the Training
Academy.[36]
Task Force
Victor was established by the Victorian Minister for Police and Emergency
Services, Pat McNamara, in 1994 to investigate
the high number of fatal
shootings by police. Project Beacon was then established at the end of the same
year in order to implement
some of the recommendations contained in the Task
Force Report, including the introduction of OC as part of its ‘safety
first’
program.
In September 1995, Chief Commissioner of Victoria
Police, Neil Comrie, announced that there would be a six-month trial of OC,
before
its approval as standard police equipment. The trial commenced in April
1996. In July 1997, the Police announced that OC would be
issued to 2000 police
supervisors and that all operational police would be trained in its use and
issued with it by the end of 1998.
Capsicum spray will give NSW police what they need to defuse dangerous situations and save lives — theirs and others.[37]
While manufacturers disagree over the situations in which OC should be used,
police have continually sold the concept of OC to the
public as a way to reduce
fatal police shootings. In Victoria, Chief Commissioner Comrie, defended the
decision to introduce OC,
describing it as ‘an alternative to firearms.
If, in the exercise, we save one life through the use of this spray, then I
think
it is a worthwhile
exercise.’[38] However, the
question remains whether or not OC can and will actually be used in situations
where police would normally resort to
the use of a firearm. Indeed, from the
evidence given by Victorian police at coronial inquiries, it is clear that
police are instructed
to use their firearm whenever they are confronted by
someone wielding a firearm or an edged
weapon.[39]
An analysis of 34
fatal shootings by police in Australia between 1994 and 1998, reveals that in
every case, the person killed was
either wielding an edged weapon or a firearm,
or the police had mistakenly believed that they were armed.
These
Australian findings correspond with similar studies in the United States. For
example, in a nine-month study conducted in one
US Police Department between
1996 and 1997, it was found that very few incidents where OC was used involved
suspects brandishing
a firearm or
knife.[40]
Police are trained
to deploy a firearm or OC canister with both hands. The way in which police are
trained to use their weapons though,
requires them to only pull one weapon in
these situations, as ‘under high stress, the brain’s message
intended for one
hand can go to both hands and result in an unintentionally
discharged firearm, perhaps wounding or killing the subject or another
officer’.[41]
Indeed,
police themselves argue that OC cannot be used instead of a firearm:
Normally [OC] is not intended to be used for defence against an attack with a knife or bludgeon, which are deadly weapons. OC is not intended to be used to stop a person; it is meant to control and, in essence, slow down a person. Ask yourself: If someone is trying to stab me, do I want them to stop or do I want them to slow down? The answer is clear.[42]
When asked about the measures the NSW Police Service has been
taking, and intends to take, to avoid its officers killing citizens
in
situations similar to those surrounding the death of Roni Levi, at Bondi Beach,
NSW Police Chief Commissioner Ryan answered: ‘We
are actually reviewing
all of the procedures in relation to police use of firearms. I know it’s
not going to be particularly
popular, but we are introducing a different form of
baton for officers to carry and also a spray, which can hopefully be used before
— in preference to a
firearm’.[43] Ryan’s
statement is extremely naïve. When Barry Brooks, from the Los Angeles
Police Force was questioned about situations,
like that at Bondi, he remarked:
‘You could spray them from a distance of about ten feet but, you know,
with a knife, I mean
you’d be looking at that’d be four, so
I’m not sure if you’d want
to’.[44] It is clearly
problematic that the effective range for OC is approximately 3–4 metres
and yet there is a 6 metre safety zone
for knives.
When discussing the
fatal shooting of Roni Levi, Leonie Manns, executive officer of the Mental
Health Co-ordinating Council, stated:
‘It’s a very big issue that
police aren’t adequately trained to deal with people with mental illness.
An experienced
person would have known to keep the person
talking.’[45] Even an
inexperienced person should have attempted alternative methods (like a handful
of sand). In another indictment of the actions
of the police, the NSW
Coroner’s Report into Roni Levi’s death, also pointed to the need
for more police training when
dealing with people with a mental illness.
However, even the success of a negotiator cannot guarantee police
restraint from using OC. In another incident, in
Queensland,[46] police sprayed a man
with OC, after a negotiator had persuaded him to throw down his knife. At the
time he was sprayed, the man posed
no threat to police or
bystanders.
