Thread: Pepper Spray

That stuff stays in your clothes. We had to go through that training on a regular basis. You learn to handle it at a level somewhere above panic and puke. Usually we'd go through that crap somewhere in mid morning. It stays on you clothes and you get somewhat accustomed to it. We made a point to hit the chow hall in unison in those days. It wasn't long before everyone in the chow hall was crying and coughing. Everyone getting big CS hits off our BDUs and us laughing our ass off.

Pepper spray is a weapon. One definition of torture is the use of a weapon on a helpless person to inflict harm, but not necessarily to kill. In this sense, pepper spray can most certainly be used as an implement of torture. But really, it's a weapon, little different than smashing someone with a bat, or jabbing a sharp implement in their eyes. It's simply less likely to kill. Use of it should be treated no differently than any other weapon.

Originally Posted by Awesome!

Is Pepper Spray a form of torture?

I think what you meant to ask is: can pepper spray be used as a means of torture?

and clearly, the answer is yes.

Originally Posted by Thunder

the point is, pepper spray can be a weapon of self-defense, to subdue someone resisting arrest, or as a weapon of torture.

That can be said for almost anything. To answer your question it all depends on why it is being used.
So why not just come out and say you believe police are using pepper spray to torture protesters.

Originally Posted by Awesome!

Is Pepper Spray a form of torture?

It can be used for torture just like anything else. Heck I could use a sharpened pencil,frying pan, coat hanger and all sorts of other objects for torture. But just because I can use those things for torture doesn't make the act of using those as weapons a form of torture.

Originally Posted by Thunder

here's the thing about pepper-spray: it keeps working, long after they stop spraying it, and long after you have chosen to comply with lawful orders.

a batton can be pulled back. a tazer can be turned off. pepper-spray is the gift that keeps on giving.

If you get hit with baton or tazer you may have injuries that can last for a while.

Originally Posted by mike2810

That can be said for almost anything. To answer your question it all depends on why it is being used.
So why not just come out and say you believe police are using pepper spray to torture protesters.

I can never understand why anyone would think that police brutality is acceptable in any situation.

I would say that pepper spray use can be police brutality, which is the real question the OP was trying to ask, I suspect.

Originally Posted by Thunder

here's the thing about pepper-spray: it keeps working, long after they stop spraying it, and long after you have chosen to comply with lawful orders.

a batton can be pulled back. a tazer can be turned off. pepper-spray is the gift that keeps on giving.

Yes, a baton can be pulled back, but the bruises it leaves last longer than the spray does. (Assuming you had to actually connect, and if you didn't then there's really no comparison to be made between a baton strike and a spray in the face.)

Even ignoring that, batons and tasers are classified as a response to assaultive behavior on my use-of-force continuum, whereas spray is listed under active resistant. I can use my spray in scenarios where the baton and taser would be excessive force.

As others have said, how is it being used?

To me, most cases of pepper spray use is not torture. It is either being used as a deterrent or for training.

Are there people, including police, that use pepper spray as torture, sure. But I would say the majority of those times when it could legitimately be described as such are going to be times when there is no reasonable belief that the person it is being used on could get away from the user and it is being used purely to inflict pain and/or humiliate the person (or get information from them), not just to deter them from something they are doing that they shouldn't be doing.

Also, concerning the "a baton could be pulled back" comment. Pepper spray can stop being sprayed too. But both are still quite capable of causing lasting pain. In fact, the baton is more than capable of causing pain/injuries that will last much longer than a day or two, which is the average amount of time OC spray stays on people who wash and change their clothes daily. (My husband has been OC sprayed at least 5 times since we have been together.)

Now, according to my husband, the pain from/memory of the pain from being sprayed with OC is going to make anyone wish that they would have been beaten with a baton rather than sprayed. The overall lasting effects though are still not likely to be as long as a beating.