Word: maces
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Police across the country have gratefully adopted Mace, a chemical stun gas in a pressurized can, as a means of coping with rioters and unruly suspects. Used as recommended (from at least 3 ft. away, in 1-sec. bursts), it causes temporary loss of vision and inability to move-effects far less drastic than those of a club or a .38-cal. bullet...
Lately, however, questions have arisen about possible long-range effects of Chemical Mace. A San Francisco ophthalmologist, Lawrence Rose, has squirted it at close range into one eye of each of three rabbits, whose eye structure is biologically similar to that of humans; he has caused permanent corneal scarring in one.* In Ann Arbor, Mich., the face of a Negro who was sprayed last March is still partially depigmented; Ann Arbor police have discontinued using the weapon. A Columbus reporter, Robert Mac Vicar, who was Maced in the face during Ohio State University demonstrations last fall, is suing...
Perhaps prompted by the complaints and uncertainty, the Surgeon General of the U.S. Public Health Service, Dr. William Stewart, has taken a cautious position on the spray. In a letter to state and local health authorities, he warned that Mace's prolonged irritant ability "clearly increases the possibility of more than transient effects to the exposed individuals unless treatment is prompt." He added that further study would be necessary "to determine possible chronic effects." A spokesman...
General Ordnance Equipment Corp., Mace's manufacturer, replied that although the device has already been used 20,000 to 30,000 times, there has been no evidence of any damage worse than "a burn equivalent to sunburn...
...After about five minutes of gritting our teeth it downs on us that the cops aren't doing anything. We relax a little and they tell us they have neither the desire nor the orders to arrest us. In answer to a question they say they haven't got MACE, either...