A journalist shot by police during the 2020 Minneapolis unrest following the murder of George Floyd is dying from her injuries, friends say.
Linda Tirado was in Minneapolis from out of state covering the protests and rioting when police shot her in the face with a rubber bullet, also known as a “less-lethal” round. She suffered a traumatic brain injury and was blinded in one eye.
WCCO asked the city whether Tirado’s settlement resulted in any changes to the city’s use of less-lethal rounds. A spokesperson declined to answer.
I’ll save the suspense: this means it didn’t change.
Oh I’m sure it did change… they are more ready to use them. Killology
Right. They will no longer use less than lethal force. Survivors are more expensive and whiny. The dead cannot speak against you.
FTP
The oligarchy is known for its willingness to give up power peacefully
Peaceful protesting only works for so long.
What are the four boxes? Soap box, ballot box, bullet box, jury box?
Seems we’re running out of options.
Whatever box collects the head under a guillotine.
That summer, I went to witness the protests in Raleigh, NC. The most intense of it was limited to a group of 7-12 people yelling at a group of police holding a line in a street outside the courthouse. Someone threw a firework at them, and then the tear gas came out, with police shooting rubber bullets at us. My friend and I were off to the side, not doing anything but watching, he got hit by a rubber bullet on his collar bone. Broke the skin, leaving a baseball size bloody petechiae welt. Regulations say that they’re supposed to fire those bullets at peoples legs. But of course, police are given 3 months of training tops, so they just fire them wherever.
On a side note, whole milk is the best thing to use to wash tear gas off your face. Also hold your breath if you have to walk through it’s smoke, getting that shit in your nostrils, throat, or lungs feels like inhaling fire.
Even if they fire at the ground, rubber bullets can bounce up to collarbone height. It’s just much less safe than the people voting for it think it is.
But of course, police are given 3 months of training tops, so they just fire them wherever.
I don’t think they fire them wherever. I think they aim at people’s faces because they think it’s funny.
They aim at faces because they hate you.
They’re meant to be fired any where. They say at the legs so people will be okay with it. It’s like when people go to Vegas with their friends for girls/boys trip. There aint nothing there but gambling and debauchery. Most people go there to cheat.
They’re literally meant to only be bounced off the ground, that’s some BS propaganda
That’s what they say. The people that use them know very well that they are going to shoot them however they please. However, if they were to say so, that might make them illegal or result in liability issues if someone is severely injured. Thus, they have to pretend that they would only shoot them at the legs. This is how I imagine the conversation went:
Politician A: We can fire rubber bullets at them to stop. It will give us an excuse to make the protestors shit themselves in fear of death, but they wont be killed since we’re using rubber bullets. That will get them to stop fighting us.
Politician B: Yeah, but how are we gonna get the public to allow us to shoot bullets at them? They’re not going to let us do that. All they would have to argue is that the rubber bullets could severely injure or kill someone that is show in the face.
A: We’ll just say that the rubber bullets will only be shot at the legs.
B: That might not be intimidating enough.
A: Don’t worry. We’re just saying that. The cops will do as they normally do.
B: Wont they know that it’s a lie when they get shot in the face?
A: Nah. We’ll say it was an accident or bounced off of the floor.
B: 🤜
A: 🤛
Don’t use dairy milk for tear gas. Comes with infection risks. Water or saline is generally recommended instead. Plant-milks might be ok (but I’m not 100% sure)
That means bacteria can contaminate the milk and potentially cause infection if applied to eyes or skin wounds. Jordt says it’s better to use water or saline solutions to wash out eyes after a tear-gas attack.
Yeah no. Water doesn’t wash away tear gas, don’t use water. it just spreads it around, making it worse.