There are already examples within Australia where OC has
failed to prevent a fatal shooting. In July 1997, Craig Colman of Bayswater
in
Victoria, was shot in the chest after police claimed that OC had failed to stop
him advancing with a knife — the man allegedly
having used a shirt to
shield his eyes from OC. The police had been called by the man’s partner
to intervene in a property
dispute. The constable who shot Mr Colman was
reported to have been in ‘fear of her life’. After the incident, the
Opposition
police spokesperson, Andre Haermeyer, criticised the Victorian
Government for relying too heavily on the use of OC to prevent fatal
shootings.
He also highlighted the fact that the Government had failed to implement most of
the 90 recommendations made by Task Force
Victor, including the recommendation
that crisis support units be
expanded.[47]
In April last
year, Victorian police shot dead a man who had been wielding a hammer and
attempting to break into an automatic teller
machine. This was the second man
shot dead within a week. The previous incident had involved a 24-year-old father
of three, Wade
Smith of Bendigo, who allegedly threatened two police officers
with a rifle. The rifle was found not to be
loaded.[48] Police never stated
their reasons for failing to use OC in either of these situations.
It is clear that OC will not solve the problem of fatal police shootings. It
is an additional weapon for police, and not an alternative
to existing lethal
weapons. Furthermore, encouraging police to use OC may actually increase the
likelihood that they will resort
to using their firearms as they will be less
inclined to resolve problems using containment and negotiation skills. If the OC
fails
to deter, then police, particularly at close quarters may well resort to
their guns.
OC is a potentially dangerous cocktail of toxic chemicals and
the evidence from where it has been used, indicates that it is not merely
its
abuse that is the problem; rather, it is its very use. The harmful short-term
and long-term effects of OC, together with its
likely target groups, lead us to
conclude that OC is an additional tool of both compliance and punishment. Its
burgeoning expansion
into the armouries of police forces as well as private
security firms in Australia must be challenged.
References
[1] Herald Sun, 28 May 1996,
p.1.
[2] The authors have used the
term OC instead of the more commonly used terms ‘capsicum spray’,
‘capsicum gas’
or ‘pepper spray’ as they believe that
such terms have connotations that the chemical is somehow natural and safe. It
is their aim in this paper to show that this is not the
case.
[3] The authors have used the
term OC instead of the more commonly used terms ‘capsicum spray’,
‘capsicum gas’
or ‘pepper spray’ as they believe that
such terms have connotations that the chemical is somehow natural and safe. It
is their aim in this paper to show that this is not the
case.
[4] Garchik, L. ‘A
Justice Weighs in on Pepper Spray’, San Francisco Chronicle, 3
November 1997, referring to a 1943 Supreme Court decision in which Justice
Felix Frankfurter quoted from James Fitzjames Stephen’s
history of English
criminal law.
[5]
Statewatch, vol. 6, no. 2, March-April 1996,
p.3.
[6] For further information
see Doubet, M., The Medical Implications of OC Sprays, PPCT Research
Publications, 1997, pp.7-8.
[7]
DuBay, D., in Doubet, M.,
above.
[8] Gunnhild Vardal,
describing her daughter Ebony’s reaction when Royal Canadian Mounted
Police used OC to attack a group of about
400 young people who were inside the
Canadian Mental Health Association Hall in Kamloops on 6 April 1996. Kamloops
— The Daily News, 8 April
1996.
[9] Stopford, W.,
‘Statement Concerning the Pathophysiology of Capsaicin and Risks
Associated with Oleoresin Capsicum Exposure’,
Division of Occupational and
Environmental Medicine, Duke University Medical Centre, Durham, NC, 22 March
1996.
[10] Aberdeen Proving
Ground Study (1993), cited in Statewatch, above, ref. 5,
p.3.
[11] Dean, S., ‘Final
Report — Capsaicin: Measurement of Unscheduled DNA Synthesis in Rat Liver
Using an In Vivo/In Vitro Procedure’, Hazleton, December 1994,
p.10.
[12] Substance P is a
neurotransmitter of pain. It transmits painful impulses from the periphery to
the central nervous system and is
found primarily in type C fibres. When
purified Capsaicin is administered, it stops the sensory neurons from producing
substance
P, which diminishes their ability to send pain signals to the brain.
