No, ICE did not "EMP gun" a car. It was -40° that night. The car stopped working because its battery got too cold.
How can I be certain? If a car is actually disabled by an EMP, its airbags would go off. Airbags are deployed by an electrical discharge from a capacitor.
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A tip for preppers who need to hear it: Focus on making a fire evacuation plan for your family and preparing for disasters that are likely in your region (based on geography and infrastructure) before you start planning for a zombie apocalypse or Mad Max scenario.
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Your mutual aid group needs a logistician.
Got a trusted community member who owns a portable generator? Another who's disabled and depends on electrical devices to live? Great! In a crisis, somebody needs to remember that and match those two up.
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Relevant info for any emergency management/disaster relief worker or person affected by flooding in the South, as we get into flood season. (3/3)
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Relevant info for any emergency management/disaster relief worker or person affected by flooding in the South, as we get into flood season. (2/3)
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Relevant info for any emergency management/disaster relief worker or person affected by flooding in the South, as we get into flood season. (1/3)
If you're in a situation where you need to be concerned about being tracked by credit/debit card purchases, and you can't pay cash for something, get a prepaid Visa gift card and use that. Many gas stations and grocery stores sell them. #PublicPreparedness
Riot-control agents are NOT nerve agents.
Please don't spread rumors about nerve agents during civil unrest (or ever!) Misinformation, even if well-intentioned, only makes it harder for people to protect themselves from real dangers.
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If your fitness goal is to be ready to keep others safe through civil unrest, end your workouts by practicing tasks that require a lot of dexterity while your heart rate is up and your muscles are shaky. #PublicPreparedness
If you have pets and you're in a situation where you might be exposed to riot-control agents, make a plan for that.
I text my roommate on the way home and ask him to shut the cats in the bedroom. That way, they can't get into my stuff while I'm decontaminating everything.
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Pertinent info about riot-control agents for folks whose bodies include a uterus/ovaries! #PublicPreparedness
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Please listen to Dan, friends! He's an expert with extensive experience, both academic and hands-on, who is volunteering his time to teach others how to stay safe.
Quick PPE video!
I didn't show gloves here - I keep cold-weather gloves, extrication gloves, and nitrile gloves in my kit.
Half-face P100 and goggles versus full-face P100 is personal preference. Either option offers good protection.
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If you want to be the one to run into the tear gas, get other people somewhere safe, and flush their eyes, practice this!
If you're in Minnesota, practice opening water bottles while your fingers are cold and stiff, too.
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If you want to get some basic medical training to aid your community and you can't access an in-person class, the WHO has a free, online Basic Emergency Care course: whoacademy.org/coursewares/...
And an extra module for conflict-related injuries: whoacademy.org/coursewares/...
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If you're out here in frigid Minneapolis with me and it's too cold to strip in the garage, lay a plastic sheet in your entryway and strip on that. Roll the clothes up in the plastic to carry them to the washer. Put the plastic sheet in a bag and seal it. Shower w/ tepid water.
Practice on yourself! You might notice I'm actually squeezing water into my eye here. If it's running down your shirt, you're doing it wrong.
Decontaminating people without giving them hypothermia, and without our nozzles freezing, has been a logistical challenge.
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Somebody at a training asked if it's possible to howl at an LRAD and cancel out the sound waves.
The LRAD is putting out so much more energy than your howl that even if you hit the right frequency (already unlikely), it won't make a practical difference.
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CS ("tear gas") is not always harmless. Get away from it- don't endure prolonged exposure trying to put buckets over CS grenades. If you want to run into the cloud and guide people out, wear PPE, know how to use it, and know your risks.
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If you're an able person afraid you may need to evacuate a disabled friend or family member, consider buying a drag blanket: rescue-essentials.com/rescue-essen...
Roll the disabled person onto it and drag them out. Not an elegant solution, but can save a life. #PublicPreparedness
My group attended to three people today who suffered severe respiratory distress after prolonged CS exposure, because they tried to cover canisters with buckets & traffic cones instead of getting to fresh air
If you're not a HAZMAT technician, that isn't safe to do. #PublicPreparedness #Minneapolis
Flushing tear gas off people in -13° F without giving them hypothermia is a logistical challenge... Here's how we're managing it.
