What did they throw at us?

Three Minute Read

On Wednesday, January 21 at about 2:30pm, a caravan of federal agents including now-former U.S. Customs and Border Patrol Commander Greg Bovino and members of the Border Patrol Tactical Unit (BORTAC) departed east after stopping at the Speedway on 25th and Hennepin. At Mueller Park, officers exited their vehicles and unleashed a scene of chaos and violence, deploying chemical munitions on numerous observers. Bovino himself tossed a canister at protesters near the corner of 25th and Bryant.

LHENA Board Member and Wedge resident Finn McGarrity was on the scene and recounts, “With staggering speed and escalation, I witnessed agents brutalize peaceful protesters. I watched one agent assault and drag away a neighbor who looked to be about nineteen years old. I witnessed federal agents fire multiple rounds of tear gas and green gas on myself and other peaceful observers. The entire block was filled with smog, and my face, throat, lips, and eyes burned. I had the sensation of being suffocated. My throat felt like it was going to close up. After they left the scene, I watched other neighbors struggling to breathe or see. I saw neighbors helping other neighbors by pouring water into their eyes and offering their homes for respite. Most disturbingly, I saw Mueller Park – the space where the LHENA operates our community garden, where kids join us for trick-or-treat in the park, where the Wedge LIVE Cat Tour begins every year – descend into a war zone. Beyond the potential physical impacts of these chemical agents, the psychological trauma and violation of our community spaces will linger on.”

Green smoke infested the area, and the effects of tear gas could be felt in the park for hours after. There is rightly a lot of concern over exactly what gases our community was subjected to, in particular over whether the green smoke comes from hexachloroethane (HC) smoke grenades, in which HC combines with metallic zinc to create zinc chloride. This mixture initially causes vomiting and burning skin but can eventually cause acute respiratory distress syndrome, permanent liver damage, and even sometimes fatal exposure. Notably, the Department of Homeland Security used these chemicals on civilian Black Lives Matter protests in Portland, Oregon in July, 2020.

On Wednesday, residents found used canisters that can give insight into which chemicals were likely present on the scene.

Images of canisters in the snow at Mueller Park

The canister with the blue text is a tear gas canister sold by Defense Technology (product page, specifications). Tear gas has been linked to adverse reproductive health outcomes and is likely an abortifacient. University of Minnesota School of Medicine Professor Ash Hassan even told The Star Tribune that tear gas can cause long-term effects such as blindness, respiratory failure, and even death. The City of Minneapolis still allows law enforcement to use tear gas as crowd control.

In addition to the effects of the tear gas itself, the products in both found canisters, per Defense Technology’s product pages, can “cause cancer, birth defects, and other reproductive harms” due to their contents of hexavalent chromium and lead salts. Per Northern Michigan University criminal justice professor Charlie Mesloh in The Star Tribune, “the munitions are unregulated, under-examined and there is no oversight or full understanding of what the munitions actually contain.”

Of paramount interest, the canister with green text is a tactical smoke grenade sold by Defense Technology (product page, specifications). Its most prominent effect is creating large amounts of smoke, but it does also contain small amounts of pepper spray and tear gas. This is not like the HC smoke grenade canisters found in Portland in 2020, which are clearly labeled “HC” (product page, specifications).

Source: Star Tribune

While it’s not entirely certain that the discarded canisters constitute an exhaustive representation of the chemical products used on the scene, it seems unlikely that federal agents used HC smoke grenades in addition to the type of tactical smoke grenade whose canister was found afterward.Still, you’re better safe than sorry. If you ever see green smoke in the area, you should leave as soon as you can and follow the advice outlined at Physicians for Human Rights.