I Was Tear-Gassed, Along With 60 of My Closest Friends, in an Enclosed Space

. . .I was marched, along with the 59 other members of Echo Company, 2/60th Infantry Battalion, into a room. The room — barely big enough for the 60 of us — was dark, the windows were tiny and sealed, and the doors were closed. . .

The Drill Sergeant gave an exaggerated wink as he pulled the pin and waited. As the gas slowly leaked into the room, he delighted in asking us random questions, demanding that we tell him about a favorite family vacation or sing the alphabet backward. The more we talked, he knew, the more we would breathe in the gas.

My eyes began to water. My nose began to run. My throat felt raw. The temptation to rub my eyes was almost unbearable — but we had been warned that would only make it worse, so I restrained myself. . .

They released us from the room into the blistering heat of South Carolina in July, and suddenly things began to look up. My eyes cleared after 5 minutes. My nose and throat were back to normal in 15 minutes. . .

Having been through it myself, I would argue that tear gas is absolutely a reasonable — even somewhat restrained — response to violent attempts to charge the border and to injure Border Patrol agents. (Read more from “I Was Tear-Gassed, Along With 60 of My Closest Friends, in an Enclosed Space” HERE)

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