LETTER: Banning pepper spray a bad idea
A woman is helped after being hit with pepper spray after curfew in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/John Minchillo)
So Seattle is banning police officers from having or using pepper spray (June 16 Review-Journal). I guess they forgot that pepper spray is a nonlethal tool police use to avoid using greater force. Pepper spray descended from “mace,” which was invented after a police officer shot and killed a man with a knife many years ago. So the next time a Seattle police officer is faced with a combative individual, he or she will have one less nonlethal tool that has been used countless times to end confrontations relatively peacefully.
Way to go, Seattle. You endangered both your police officers and the people they are forced to confront daily.
