Unseen Video: 1,000 Bystanders Tear Gassed by Wichita Cops

The officer speaking in the video apparently did not think that there was footage of this event.

As far as I can tell, there werent any sings of trouble, no fighting, no riots, no nothing. So why in the World would police use tear gas on a non-confrontational crowd?

Simply because as the cop says "people like to play their music and hit on the ladies as they come out".

Seriously?

So people in Wichita can expect to be terrorized by police if they happen to be in a crowd...

And listen to how nonchalant he is with regards to using tear gas. Something tells me he wouldnt be as calm if he were on the receiving end.

Hrmmm....
Endangering innocents.
Lawsuits.
Bankrupt city.

Smooth move sherlock.

Wow, this is really something else. So now the police just tear gas clubs late night when people are leaving? The clubs are legal businesses, and if they're not attempting to shut down all those businesses in every community, that make a fortune off of their customers, just what are they doing? Just what is going on?

reply to post by gladtobehere


Did anyone else see the guy with the crutches get completely trampled?

My opinion would be the cops were not satisfied with the progress of the crowd and got a bit impatient and decided to lob some tear gas cans in there.

Best way to disperse the crowd my ass, people could have been seriously injured if people panicked more so./

Since when is going out to a night club after a long day of family considered a congragation. They're patrons for #%$@ sakes. Why are the cops across the nation being so douchey?! I know a few, they're good people that when i asked why they became LEOs, they both responded with," to help people."I feel that is the correct reason. Is it just a bully mentality? Or is it their training? Or both?!

Just more unneeded stupidity. It is quite obvious too that people were relaxed and jocular right up to the moment they were gassed. Another senior officer caught in the big lie.

There are quite a few articles on this...

Wichita police say tear gas worked in dispersing Old Town crowd

New video shows tear gas released in Old Town

Police used tear gas to disperse Old Town crowd

Police use of tear gas in Old Town debated

From the above link..

A preliminary review indicates the use of tear gas by police to disperse a large, increasingly unruly crowd in Old Town last week was appropriate given the circumstances, Wichita Police Chief Norman Williams said Wednesday.

A small number of officers were attempting to get a crowd of several hundred people leaving nightclubs at closing time to move along to their vehicles at about 2 a.m. Nov. 23. But people were resisting and several fights were breaking out, Williams said.

A single canister of tear gas, about the size of a desk stapler, was activated.

“It proved to be effective,” Williams said, because the crowd immediately dispersed and all clashes ended.

However it didn't go quite as smoothly as the Chief indicates...

The canister was released only a few feet from Doc Howard’s doors, and a cloud of tear gas formed beneath the club’s canopy and even entered the club through both the entrance and exit doors, Thompson said.

One camera shows an officer kicking the tear gas canister south a few feet to get it away from the club’s entrance.

One club employee suffered a broken hand as people rushed inside to get away from the tear gas and another was kneed in the head by a fleeing patron, he said.

So probably not the best place to deploy it...

This doesn't make any sense. Yes there is going to be a crowd outside the club at the end of the night as people are still chatting etc, that is normal. If there are complaints by the neighbours about the noise late at night, then they have the right to complain to the authorities and the license to the club gets revoked if enough people object. So there is no reason to use this kind of tactic to clear the crowd. Not only would it panic everyone, they might, with good justification, think it is another 'Batman shooter' incident or something. You could see from the video at least one person falling as everyone was squashing their way through the doorway. I am surprised there were not lots of casualties from this.
Maybe it was the end of the policemen's shift and they thought they would just hurry things along so they could get off duty faster. Totally ridiculous whatever the reason.

If I owned this club, I would sue the police back into the 15th century.

This was an armed attack with weapons on a legitimate business.

Mr. Confusion back again. A number of links were provided by Frogs that I found informative. From one of them:

Nolte says officers have had issues in the past with crowds not dispersing when asked to, and there were indications that this crowd was starting to get rowdy.

Officers decided to use the small canister of tear gas, which got the people in the crowd to move along.

"The officers were there, the supervisor on the scene felt there were not enough officers at the time to adequately dispel the disturbances, to deal with those," said Captain Max Tenbrook of Patrol South.

One person complained of tear gas irritation and was checked out on the scene by emergency crews. That person did not require a trip to the hospital.

Nolte said officers usually use mace to get a crowd to disperse because it is more effective. He says tear gas usually isn't as effective when used outside, especially when it's windy.

Faced with a crowd that was starting to get out of control, with fights being reported, they tossed one small tear gas canister. I can assure you, I'd rather get a whiff of tear gas, then get maced in the face which was the alternative. Should they have tried to taser 1000 people? what would a better solution have been?

This seems like a pretty mild reaction to the situation.

(Self moderating) post removed....
that post had too much common sense.
Cant have that there.

reply to post by charles1952


Actually yeah, I have to agree. IMO I think the possible "oops" in this came into play in where the canister got deployed. In front of the club door, under the awning wasn't likely the best place and caused some injuries in the rush.

But, we don't know if that was where the cops put of if it got kicked there by the crowd or what..

Normally, the cops come in with the fire marshal. The marshal starts counting heads, finds the manager, pulls out his ticket book and starts writing. The manager closes the place down and the city gets a pay day. Derp.