Dean, S., above, p.7.
[13] Hence
its use to relieve pain for some sufferers of rheumatoid arthritis or
osteoarthritis. Dean, S., above,
p.5.
[14] Doubet, M., above,
p.7.
[15] DuBay, D., in Doubet,
M., above, p.8.
[16] DuBay, D.,
in Doubet, M., above, p.8.
[17]
American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California (ACLU), Pepper Spray
Update: More Fatalities, More Questions, June 1995,
p.17.
[18] For further
information see ACLU above.
[19]
ACLU, above, p.28.
[20]
Guardian, 16 May 1995, quoted in: Campaign Against Repressive Police
Equipment and Training (CARPET), ‘Capsicum Spray: Lethal
Intervention’,
Press release of CARPET, 11 September,
1995.
[21] ‘Pepper Spray
Victim had History of Drugs’ in: San Francisco Chronicle @
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file+chronicle/
archive/1997/10/22MN15444.DTL
[22]
ACLU Report, above, p.28.
[23]
Pan, P. and Castaneda, R., ‘Use of Pepper Spray on Webber
Criticized’, Washington Post, 22 January, 1998,
p.D1.
[24] Statement from North
Coast First, see North Coast Earth First web site at
www.macronet.org/macronet/headwaters/special.html.
[25]
La Ganga, M., ‘Judge refuses to block use of pepper spray at
sit-ins’, Los Angeles Times , 15 November
1997.
[26] Announced by Justice
Department spokesman, Myron Marlin, reported in ‘FBI Investigating use of
Pepper Spray’, Los Angeles Times, 1 November
1997.
[27] Stahl, A., ‘Man
Dies After Hit With Pepper Spray’, Denver Post, 6 August
1997.
[28] Payne, D. ‘Man
Sprayed by Pepper Gas Dies’, The Atlanta Journal and Constitution,
29 July 1997, p.C05.
[29] Chief
Investigator Dan Addario, cited on ACLU’s web page ‘District
Attorney’s Investigators Ordered Not to Use
Pepper Spray’, 3 May
1996.
[30] Rouw, J. and Cookes,
T., ‘Police back spray despite shooting’, Age, 19 July 1997,
p.A2.
[31] Courier Mail,
25 November 1997.
[32] ABC Radio
National Breakfast Program with Peter Tompson, interview with Assistant
Commissioner Ray Shuey, 4 April,
1997.
[33] Assistant Commissioner
Ray Shuey, above, and Sunday program, 5 April
1998.
[34] Ransley, P.,
‘Chemical Weapons on Australian Streets’, Sunday program, 5
April 1998.
[35] Miller, M.,
‘Aerosol Armoury’, Police Life, November 1995,
p.10.
[36] Schetzer, L.,
‘Victorian Police Plan to use Chemical Weapons’, (1994) 6(1)
Current Issues in Criminal Justice
153.
[37] Media Release, Police
Capsicum Spray Training Underway, Minister, 1 April
1998.
[38] Age, 2
September 1995, p.3.
[39]
Capsicum Spray Monitoring Committee, ‘Capsicum Spray Briefing
Paper’, November 1997.
[40]
National Institute of Justice, 1997, quoted in McCulloch, J., chapter of PhD
thesis, 1999.
[41] National
Institute of Justice, 1994, quoted in McCulloch, J, ref. 40,
above.
[42] ‘The Attacker
Brought a Knife to a Gun Fight!’, Police 1995 p.38, in Ref. 39,
above.
[43] Commissioner P. Ryan
answering a question put by J. Godfrey, 13 May 1998 at a meeting of Library
Society, at State Library,
Sydney.
[44] ABC 2BL
Richard Glover 5.25 p.m., 11 March 1998. Discussion with Police Officer from Los
Angeles on the use of Capsicum Sprays. Interview
with Barry Brooks, Los Angeles
Police Force.
[45] Evans, M.,
Lamont, L. and Bernoth, A., ‘Police Under Fire Over Beach Killing’,
Sydney Morning Herald, 30 June
1997.
[46] Ransley,
above.
[47] Rouw, J. and Cookes,
T., above.
[48] Donovan, P.,
Shiel, F. and Conroy, P., ‘Victorian Police Shoot Dead Two Men in a
Week’, Sydney Morning Herald, 11 April 1998.
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