THREATS TO HEALTH, ENVIRONMENT, FROM TEAR GAS IDENTIFIED IN NEW RESEARCH BY PORTLAND CIVIL RIGHTS ORGANIZATION
PORTLAND, Ore. – Don’t Shoot Portland, a nonprofit 501c3 known as a civil rights agency for social change, recently filed a class action lawsuit against the city of Portland on June 5, 2020, alleging that the police have been using tear gas and excessive force indiscriminately. According to the clerk for U.S. District Judge Marco Hernandez, the order has extended the temporary restraining order against officers using tear gas to July 24th, 2020.
As we know, since the COVID-19 crisis erupted in America, a number of studies and health research publications have pointed to serious health disparities and systemic inequities that show racial trends and a lack of resources and health care accommodations for Black Americans. With the current pandemic happening amidst the national uprisings in solidarity for Black Lives, we felt it was important and necessary that any response from the city be proactive to include precautions to avoid possible long term mental, emotional or physical damage or harm against Portlanders. Not only were we mindful that people had been quarantined but we also recognized that we were in a global respiratory pandemic and that any response should be handled with a lens of health and safety. With this in mind, we have reached out to community health professionals who are now working closely with our legal team to conduct this research. We were motivated to conduct studies that could help us show leaders how to identify ways to respond to the uprisings without risk of life.
The violence used against protestors should never be condoned by City employees - and the fact that there is a national health crisis means elected officials should denounce violence and create stringent boundaries to focus on the safety and health of the people, not possible damage to property.
When seeing the news and feeling triggered by the violence used against protesters in the George Floyd uprisings it didn’t take long before the effects of chemicals, sound devices, constant helicopters and bangs began to affect residents of downtown Portland, including our City's diverse unhoused community.
On Friday, June 26th, 2020, Don’t Shoot Portland will be publishing our health team’s findings between the effects of tear gas and the novel coronavirus. We hope this publication will support the educational and awareness of activists, court systems and health administrators in building frameworks for social equity.
“The importance of leading with science revealed several gaps in knowledge of the adverse effects of using riot control agents (RCA) weapons,” said Dr. Anita Randolph of OHSU. “To support the study, I relied upon my physiological, molecular, and chemistry background to paint the image of the toxicity of the tear gas components. The significant findings within our study were inspiring in regard to helping Don't Shoot Portland express the major health effects, mental distress, and ecological harms of tear gas exposure.”
This new information from research studies will be used to support our lawsuit filed on June 5th on behalf of those affected by indiscriminate and excessive force by PPB while exercising their right to protest during the George Floyd uprising.
Download the report: Riot Control Agents (RCA) Ban RCA against Black Lives Matter Protests & Stop Killing US Report by Mormon, A., Williams, Z., Smith, D., and Randolph, A.C.