Some 40 protesters near the site where an Emerson College student was killed after being hit by a projectile fired by Boston police called for a ban on the use of pepper-spray guns for crowd control, the Boston Herald reports. “I don’t think those weapons have any place in crowd control because obviously, they are lethal in some cases,” said Annie Butler of Cambridge. The protest comes as police to investigate the circumstances surrounding the death of Victoria Snelgrove, 21, who was killed last Thursday after a patrolman fired into a crowd after a chaotic situation erupted outside Fenway Park when the Boston Red Sox won the American League pennant.
Boston Police Commissioner Kathleen O’Toole decided to go with a lower-velocity version of the pepper-spray gun for the first two games of the World Series. The protesters want a ban on the use of so-called less-than-lethal weapons until “they are proven to be consistently non-lethal,” said Clara Hendricks of Cambridge. Other conditions were also spelled out on top of a petition the group began circulating during the first game of the World Series. The group says it has collected more than 500 signatures and will forward the petition to O’Toole, Mayor Thomas Menino and the Boston City Council.
Link: http://news.bostonherald.com/localRegional/view.bg?articleid=50731