Ok so there’s a conspiracy theory going around that this woman was faking her injury with an onion.

This is likely false. Onions are a folk remedy for pepper spray.

The theory, which has some merit, is that since onions make you cry, it helps flush the irritants from your eyes with natural tears.
However, this is not recommended as a treatment for pepper spray and is ultimately not very effective.
Pepper spray, tear gas, mace, CN, HC, and other agents are best removed with a flush of water or, if you have the proper mixture, saline. Nothing else.
We do not do chemistry in our eyeballs. We are not putting chemicals in our eyes. We are not putting produce in our eyes. We are removing the chemicals with safe, neutral water.
For more information, see here: https://t.co/5Y8kL1QCrT
I know you will try to be clever by suggesting milk or LAW or apple cider vinegar but you are wrong
Once again, we are not trying to bind anything, particularly things our patients may be allergic to, to capsaicin molecules we cannot be certain are present in the irritant.
There are at least half a dozen different chemical irritants in common use and unless the cop who sprayed you also gave you the MSDS, you flush with water.

And if they did give you the MSDS, it would tell you to flush with water.
When you are in a chemistry lab, there is no milk flush station. There is no vinegar flush station. They do not keep a supply of fresh onions.

There is a water flush station because what we flush our eyes with is water.

More from Emily of the State

More from Crime

This is terrible weighing of the costs and benefits of the pardon power. I think Senator Murphy woefully undervalues its utility. /1


In part because the Congress of which he is a part has established no functioning second-look mechanisms for shortening sentences or expunging convictions, commutations and pardons are the only mechanisms for correcting injustices in the federal system. /2

And it's not as if those injustices are rare. Go to any federal correctional facility, and take time to learn who is there and about their cases, and you find literally thousands of people whose sentences were grossly excessive given their offenses. /3

Those people need commutations as a corrective because there is no parole or other second look in place to address that. Some have tried to use compassionate release under the First Step Act, but DOJ tries to block those efforts at every turn and it's a limited option. /4

Presidential commutations are thus the only avenue for these folks. And under President Obama, more than 1,700 regular people (not his cronies) received relief. It was woefully inadequate for the need, but it shows the value of the power. /5

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