On Thursday, Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez said in response to “peaceful” protesters being hit by rubber bullets, she would be introducing legislation to set a “clear standard” on how law enforcement should and should not use the weapons.
The legislation has not been released and its unclear what she will be releasing, but did say she would be introducing it soon.
In a series of Tweets on Twitter, Gonzalez stated:
As tens of thousands of Californians take to the street to express their horror and outrage at the murder of George Floyd and police brutality in general, they have been met with hurling projectiles of metal and rubber resulting in several people being seriously injured
Breaking a city-imposed curfew is not a sufficient basis for use of rubber bullets. Crowd control where there is no rioting is not proper grounds to use rubber bullets. Protesting alone should not result in disability, injury or death at the hands of law enforcement.
According to BMJ Medical Journal in 2017, three percent of people hit by rubber bullets died of their injuries. Fifteen percent were permanently injured. Rubber bullets are only rubber on the outside but often contain a metal center that can easily tear through a person’s flesh.
It’s time we create clear standards for use of rubber bullets by law enforcement and demand officers stop using them to disperse peaceful crowds.
No timeline was provided and no other information was provided on what standards she would like improved.
2:55 pm UPDATE – Official Statement from California State Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez
Lorena Gonzalez Calls for California to Set Clear Standards on Use of Rubber Bullets
Legislation Would Curb Law Enforcement’s Unnecessary Use of Force Against Protestors
SACRAMENTO – (Thursday, June 4, 2020) – In response to recent days filled with images of peaceful protestors maimed by rubber bullets, California State Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez (D-San Diego), along with Assemblymembers Dr. Shirley Weber (D-San Diego) and Ash Kalra (D-San Jose) and Senator Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco), today announced they will pursue legislation to set clear standards on how these harmful projectiles should, and shouldn’t, be used by law enforcement.
“No one who is simply exercising their right to protest should face possible injury or death because officers are indiscriminately firing rubber bullets into a crowd,” Assemblywoman Gonzalez said. “Breaking a city-imposed curfew is not a sufficient basis for use of rubber bullets. Crowd control where there is no rioting is not proper grounds to use rubber bullets. It is past time for the State of California to set clear standards on when and how these bullets are used by law enforcement.”
Rubber or plastic bullets, also called Kinetic Impact Projectiles (KIPs), are deployed by law enforcement as means for crowd control. They are increasingly used to respond to protests and are designed to incapacitate individuals by inflicting pain or sub-lethal injury, but researchers have said rubber and plastic bullets should not be used for crowd control. According to BMJ Medical Journal in 2017, three percent of people hit by rubber bullets died of their injuries. Fifteen percent were permanently injured. Rubber bullets are only rubber on the outside but often contain a metal center that can easily tear through a person’s flesh.
“Millions of Americans have taken to the streets over the past week rightfully demanding change and sacrificing their safety in support of Black Lives Matter to take a stand against police brutality and institutional racism. As lawmakers, we cannot stand by idly while people are being brutalized as they are exercising their free speech,” Assemblymember Kalra said. “Rubber bullets should not be used to suppress freedom of assembly, peaceful protest, or to facilitate curfews and disperse people demonstrating. Taking away these tools that cause injury and escalate tensions is the first of many necessary changes that need to happen if we are to truly claim to support communities of color and address the persistent problems facing Black Americans.”
At a closer range, rubber bullets can penetrate the skin, break bones, fracture the skull, explode the eyeball, cause traumatic brain injuries, serious abdominal injury, internal bleeding, and spleen, bowel, and major blood vessel injuries. At longer distances, they can unintentionally injure bystanders and non-violent demonstrators instead.
“Over the past week, we’ve all watched with horror as police violently target protesters and journalists with rubber bullets for no apparent reason, sending many to the hospital with serious injuries,” Senator Wiener said. “We need to re-evaluate use of rubber bullets by California law enforcement. We need more de-escalation and less military-grade riot gear, rubber bullets, and tear gas. I applaud Assemblymember Gonzalez for leading on this important legislation in this critical moment in our nation’s quest for justice.”
There is limited regulation on the development of these weapons. Manufacturers are not required to keep records on injuries from their products in development, field trials or actual use. There is also no legal requirement for law enforcement to collect data on injuries from rubber bullets or document their use of rubber bullets. The United States began using rubber and plastic bullets during the Vietnam War protests, but stopped the use in protests after a fatality in 1971. They were reintroduced in the early 1980s.
Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez represents California’s 80th Assembly District, located in southern San Diego County, including the cities of San Diego, Chula Vista, and National City. She serves as Chair of the Assembly Committee on Appropriations, Chair of the Assembly Select Committee on Women in the Workplace, and Chair of the California Latino Legislative Caucus. For more information on Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez visit https://a80.asmdc.org/
36 comments
Politicians trying to tell police how to do there jobs!! This dumb shit needs to go!!!
Vote her out!
These military police forces still use tear gas on its citizens, a type of chemical warfare that’s been internationally banned since 1993. Rubber bullets are just the cherry on top. During a time of pandemic you wouldn’t expect the supposed defenders of the free world to literally poison it’s peaceful protestors with chemicals that make them more susceptible to the virus at hand…but that’s the era we live in. A literal plunge into State-sanctioned terror where every supporter won’t be satisfied until everyone is in a cage. We should be ashamed of ourselves.
We should use real bullets
Daniel, your mom’s basement is no place to be making threats to the rest of the world. Grow up and read a book.
Pretty obvious “Pastor Maynard“ is just a troll.
No need to pay attention to him….
“Read a book?” Have any particular book in mind, Pastor M? I suggest he read “BLUE MOON” by Lee Child —- a Jack Reacher novel. Or maybe one by Brad Thor or Daniel Silva?
@Chelsea
Haha, I see what you did there.
All great books, well outside of “pastor” MayTard’s scope of comprehension.
in the end he’s just a troll who probably doesn’t live out here. Hold up at his mom’s.
Howard Zinn, “A People’s History of the United States”
Bart Ehrman, “Lost Christianities”
Chakra Johnson, “Middle Passage”
P.s. Larry, every word you type just pushes you further into narcissistic obscurity, slide your head out for a gasp of fresh air once in awhile. Must be stuffy up in there, especially for a cornfed mouth-breather.
I agree! This insanity won’t stop until a few of these looters are taught the ultimate lesson. Send them a message they will never forget.
I was a Military Police officer for 15 years and yes we use tear gas, along with a lot of other different shit. So, we are just supposed to use please and thank you to deter these protesters. They are blocking police from exiting and preventing them from doing their jobs. Why must they walk in the middle of the street and block traffic. Since you want to bring up the coronavirus and social distancing, it looks like these assholes don’t care. But of course you probably have a life long experience in dealing with police matters. I am sure you have been in situations like these and you know more than anyone. Go fuck yourself! I hope you get shot by a rubber bullet, trust me it hurts lmao.
Daniel, while working as a military police robot was your Darth Vader helmet also the same size as your pointy white hood, or did the size vary on how far your head was up your own ass?
Easy solution……. don’t be a criminal
Hey Lorena! No one gives a damn about George Floyd, a habitual criminal, and what happened to him. The looters and vandals are using that as an excuse to destroy this country! Wake up, girl!
If you threw rocks, bottles and bricks at me you’d be lucky if all you got back is rubber bullets and tear gas. Looters deserve no respect.
If you’re afraid of the virus you probably should have stayed home. No protesters were social distancing so they already exposed themselves.
Play with fire you get burned…..
Larry Pee, most of the protesters in all 50 states were peaceful and were in turn met with these tyrannical methods. To not see this means you’re simply being willfully ignorant and most likely possess a mind beyond repair. Your boys in blue are simply showing the world that they’re trying desperately to hold onto the last vestiges of their constipated control structure. You sound just as scared as them. Interesting that gun-toting rednecks can storm their capital buildings untouched and praised by white America, yet peaceful protesters are met with weaponry banned by nations much more advanced. You should be ashamed of yourself and the shill you’ve become….
Maynard troll You should get a job.
Scared? Who is scared? You’re totally crazy, Pastor! My advice to you is that you find a hobby. If you think that there will be a change, then you have no clue. Things will stay status quo. We will not put up with the criminal element your people bring in. We have ways of dealing with that and it works.
His hobby is victim hood. The kkkdemocrats of old still control his body, soul and mind.
I totally and completely support our “boys in blue” and most of the men in my family and relatives were or are “boys in blue.”
Maynard, you have a very warped antigovernment thought pattern. If this was all done by peaceful innocent citizens, then you praise something other than respect and community values. Who burns and loots their own neighborhood community? You seem to be preaching anarchy. I feel sorry for you. Society owes you nothing. Shame on you for supporting anarchy.
Jg, holding our police departments accountable is not anarchism. Pointing out that our country has been co-opted into a militarized police state is not anarchism. We’ve defunded the foundations of a peaceful society (education, health, etc) at the expense of allowing our police forces to run around unchecked. You should be happy that people are only demanding justice, and not karma.
Guess what, Pastor! You preach to your people to stop committing crimes, and we will work on our police to be more lenient. Until that is done, no deal! Capisce?
