Police call it a “40-millimeter Less-Lethal Launcher,” but to those who have found themselves on the business end of the weapon during recent protests, the wounds feel deadly serious. And unjustified.
A homeless man in a wheelchair had his eye bloodied in downtown Los Angeles. A San Jose activist suffered a ruptured testicle after a blast to the groin. A radio reporter interviewing protesters in Long Beach suffered a neck wound. And an untold number of others sustained cuts, bruises and worse during the demonstrations that followed the death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police.
The launchers have been deployed by the Los Angeles Police Department and other agencies. In many cases, the departments and weapon manufacturers have previously suggested that the devices — which are usually loaded with single-shot hard-foam projectiles — allow for more precise targeting of violent suspects and thereby reduce serious injuries caused by other “less-lethal” alternatives.
Instead, the less-lethal launchers, or “LLLs,” as the LAPD calls them, have drawn the same kind of objections from protesters and civil libertarians as shotgun “beanbag” rounds and hard rubber pellets that were the dominant weapons used by police during previous crowd-control efforts. Critics say the fault is not with the weapons, but with the wanton and indiscriminate way in which some officers fire them.
Read the full story at LATimes.com.