• Chana [none/use name]@hexbear.net
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      24 days ago

      Helmet and ballistic glasses are the minimum when cops are present. Chemical-resistant respirator if you have asthma or need to be functional in the presence of OC or CS gas.

    • trabpukcip [he/him]@hexbear.net
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      24 days ago

      cops use civilian-worn PPE as justification for increasingly violent crowd control. They’re going to do it anyway, of course, but they blame you for protecting yourself while they do it

    • FedPosterman5000 [none/use name]@hexbear.net
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      24 days ago

      Putting in a plug for “bump caps” and “bump cap inserts” as a low profile method of head protection. Not as protective but it’ll distribute the impact

      Retraction - go with something more protective when the pigs are out for blood.

      • Palacegalleryratio [he/him]@hexbear.net
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        24 days ago

        Just fyi a bump cap is negligible protection against any type of hard impact like; a falling object, a baton strike, a thrown object of any mass, or any rifle fired projectile like a rubber bullet or beanbag. A bump cap is only for protection against slow speed / low energy bumps on hard/rough/sharp surfaces, e.g. a mechanic working under a car, someone reaching into warehouse racking, a sparky working in a crawl space etc.

        Not saying they’re a bad idea, they’re not, they’re very concealable, and can protect from causes of minor injuries that would otherwise have caused cuts and scrapes that could require medical attention, they’re really good at that, but that’s all they’re for. (Also worn inside a suitable hat will help with sunburn which is no bad thing!)

        Just be aware anything that would cause a major injury without a bump cap will still cause a major injury with a bump cap.

        Do wear a bump cap if you don’t have something better or if concealment is the priority. But don’t put yourself at risk thinking you’re safe because you’re wearing one, because, for anything that would actually cause serious injury you’re not really any better off with a bump cap than without.

        • Is there any sort of concealable helmet that would work for this kind of thing? Wearing a full riot helmet will just be used as justification for excessive force by the cops against the wearer and their surroundings, so is there any way to protect yourself without making yourself a target?

          • Palacegalleryratio [he/him]@hexbear.net
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            24 days ago

            Not really, they’re two competing design criteria. Concealable means small and low profile. But for protection you need it to be strong to distribute the impact across your head and also cushioning to absorb energy of the impact and spread the impact event out over a longer duration (like an airbag). As a result you need a relatively tough material suspended away from the surface of your head e.g. with webbing or foam etc. so good helmets are military ones (obviously) or mountaineering helmets, ski sports, full face mountain biking, construction helmets etc.

          • ShimmeringKoi [comrade/them]@hexbear.net
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            24 days ago

            I’ve been thinking about this all week. A very slim helmet could be concealed under a hood, and that hood could have a sheer cloth front cover that hides both helmet and face at a distance

            Basically a sizeable ringwraith-style hood whose job is to hide your helmet. With smart design, the helmet itself could be broken down into more compact sections for transport afterward

        • FedPosterman5000 [none/use name]@hexbear.net
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          24 days ago

          Good to know. Thanks for clarifying my post! I’ve not used one myself, and assumed they’d offer a greater degree of protection than that, esp vs a baton or deflecting something like a rubber bullet.

          • Palacegalleryratio [he/him]@hexbear.net
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            24 days ago

            Not to say bump caps are bad - I have several which I wear for diy and for work on certain appropriate job sites and the like. Knowing that, I’d wear one to a low risk protest as a “better than literally nothing” option, and I’d recommend others do the same, but you need to know their limitations and when they become no longer adequate protection.

            • FedPosterman5000 [none/use name]@hexbear.net
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              24 days ago

              For sure- I only know them from seeing them in shops lol. In the two percent I’m not in the office, I’m in the “why are we even wearing hard hats, anything on this site will kill you” field 😆

  • godlessworm [comrade/them]@hexbear.net
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    24 days ago

    i kept watching it frame by frame. you literally see it just barely graze the hat of the dude next to him and it leaves an indentation in the fabric

    that dude would have been fucked if he was standing half an inch over

    also look how large and fast those things fly. “less than lethal” my small ass dick

    • SorosFootSoldier [he/him, they/them]@hexbear.net
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      24 days ago

      Yeah I’m pretty sure those baton ammunitions were designed with the idea of shooting into someone’s body, hence the “less lethal” part, with the idea being your center of mass takes the hit and knocks the wind out of you. In reality? Cops shoots these 4 inch batons right into people’s faces and fucking kill them or at the very least seriously injure them. Fucking pigs.

      • Dimmer06 [he/him,comrade/them]@hexbear.net
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        24 days ago

        It varies a little bit between munitions but usually police are only supposed to aim at limbs with them from more than a few meters away. They’re intended to be shot at people’s extremeties to force them to drop a weapon so that they can be subdued (and provided with neccessary medical care shortly after) without hurting themselves or someone else. For instance if someone is threatening officers with a knife, police could shoot them in the arm, likely breaking the bone, and forcing the person to drop the knife.

        Getting hit in the head or center mass with them often leads to life threatening injuries because they break bones (like the skull or ribs), cause internal bleeding, and bruise or rupture organs. If they’re being used for crowd control they should only be getting shot at legs or feet from a substantial distance and even that is extreme.

  • Rubber bullets have 3% lethality [1] compared to a 20% lethality rate of normal bullets [2]. Anyone who says “less than lethal” or “non-lethal” is lying to you. A stab wound is 5% but a knife legally counts as deadly force when used by a civilian. Tear gas also frequently results in hospitalization in military recruits [3]


    1. https://www.wired.com/story/what-tear-gas-does-to-the-human-body/ ↩︎

    2. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/13785657/ ↩︎

    3. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25003867/ ↩︎

  • frogbellyratbone_ [e/em/eir, any]@hexbear.net
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    24 days ago

    does anyone know if police are actually trained to shoot rubber bullets like this? i know all the fucking lunatic cops do, but are they trained to?

    i’m almost completely positive these are supposed to be bounced off the ground before hitting whoever you’re aiming at. they’re absolutely not supposed to be shot like this.

    imagine that hit someone’s temple, eye, throat. they’d be dead. frankly i’m shocked it didn’t

    • Nacarbac [any]@hexbear.net
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      24 days ago

      i’m almost completely positive these are supposed to be bounced off the ground before hitting whoever you’re aiming at. they’re absolutely not supposed to be shot like this.

      Oh they absolutely are intended to be fired directly at faces and eyes and all that. There’s a few lines of text and some pictures to play pretend that the impact is actually quite pleasant if you just do a trick shot off the ground, but they’re designed with, and purchased with, the full knowledge that these are going to be used to pop eyeballs and break bones.

      It’s just a cheap and safe way - for the cops - to implement a good ol’ savage beatdown.

    • Dimmer06 [he/him,comrade/them]@hexbear.net
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      24 days ago

      They’re meant to be shot from some distance at the limbs of people who are going to be taken into custody and provided proper medical care after. They’re basically meant to break arms or legs. Firing them at close range or at heads or center mass is a gross misuse of them and that is how they kill people.