Source: water was the first thing I tried
From what I’ve been told, it takes large amounts of any fluid to get it to go away. One difference you may have observed with milk was that it was cooled vs room temperature water. Cooled water can have similar effects compared to cool milk
Or the time factor itself since it was the second thing used
Nah you’re missing the chemistry. The irritant in teargas is an oil, and using water just spreads around the oil. Enough water will work, sure, but you’re going to suffer the whole time. Milk contains lipids and fats that will actually dissolve the irritant, allowing it to be washed away much easier. Soapy water would also work, but then you’re just irritating your face holes all over again. The risk of bacteria feels like a dog whistle though. Just rinse yourself after, like idk a shower or something, and you’ll be fine. We wouldn’t drink it if it was a plague potion.
That’s what people claim, but the research on it suggests it does not do any better for tear gas or pepper spray. Here’s one study looking at pepper spray for instance:
In this study, there was no significant difference in pain relief provided by five different treatment regimens. [Water vs milk vs 3 other solutions] Time after exposure appeared to be the best predictor for decrease in pain.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18924005/
EDIT: Also worth noting that in terms of infection risk, bird flu is now in a large number of dairy samples and it appears like it transmit to humans through the eyes in particular (or at least be one of its transmission pathways).
The workers were most likely exposed to the virus in contaminated milk—by getting it on their hands and then touching their eyes
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/why-bird-flu-is-causing-eye-infections-in-dairy-workers/
Some types of pasteurization (flash pasteurization) might not fully get rid of all of the virus. So for even just bird flu alone, its likely more of a risk than it probably was in the past
dude I don’t know why this person is trying to get people messed up with this terrible advice. I know what water does to teargas (makes it worse), and what milk does (provide instant relief). It’s like he’s trying to psyop people out of the ability to properly evade police tactics.
I think I just saw a study that milk was as effective as saline but more likely to cause an infection
Edit, here’s some info from the comments discussing it: https://lemmy.world/comment/10780787
Yes, ignore that. Saline may work, but can you buy that at a corner store immediately before a raucous protest? no. Water just doesn’t work, so ignore that. Also, odds are, if you were pepper sprayed/tear gassed, and you’ve washed it off with milk, you’ll probably wash yourself off afterwards. You don’t have to worry about getting an infection from pasteurized milk. This Lemmy user has been spreading that, and it’s just blatantly false. water does not work.
No offense intended, but deliberately placing yourself in the vicinity of potentially violent protests is also deliberately subjecting yourself to a certain amount of risk.
“No offense, but if they cops don’t feel like respecting free speech and protest, you probably should expect them bullets”.
The 2020 protests were largely non-violent, and when that was breached it was typically because the cops brought so much violence. Its amazing to me that people can see a civil rights image and see the police oppression, but videos of cops cornering a crowd and then inundating them with tear gas and shit gets rationalized.
I knew a guy in my social circle that was a sheriff deputy during the George Floyd protests. He was known for being an all-around douchebag and was mostly tolerated. No one ever wondered where he was at or of he was coming. He kinda just heard of plans and showed up. His conversations would be things like complaining about women or people of color and sharing that he takes 30-mins shits.
There was someone else in the circle that needed a place nearby since he was going to school, so the cop offered him a room in his house for an affordable rate with no lease. Once the guy moved in and gave up his previous residence, the guy jacked up rent, imposed ridiculous rules like an overbearing curfew, monitored him with cameras and sensors throughout the house, and belittled him every chance he got in front of others. I am not exaggerating at all. That’s who this guy was.
Come the protests, we saw this dude out there. He was purposely instigating unrest so that he could use force. That’s what he wanted. He was open about it. He even came out in the news doing it on video and it became a thing in the city.
All he wanted to do was demonstrate power over others to overcome his deep-seated inferiority complex. He was a complete sack of shit.
largely non-violent
correct
Shit. This hits close to home. I was very active on twatter back then and followed Linda. Her girls are pretty young to be losing their mom.
Fucking cops.
Fuck the police
ACAB
bastards doesn’t even begin to cover it any more. I don’t think there is word bad enough - even cunts - to adequate describe their bullshit.