Pastor MayTard is no preacher but rather a troll hold up at moms home.
Don’t feed the Trolls…
Nice troll maneuver….
Get a job.
Honestly I’m not too surprised by your State-endorsed tactic of ad hominem attacks instead of addressing the argument being made. I guess that’s a huge side effect of our schools being defunded at the expense of making your boys in blue look like frightened Darth Vader cosplayers.
And btw: How me & your mother make money is our own business, not yours. Read a book sometime, it won’t hurt, but your karma will.
Larry P – you need to understand. As long as the police force continue to protect a corporate-prisoner system, protests will go on and rioters will continue to take advantage of the chaos. This is not up for question. Until laws are made to dismantle the system that protects law enforcement from the responsibility of equal treatment of human life regardless of race, religion, or beliefs. It may not be tomorrow, it may not be this year, but be sure that this unrest will not settle unless the police stop murdering American citizens
Thank you pastor for voicing the hyperpolicing policies. Jerry please read about the 1994 Crime Bill to understand how the police, CCA (prison system) and ALEC (political/corporate entity) are related if you doubt this systemic underminding of black access to American rights
What books do you recommend he read? Just saying “read a book” doesn’t do it.
@Melanie
Don’t feed the trolls.
Chances are they haven’t read anything meaningful.
Hard to tell some one to reference a book when the only books they’ve read are books assigned to them their High School class. The young troll is sleeping in right now after a night of hard trollin. Should be up in a few hours and posting, after mom serves him his lucky charms. You can tell they are young by their posting habits and TIMES. : )
Alan Watts, “The Book: On the Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are.”
William Gibson, “Neuromancer”
Dan Flores, “Coyote America”
Pretty basic. Lies change nothing.
Rubber bullets or has came AFTER three dispersal orders. So take your police state horseshit and go jump someone else’s leg. The same eyes that told us George Floyd was illegally killed told us thousands of looters, rioters and violent a-holes ruled the night after the sun set all week. Take your community college Sociology pablum and get lost. Just let me block your car in your driveway to keep you from driving to the hip protest and you would lose your mind. Bricks, flares, looting, burning and stopping traffic to screw with everyday folks is the game of pussies, of which you are certainly one.
Pretty basic. Lies change nothing.
Rubber bullets or has came AFTER three dispersal orders. So take your police state horseshit and go jump someone else’s leg. The same eyes that told us George Floyd was illegally killed told us thousands of looters, rioters and violent a-holes ruled the night after the sun set all week. Take your community college Sociology pablum and get lost. Just let me block your car in your driveway to keep you from driving to the hip protest and you would lose your mind. Bricks, flares, looting, burning and stopping traffic to screw with everyday folks is the game of pussies, of which you are certainly one.
Guess al you Great Americans can’t be bothered with the 1st Amendment. You know, the one that says we have the right to protest? Yeah. THAT one. Pesky damned thing. So inconvenient. I mean..people exercising theirRIGHT to protest. Imagine the audacity. Then you great citizens come along and tell us to not block traffic. Not erect human barricades to stop business as usual. Damn.
I have no problem with cops. Mostly. I work with many. However, I DO have an issue with bully cops. Bullies always piss me off. And cops who think they can push people around? Pricks. Like that San Jose cop last week, bouncing around just itching for some action. Screw him. And the Minnesota killer? ALMOST NINE (!) MINUTES with his knee on the carotid artery? Smug MF. Too bad murder one isn’t an option
@ LoveableCurmudgeon
Better go read the 1st Amendment again. No where does it protect looting of innocent people and businesses.
Look at all these racist bastards scurrying out of the woodwork to support the war against the American people. The fact that you guys ONLY see looters on your social media feed and no peaceful protestors just proves the fact that you’ve been duped by your Facebook algorithm. Even the social media algorithm knows y’all are a bunch of rednecks with the brain capacity to only chant the death mantra of your killer hordes of Darth Vader cosplayers. You’re literally getting fed your own horseshit inside the tiny echochamber of White supremacy.
Loveablecurmudgeon, you’re a breath of fresh air on this site. Gives me hope that not everybody in the East Bay sounds like white-hooded Southern confederate.
Loveable, you have your rights mixed with violence and anarchy that only have laws against them.You should read it again and not the radical edition of rights. Adding to Larry’s comment, it also does not say you have a right to torch, burn, steal, maim, or kill people. You must be a total deviate. No one here has objections to protest. They object to idiotic trashing of where they live by fools.It makes no sense. Just like your and Maynards comment.
Nah. I am a deviate on alternate Tuesdays
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