Authors Melissa “Claudio” Lewis
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this will be a lofty thread that I’ve spent some time researching. Buckle in.
On 12/3/2020 I noticed a self congratulatory tweet from Jeff Merkley about banning riot control munitions in Hong Kong for the last year.
I found this darkly funny for a few reasons: number one, we had obviously been assaulted with these same munitions for the last several months and two, the current Hong Kong protests had been going since March 15, 2019. We were supplying riot control munitions before that?
Also, this was not Hong Kong’s first rodeo. This implied we were supplying them THEN too. Good god, I thought. Do we do this everywhere? The answer, unfortunately, is a resounding yes.
A bit about munitions. Every Portlander is a goddamn connoisseur at this point...
and can likely identify each one by their flavor notes and tannins. But let’s talk about about their creation and who is responsible for them ending up all over the world. The primary companies exporting to Hong Kong are Safariland and Amtec
(the poorly abbreviated ALS). Safariland is run out of Jacksonville, and ALS hails from Tallahassee. As I said above, we all know less lethals are just that, LESS lethal, but they absolutely kill. “A meta-analysis of 26 studies published from 1990 to 2017 shows...
On 12/3/2020 I noticed a self congratulatory tweet from Jeff Merkley about banning riot control munitions in Hong Kong for the last year.
BREAKING: Final 2020 defense bill just released\u2014and it includes an extension of my ban on exporting crowd control equipment to #HongKong. An important victory! As Beijing intensifies its crackdown against pro-democracy activists in HK, the US absolutely must not be complicit.
— Senator Jeff Merkley (@SenJeffMerkley) December 4, 2020
I found this darkly funny for a few reasons: number one, we had obviously been assaulted with these same munitions for the last several months and two, the current Hong Kong protests had been going since March 15, 2019. We were supplying riot control munitions before that?
Also, this was not Hong Kong’s first rodeo. This implied we were supplying them THEN too. Good god, I thought. Do we do this everywhere? The answer, unfortunately, is a resounding yes.
A bit about munitions. Every Portlander is a goddamn connoisseur at this point...
and can likely identify each one by their flavor notes and tannins. But let’s talk about about their creation and who is responsible for them ending up all over the world. The primary companies exporting to Hong Kong are Safariland and Amtec
(the poorly abbreviated ALS). Safariland is run out of Jacksonville, and ALS hails from Tallahassee. As I said above, we all know less lethals are just that, LESS lethal, but they absolutely kill. “A meta-analysis of 26 studies published from 1990 to 2017 shows...