Magazine Posts

I'm having a difficult time
trying to write, as all
the words and music are
rattling in my head. " A little
more conversation.." in my brain.
It is something I can't explain.
A little more thought, a little
more work and the words
I write will pollute the air.
I am trying to breathe.
Sorry for the rant. I thought.
There I go again, thinking, if
I would write what is now
in my head, I could free up
some space and write my
words instead.

At least 115 people were injured this summer when police shot them in the head or neck with so-called “less-lethal” projectiles at protests over racial injustice and police brutality, according to a report published Monday.

It’s the most comprehensive tally of such injuries to date, with about twice as many victims as KHN and USA Today cited in a July examination of how police across the U.S. wielded the weapons to control crowds.

But Physicians for Human Rights, the organization that compiled the incidents, believes even its figures are an undercount because its analysis is based on publicly available data and excluded some reports without adequate evidence.

The organization identified Austin, Texas; Portland, Oregon; and Los Angeles as hot spots during the period studied, May 26 to July 27.

Abigail Rodas, who was shot in the jaw with a rubber bullet on May 30, was one of the victims in Los Angeles, according to a lawsuit filed against the city and the police chief on behalf of Black Lives Matter Los Angeles, the Los Angeles Community Action Network and 14 people, including six who were struck with projectiles.

According to the suit, Rodas was leaving a protest when she “was struck in the face by a projectile and momentarily lost consciousness.”

A steel plate was used to repair her jawbone, the lawsuit says. She couldn’t talk for about 10 days and could drink only liquids for a week, it says.

“Nearly three weeks after the injury, she has screws in her gums and rubber bands to immobilize her jaw while the bones rejoin,” the suit says.

The city denied the allegations in a court filing, saying any use of force “was reasonable and necessary for self-defense.”

Protests Shine Light on Use of ‘Less-Lethal’ Weapons

The sheer number of incidents in those two months was shocking, said Dr. Rohini Haar, lead investigator for the analysis and an emergency physician in Oakland, California.

“It seems systematic,” Haar said. “It seems like there needs to be a reckoning with the use of force in protests.”

The projectiles in question are often called “rubber bullets,” but in law enforcement they’re known as “kinetic impact projectiles.”

They include plastic projectiles tipped with hard sponge or foam, “bean bag” rounds that consist of fabric socks containing metal shot, and “Sting-Balls” — grenades that spray hard rubber pellets. The report also cites incidents in which tear gas canisters were fired at people.

Though the weapons are referred to as “less lethal,” Haar said, there should be a shift to language that acknowledges how dangerous they can be. “Weapons are just as lethal as somebody wants them to be,” she said.

A study published in 2017 in the medical journal BMJ Open, which Haar co-authored, found that 3% of people hit by projectiles worldwide died. Fifteen percent of the 1,984 people studied were permanently injured.

In a letter to the editor of the New England Journal of Medicine, a group of Austin doctors said 19 patients were treated for bean bag-related wounds at the downtown hospital closest to the protests over two days in late May.

For its analysis, Physicians for Human Rights searched social media, news accounts, lawsuits and other publicly available sources. They counted incidents on social media only if they were documented by photos or videos, and included news reports without visual evidence only from major newspapers or local affiliates of major outlets.

Physicians for Human Rights identified by name most of the people who were struck.

Among the group’s recommendations are banning weapons that release scattershot or multiple projectiles from a single canister because they can hit people indiscriminately, Haar said. Metal projectiles are particularly dangerous, she said.

She called for more training and adherence to departments’ rules on the use of such weapons.

“One of the findings of our study is police do not even appear to be following their own protocols for how to use these weapons or when,” Haar said.

There are no national standards for police use of less-lethal projectiles and no comprehensive data on their use, USA Today found.

Demonstrators in Los Angeles, Minneapolis, San Jose, Denver and Dallas told USA Today they were shot with less-lethal projectiles even though those departments don’t allow the weapons to be used against nonviolent people. Some witnesses said police aimed at faces or fired at close range.

Police have said they fired the weapons to protect themselves and property in chaotic, dangerous situations.

‘Protesters Feel Like They’re Being Attacked’

Haar, who has been studying these projectiles since 2014, said they have no place in crowd control. “Even before you get to the use of weapons, there needs to be a change in how we engage with protesters in terms of communication,” she said.

For example, police can get the phone number of a protest leader, opening the lines of communication. Police have other options besides firing projectiles, Haar said, such as “arresting the person that is actually violent, not just dispersing the entire crowd, or changing what you decide is an illegal assembly.”

Haar said the use of these projectiles tends to escalate tensions, “where the protesters feel like they’re being attacked.” Those who aren’t struck, she said, “are often incited. It’s not until that full crowd is dispersed that the anger goes away. The volatility has a cumulative impact that can last weeks or months.”

At least seven major U.S. cities and a few states have enacted or proposed limits on the use of less-lethal projectiles.

