When tear-gas was first fired into the streets of Ferguson, Missouri at people angry at the police killing of 18-year-old Michael Brown, Palestinian activists sent out messages on Twitter giving people tips for how to deal with tear gas’ effects.
And there was another direct connection between events in Missouri and the West Bank, as Palestinian activist Mariam Barghouti noted: the company that supplies the Israeli army with tear gas is the same company supplying the police in Ferguson.
Made in USA teargas canister was shot at us a few days ago in #Palestine by Israel, now they are used in #Ferguson. pic.twitter.com/y3co6DMFM6
— مريم البرغوثي (@MariamBarghouti) August 14, 2014
As Alexis Goldstein pointed out in YES! Magazine, the company’s name is Combined Tactical Systems (CTS). (The company name is Combined Systems Inc., but they market their products under the brand Combined Tactical Systems.)
Headquartered in Jamestown, Pennsylvania, CTS’ owners boast that they are the “premiere less-lethal line in the industry today.” But the tear-gas canisters they make, which are supplied to Egyptian, Bahraini and Israeli forces and bought with American funding, have killed unarmed protesters in Palestine and Bahrain. And now, the company’s weapons are being fired on protesters livid over the police shooting of Brown, an unarmed black teen hit six times by an officer named Darren Wilson. The tear-gas, smoke bombs and rubber bullets fired on demonstrators, a symbol of the growing militarization of America’s police forces, have fed anger over Brown’s killing across the nation and has sparked an unprecedented debate over police militarization in the country.
Goldstein’s YES Magazine piece pointed to this tweet from a journalist reporting from Ferguson:
Went up to #Ferguson before heading to the office. Picked up canisters of flashbangs, smoke bombs and rubber bullets. pic.twitter.com/J4s6OT2D4D
— Brian Heffernan (@BrianHeff) August 14, 2014
Other tweets show other CTS products being used:
Confirmed that CS was fired. I found this on site pic.twitter.com/zIccOLWKtD
— Ben Kesling (@bkesling) August 17, 2014
The above picture of a tear-gas canister closely resembles this CTS product (the one in the middle):
Another arms company that supplied Ferguson police with tear gas–and to Israel, Bahrain and Egypt–is Defense Technology.
The CTS and Defense Technology products–along with armored vehicles and high-powered rifles–being used on the streets of an American city shocked many people watching events unfold. But since the 1980s, American police departments have slowly begun equipping themselves with armaments more suited to war zones and mass uprisings than run-of-the-mill policing. The “wars” on drugs and terror have fueled this phenomenon.
Militarized policing’s impact has been most felt on poor black communities like Ferguson. And while the tear gas and rubber bullets being fired in Ferguson may be new–and bring to mind images of Palestine and Iraq–blacks in the U.S. have long suffered the brunt of police violence.
“Militarized policing’s impact has been most felt on poor black communities like Ferguson. And while the tear gas and rubber bullets being fired in Ferguson may be new–and bring to mind images of Palestine and Iraq–blacks in the U.S. have long suffered the brunt of police violence.”
Yes. Community policing seems a distant and forgotten idea in many areas of these United States. If we’re not at war, the surplus has to go somewhere else– to arm ‘rebels’ abroad and our own police here at home. ‘Use of force’ is out of control in many communities, ‘Stand your Ground’ stupid laws along with ready access to automatic and other lethal weapons, and distrust, racism, joblessness are all contributing to this debacle that we are witnessing.
I’ve been watching these events, and it is not infrequently that I hear the words Occupation, insurgents, Palestine, etc.
It seems its always people of color who suffer the worst of the brutality the police have to offer, shoot to kill first, obligatory investigation later with slap on the wrist or desk duty. It is an american tradition.
CTS is either owned by Israelis or by an Israeli company. Are you saying that you didn’t notice the Israeli flag flying alongside the American flag in your photo? It’s been picketed before. Here is just one report from Adalah in New York.
http://adalahny.org/campaign-main-document/564/us-teargas-manufacturers
Israel-trained police “occupy” Missouri after killing of black youth
Submitted by Rania Khalek on Fri, 08/15/2014
“And it’s no coincidence.
At least two of the four law enforcement agencies that were deployed in Ferguson up until Thursday evening — the St. Louis County Police Department and the St. Louis Police Department — received training from Israeli security forces in recent years.”
http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/rania-khalek/israel-trained-police-occupy-missouri-after-killing-black-youth
Sociology prof James Loewen asks, “Was Ferguson a Sundown Town?”
In a sundown town, blacks can visit during the day, but have to leave town by sundown.
Check it out at the great website of the Institute for Public Accuracy.