Reporter Thinks Earplugs Are Rubber Bullets
Over the weekend, a Huffington Post reporter covering the riots in Ferguson, Missouri, put the “non” in non-lethal rounds. Ryan Reilly tweeted out a picture of four earplugs and wrote, “I believe these are rubber bullets, can anyone confirm?” It was probably the lowest point of the week for the reporter, who was arrested and then released Aug. 13. Of course the Twitter-sphere was quick to point out if earplugs are bullets, than butter knives are swords, Q-tips are police clubs and onions are teargas. While Reilly needs to learn his weapons (a good start for any journalist is knowing the difference between an automatic and semi-auto and that bullets shoot out the front end), there are some interesting stories about police weaponry coming out of Ferguson. For example, police are using teargas made during the Cold War. All that militarization and they couldn’t use safer teargas? More…