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Green Smoke Grenade Though a smoke grenade is not a riot-control agent, green smoke grenades have caused considerable concern, and so will be addressed here. Green smoke grenades - as noted on the Safety Data Sheet - contain barium chromate, manganese powder, lead chromate, nitrocellulose, red iron oxide, titanium powder, zirconium powder, potassium chlorate, sugar, magnesium carbonate, terephthalic acid, and anthraquinoid & quinoline green VII dye mix. The smoke may be irritating to the skin, eyes, and lungs, and the undeployed contents of the grenade are toxic if ingested. Lead chromate and barium chromate are known carcinogens. In less technical terminology, the green smoke grenades produce dyed, colored smoke– and lungs don’t like smoke. Lungs want clean, fresh air, and breathing smoke from any source increases the risk of developing lung cancer. Green smoke grenades are not exceptionally toxic compared to breathing smoke in general. There has been fear circulating on social media that the green smoke grenades release hexachloroethane (HC), and that HC is a nerve agent. Neither of these rumors are true. Hexachloroethane grenades produce white smoke, not green. The “green HC smoke” myth is a result of poor journalism in Portland in 2020: green smoke grenades were used, HC grenades were used, and a journalist’s article conflated these two events into one: a green hexachloroethane grenade. Here is the misinformative article in question. Here is a high-quality article about the same events. Hexachloroethane grenades, and the zinc chloride smoke they produce, do have more potential to be toxic than other smoke grenade mixtures, hence their declining use– but HC is NOT a nerve agent. Under no circumstances would a nerve agent be used for riot control. It’s important to understand that “nerve agent” is a technical term, describing a specific mechanism of action. It isn’t a broad term for chemical compounds that irritate or even damage the nerves. …
Choosing PPE When it comes to Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), anything you have is better than nothing at all. If you wear a respirator without goggles, you won’t be coughing while your eyes sting and cry. If you wear goggles without a respirator, you’ll be able to see while your nose and throat burn. If all you have to protect your face is a balaclava or a scarf, that will still limit how much of the oil or powder gets on your face. Respirator filter and face mask filter ratings identify the filter’s resistance to oil, and the percentage of 3µ (three millionths of a meter) or larger particles it will filter out. The rating will begin with a letter: “N” means that it is not resistant to oil. “R” means that it is somewhat resistant to oil, offering protection for up to eight hours. “P” means that it is oil-proof. After the letter will be a number: “95” means that the filter blocks 95% of particles 3µ or larger. “99” means that it will filter out 99% of particles. “100” means that it will filter out 99.97% of particles. An N95 face mask - which many of us are familiar with from the COVID-19 lockdowns - is not oil-resistant, and filters 95% of particles 3µ or larger. A respirator with P100 filters is ideal - particularly if you plan to stay in the contaminated area to guide others out - but any respirator with a good seal will protect you long enough to quickly get to safety. Safety glasses/goggles have an impact rating and a hazard rating (among others, which are less relevant to PPE from riot-control agents). Safety glasses rest on the bridge of the nose, with temples on the ears, like prescription or sunglasses, while safety goggles form a secure seal around the eyes. “OTG,” or Over-The-Glass, means that the safety glasses or goggles are designed to allow wearing over prescription eyeglasses. A secure seal is most important for specifically keeping riot-control agents out of one’s eyes. At a site where riot-control agents are likely to be deployed…
docs.google.com/document/d/1...