However, similar efforts have stalled in the face of opposition from police agencies or other critics. And as the summer stretched on, local and federal law enforcement agencies continued to use less-lethal weapons when confronting protesters.

Haar said city councils have reached out to her recently, showing they are “really trying to reckon with what they want in their communities.”

“I see more hope now than I have in all of my years of research,” she said. “I think the attention now is remarkable, and we actually have a really good chance of getting some actual, meaningful change.”

USA Today’s Kevin McCoy contributed to this report.

Kaiser Health News (KHN) is a national health policy news service. It is an editorially independent program of the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation which is not affiliated with Kaiser Permanente.

NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day:

A rising moon can be a dramatic sight. A rising Full Corn Moon was captured early this month in time-lapse with a telephoto lens from nearly 30 kilometers away -- making Earth's ascending half-degree companion appear unusually impressive. The image was captured from Portugal, although much of the foreground -- including lights from the village of Puebla de Guzmán -- is in Spain. A Full Corn Moon is the name attributed to a full moon at this time of year by cultures of some northern indigenous peoples of the Americas, as it coincides with the ripening of corn. Note that the Moon does not appear larger when it is nearer the horizon -- its seemingly larger size there is only an illusion. The next full moon -- occurring at the beginning of next month -- will be known as the Full Harvest Moon as it occurs nearest in time to the northern autumnal equinox and the northern field harvests.

Photo by Zarcos Palma

Francis Scott Key, an American Lawyer and amateur poet from Maryland, was being held aboard a British ship trying to work out a prisoner release when he observed the British bombardment of Fort McHenry in 1814. 
He was inspired upon seeing the American flag still flying over the fort at dawn and wrote the poem titled. "Defence of Fort M'Henry" it was published within a week with the suggested tune of the popular song "To Anacreon in Heaven" written by John Stafford Smith for the Anacreontic Society a popular gentlemen's club of amateur musicians in London. It slowly gained in popularity as an unofficial anthem, finally achieving official status more than a century later under President Herbert Hoover as the national anthem. The national motto "In God We Trust" from a line in the Poem. Although the poem has four Stanzas, only the first is commonly sung today.

The poem was set to the tune of a popular British song  "To Anacreon in Heaven written by John Stafford Smith for the Anacreonic Society, a men's social club in London which with various lyrics, was already popular in the United States. This setting, renamed "The Star-Spangled Banner", soon became a well-known U.S. patriotic song. With a range of 19 semitones, it is known for being very difficult to sing.

Francis Scott Key went on to become District Attorney for the District of Columbia  after being nominated by President Andrew Jackson. 
The photo of "The Star-Spangled Banner" handwritten manuscript by Francis Scott Key, 1814 is from the Special Collections Department/Maryland Historical Society.

Tell me more about the
World you live in when
you are away from me.
I see you sitting in your
chair when you are about
to say, "I'm bored."
When you cannot grasp the
words I speak or
what that object is. I
see the surprise then
appears when you pick up
an object and say "this?"
There is no connection to
the objects you see and
the name it is called.
Forgive me sweet one
if I don't understand
when you ask me a question
of something, over and over again.
I'll try to reply with
my best guess.

I write the words with something more,
for the words I write, please explore.
Tell me if they strike a chord
or if they are too short, trite of word.

The smoke is thick,
you cannot see,
you cannot breathe.
The mask you wear
will not stop
the particles from
entering your lungs.

She lies in bed
Unawake.
Her state of health
Understood.
Her memory gone,
Unaware.
She has Dementia,
Unfair.

NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day:

Are stars better appreciated for their art after they die? Actually, stars usually create their most artistic displays as they die. In the case of low-mass stars like our Sun and M2-9 pictured here, the stars transform themselves from normal stars to white dwarfs by casting off their outer gaseous envelopes. The expended gas frequently forms an impressive display called a planetary nebula that fades gradually over thousands of years. M2-9, a butterfly planetary nebula 2100 light-years away shown in representative colors, has wings that tell a strange but incomplete tale. In the center, two stars orbit inside a gaseous disk 10 times the orbit of Pluto. The expelled envelope of the dying star breaks out from the disk creating the bipolar appearance. Much remains unknown about the physical processes that cause and shape planetary nebulae. Almost Hyperspace: Random APOD Generator

"Most of the plastic we recycle will not be turned into new plastic things. It is buried..... And what's more, the makers of plastic — the nation's largest oil and gas companies — have known this all along, even as they spent millions of dollars telling the American public the opposite. Analysts now expect new plastic production to triple by 2050" Click to read the NPR article by Laura Sullivan

Where is the thunder?
Where is the light/
Where is the outrage
About our Co-vid plight?
How do you justify,
The decision he made,
To lie to the citizens,
In his ugly parade.
A parade of lies
And what he did,
To jeopardize the lives
Of citizens life had.
It was a criminal act,
Telling lies instead of
Not talking about facts.