Somerville Bans Tear Gas, Limits Police Use Of Other Projectiles

SOMERVILLE, MA — An ordinance unanimously passed by the City Council that bans the use of tear gas by police and places restrictions on non-lethal projectiles and other crowd control measures was signed into law by Mayor Joseph Curtatone Friday, Ward 3 Councilor Ben Ewen-Campen said.

The aim is to protect demonstrators, bystanders and the environment from the "indiscriminate, dangerous and even fatal impacts" of chemical crowd agents and kinetic impact projectiles during lawful protests, according to the text of the ordinance.

The Massachusetts chapter of the National Lawyers Guild called the ordinance an "important and historic piece of legislation" that places Somerville at the "forefront of the movement to de-militarize America's urban police forces."

Under the law, projectiles or chemical agents other than tear gas may only be used if an on-scene ranking supervisor of captain or higher, or the shift commander, has witnessed ongoing acts of violence or destruction of property and the crowd has ignored two warnings given over a loudspeaker at least two minutes apart.

The ranking officer must notify the crowd of the specific projectile or agent they will be subjected to if they do not disperse.

The ordinance also prohibits the use of pepper spray unless an emergency requires its immediate use, an officer witnesses a violent situation or ongoing destruction of property, lower levels of force have failed and a clear warning is given that pepper spray will be deployed.