In my part of the world. A cunt is a good friend. He’a s good cunt. The word doesnt have the revulsive power elsewhere that it has in the US. If you want world empathy, pick a different word.
I would have liked some more info on how the brain injury is slowly killing her. My perception of what a brain injury could be is clearly wrong because I have been under the impression that the brain is pretty sturdy as long as the initial injury doesn’t kill you.
the brain is pretty sturdy as long as the initial injury doesn’t kill you.
As a nurse, I’m confused at that sentiment. How on earth did you get there?
If the brain is damaged, it rarely gets much better after that. Unless you have just one mild concussion, brain injuries tend to more likely getting worse over time and rarely better.
Your brain is not just a broken bone that heals back together after a few weeks.
By not being a trained nurse. Being wrong is pretty easy, you just have to not know things.
My perception was that if you get something like a stroke, the initial damage is horrendous and that usually don’t heal. Any improvement is the brain offloading the lost functions to other parts of the brain. But once the damage is done and doctors and nurses stopped the source of the damage, I figured the brain would just remain where it was.
She has a substack, and is a bit wavey around the details sometimes, but she writes about coming to terms with it.
https://lindatirado.substack.com/
The NPR article is also far more detailed.
Thank you. Early onset dementia seems about right. It also feels like something insurance companies will claim would have happened anyway.
It also feels like something insurance companies will claim would have happened anyway.
Fascinating reasoning. As all mortal being eventually die (because living and dying are the same process), this would entail that no death is worth caring about, as all deaths ‘would have happened anyway’.
First of all, yes. The type of lawyer that work for insurance companies are the kind of person that would argue that everyone dies and a dead human has the same number of atom as an alive one.
My point is however a bit more human and practical. There are people that get dementia in their 40s without first having brain damage. There is no way of telling 100% if hers was a preexisting condition or not because most people don’t do brain scans before being brain damaged and if the system can avoid paying the common man money they absolutely will.
Especially since the police has given thousands of people brain damage and concussions and paying everyone that gets dementia money would be very expensive so the justice system at large would not allow it.
Very early onset as she’s only 43-44 now … four years ago when she was shot she was 39-40.
Never mind insurance; I’m hoping a prosecutor will take on the odds at the murder trial!
The defense will also claim that there is no way to prove that the dementia wouldn’t have occured regardless and they would be technically correct. The thing that needs to happen is to remove rubber bullets from the police arsenal.
TBI’s can resonate as issues later on in life for anyone.
American Football players and even Rugby players have been known to get them or Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE) as the result of repeated mild TBIs occurring over months or years playing.
As another example, I was in a near fatal rollover accident as a child and developed partially complex seizures in the left temporal 22 years later as an adult from that incident.
My neighbor has the same thing.
Perhaps he’s your neighbor!
If he went to hospital by ambulance over the past few weeks for it, he probably is.
I assume that your neighbor -is- your neighbor 😜.
I am so sorry for what you went through and that you still struggle with symptoms today.
I honestly read this as a near fatal Rollercoaster accident and I was struggling so hard because boy did I want to know more of what that meant, but how insensitive to ask!
I’m sorry it wasn’t that. At least you could avoid going on a roller-coaster ever again. I hope you’re doing well!
Sure the brain may survive, but will the consciousness that you identify as you survive?
Consciousness is not even the wholly the same moment to moment, so you don’t even need to focus on differences before and after brain damage / trauma to raise this question.
https://www.npr.org/2024/06/21/nx-s1-5015030/linda-tirado-journalist-shot-police-2020-george-floyd-protests-hospice-care looks like it progressed to dementia.
Rubber bullets are supposed to be skipped off the pavement in front of the people you’re shooting at. This reduces their impact and is supposed to make the bullets “less lethal.” These cops didn’t do that. Her maiming was the result of a deliberately aimed shot from a rifle.
It’s amazing that she’s found a way to stay involved in the community, and inject that cash into all the little places that it helps by going around and getting to know everyone and what they need.
