Family Tear-Gassed Walking Home from Child's Preschool

“This is tyranny, this is absolute tyranny," a resident said, saying onlookers in the parking lot were tear-gassed. “My eyes are burning, my skin is burning, but more than that I’m just mad.”

One of Trump’s masked ICE thugs tossed a smoke grenade onto a crowded Chicago street. The tear gas impacted families and residents who had nothing to do with the ICE raid, including a family walking home from their child’s preschool.

“Bill Higgins and Jessica Dixon were walking home with their 2-year-old from school when they heard drivers honking their horns and using their vehicles to prevent federal agents from entering the grocery store parking lot. People were also blowing whistles to alert neighbors as a helicopter circled above,” Melody Mercado reported for Block Club Chicago.

The attack occurred after cars reportedly blocked the ICE SUV at Rico Fresh Market, 3552 W. Armitage Ave, in what appears to be completely unjustified escalation.

“In a video taken by a witness and shared with the Sun-Times, cars could be seen blocking the white, unmarked SUV before a masked agent rolled down his window and dropped the canisters. Smoke begins spreading around the vehicle and passersby began to scream,” the Chicago Sun-Times reported.

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David Beale told the Sun-Times he noticed a Blackhawk helicopter and Department of Homeland Security vehicle in the area.

“This is tyranny, this is absolute tyranny,” Beale added, and said he and onlookers in the parking lot were tear gassed. “My eyes are burning, my skin is burning, but more than that I’m just mad.”

Dixon told Block Club Chicago that smoke suddenly filled the air and she got smoke in her eyes, while her husband rushed ahead with their child in a stroller. She described it as “burning in your eyes and in your lungs. And I just started coughing, and my eyes were tearing,” which sounds like tear gas, not a smoke grenade.

A man cried out for water for his burning eyes in a video that Dixon tool.

“It seems reasonable to expect that in an American city, you could go a block away from your own house and not worry about getting tear gassed when you’re just getting home from preschool,” Dixon said.

“There was a gentleman over there that was vomiting. There were people in the store nearby that were trying to get water in people’s eyes as soon as they can,” Demian Kogan, senior director of Organizing at the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, told the Sun-Times, which confirmed that the U.S. Customs and Border Protection said on Friday that a federal agent deployed chemical irritants and pepper balls.

Tear gas can be described as a chemical irritant.

Tear Gas Grenades (CS Smoke): A specific type of chemical grenade designed for riot control. They function similarly to smoke grenades by burning their contents to produce a cloud but deliver an irritant chemical agent (like CS gas) to cause temporary physical discomfort.

Use of tear gas as a method of warfare is banned under international law. International human rights and arms control groups widely condemn the practice, citing significant risks to civilians and arguing for stricter regulations on its use. Naturally, our country allows it to be used against citizens for crowd control, although border agents hurled canisters of tear gas at migrants under Trump in his first term.

The ACLU explains:

… while tear gas has been outlawed as a method of warfare on the battlefield by almost every country in the world, that prohibition does not apply to domestic law enforcement officers using tear gas on their own citizens. Unfortunately, U.S. law enforcement personnel use tear gas all too often against peaceful crowds.

The use of this chemical agent, which can cause physical injury, permanent disability, and even death, is often excessive, indiscriminate, and in violation of civil and human rights. Studies suggest that children are more vulnerable to severe injuries from chemical toxicity: Infants exposed to tear gas can develop severe pneumonitis and require weeks of hospitalization.

The use of tear gas on a busy Chicago street in front of a grocery store ICE had been targeting for weeks was confirmed by Ald. Jessie Fuentes and “people reported being hit with tear gas and smoke as they approached the grocery store.”

“So individuals who were just driving their car, driving past Armitage, had to pull over because their eyes were pepper-sprayed. This is an escalation. These individuals are not only having a huge presence in our community, but they are violently attacking our residents,” Fuentes said.

Andrew Denton told Block Club Chicago he saw a white ICE vehicle being blocked by a man on a scooter, and the agents rolled down a window and released “what he described as a gas canister.”

“My eyes were burning, I was coughing, my skin was really itchy,” Denton said. “It was completely unprovoked. All they needed to do was just back up and go around.”

Denton further described this as “a terrifying waste of money,” which is pertinent as the government is shutdown because Republicans are killing an estimated 50,000+ working class people every year due to lack of healthcare because they claim it costs too much. So there’s money to tear gas a two year old coming home from preschool, but no money for healthcare for hard working Americans.

Donald Trump’s “Immigration” tactics involve tear gassing a two year old coming home from preschool. This was not necessary and additionally it was reckless. No properly trained and vetted law enforcement officer would casually toss tear gas into a busy community because their car was blocked.

This is being done on purpose because Trump and his Republican sickos mistake brutality for strength. The real strength was seen by the community, which activated in mere minutes to stand together against the ICE attack, warning neighbors and forming a human blockade together.

The “family values” party that calls itself “pro-life” is tear gassing two year olds and zip-tying children. This is what Republicans stand for now.

Care for one another is a stronger force than evil, and we can all call upon this power as we stand up to these nihilistic teenagers drunk on power. Their day will pass and some of them will be forced to answer for their crimes.