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Riot-Control Agents Image Source: Wikimedia Commons What They Are, How To Protect Yourself, and Addressing Common Misconceptions Written for Minnesota 50501 Street Medics, 01-22-2026
What Is A Riot-Control Agent? Riot-control agents are chemical compounds that cause irritation, most noticeably to the eyes, nose, and throat, intended to temporarily incapacitate a person or group of people without causing lasting harm. They are also known as “lachrimators” - from the Latin word for tears - or “tear gas.” A person exposed to a riot-control agent will experience intense, burning pain, especially in their eyes, nose, and throat, watery eyes, runny nose, and violent coughing fits. The pain and helplessness often causes people to panic. For a healthy adult who is able to remove themself from the source of the riot-control agent, these effects are temporary. They will subside about 15 minutes to two hours after decontamination, depending on the specific agent used, amount of exposure, and the individual’s sensitivity. If an infant or child, or a person with a respiratory condition, is exposed, or if a person is unable to remove themself from the source and suffers prolonged exposure, lasting injuries and/or respiratory failure may result. When tending to someone who was exposed to a riot-control agent, priorities are to get them to clean air, and flush their eyes with copious amounts of clean water. Do NOT use milk, baking soda, maalox, vinegar, lemon juice, or any other fad remedy. The thinking behind most of these rumor remedies was that riot-control agents are either an acid or a base, and could be neutralized by applying a compound on the opposite side of the pH scale. However, pH is not the mechanism by which these agents cause irritation. The agents bind to pain receptors (OC binds to receptor TRPV1; CS binds to receptor TRPA1) and cause the body’s pain-signaling circuits to get stuck in the “on” position. The best way to help is to flush the irritating agent away– the less of it is present to bind to pain receptors, the faster the irritation will subside. Other remedies have been shown to be no more effective than flushing with wat…
OC – Oleoresin Capsicum Oleoresin capsicum, or pepper spray, is an oil composed of a concentrated form of the same chemical compounds that give hot peppers their spiciness (capsaicinoids). This is what we are seeing used against protesters in the Twin Cities most often, with the chemical agent being dispensed from a handheld spraying apparatus. Image Source: Encyclopedia of Toxicology (4th Edition) on ScienceDirect Because the compound is an oil, decontamination can be tedious and feel frustrating. Anyone who has touched cooking oil in the kitchen, then tried to give their hand a quick rinse, is familiar with the problem: oil doesn’t dissolve in water. It will take 20+ minutes of continuous flushing with water to rinse the oil off the body. Adding a drop of baby shampoo to the water may help decontaminate the skin, by breaking up the oil faster than water alone can rinse it off. Baby shampoo should NOT be used in the eyes– only clean water! Though it may aid the process of removing the oil from the skin, there is no clinical evidence that baby shampoo eases the pain and irritation from OC any faster than flushing with water. It simply takes time for the effects of OC exposure to subside– capsaicinoids that have already bound to pain receptors need to degrade. One might be thinking: “When it comes to eating spicy peppers, we’re told to drink milk; drinking water only spreads the capsaicin around, while milk relieves the burning. Isn’t this the same compound?” The difference is where the fluid is going. When one washes hot peppers down with milk, they are not decontaminating. The fluid is going down their throat, rather than away from their body. Furthermore, the milk is entering the stomach to be digested– not the eyes, where it may provide fuel to harmful bacteria. If one wanted to decontaminate, rather than ingest the spicy food, they would swish water in their mouth and spit it out several times.
CS – 2-Chlorobenzylidenemalonitrile 2-chlorobenzylidenemalonitrile, usually known as CS, is a powder contained in tear gas grenades. The grenade works by rapidly heating a liquid solvent to form vapor, which disperses the powder into the air. Image sourced from a Minneapolis volunteer. Like OC, the only reliable remedy for CS exposure is to flush with copious amounts of water. After decontamination, the pain and irritation from CS on the eyes and skin typically subsides faster than that caused by OC. The powder is also more easily flushed away than OC oil. However, the grenades themselves present additional hazards that handheld spray mechanisms do not. They reach extremely high temperatures to convert liquid to vapor, which presents fire and burn hazards. They are meant for use outdoors, and if a CS grenade ends up in an enclosed space with people present, lethal exposure levels may result. People should NOT attempt to pick up the hot canisters when they are deployed, even with protective gloves. Materials that are prone to melting, like rubber and polyester, will melt to the skin, requiring extensive surgery. Commercially-available welding gloves are intended to protect the hands from sparks, not from grabbing a chunk of red-hot metal. Activists have occasionally managed to hurl hot canisters of tear gas, making for compelling photojournalism. Please be aware that their lack of injury is a combination of preparedness and luck. It is not preparedness alone. The incendiary (heat/fire-producing) compounds in the canisters are usually self-oxidizing, and cannot be extinguished by smothering. They extinguish once the chemical reaction is no longer releasing oxygen to burn.
Riot-control agents info-doc! Hyperlinks lead to credible/scholarly sources for additional background: docs.google.com/document/d/1...
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