This will destroy any credibility the protesters have. It will stop being about police violence the instant this happens. I think protesters should continue t

This will destroy any credibility the protesters have. It will stop being about police violence the instant this happens. I think protesters should continue to protest without violence and do everything they can to counteract the methods used by the police to protect themselves and other protesters. That said, I am angry at what I see and it is difficult to not feel contempt for the police using teargas, pepper spray, flash bangs, and rubber bullets. That contempt has prompted me to demand reform. > It is illegal to carry a ton of less lethal alternatives like blackjacks, clubs, or batons. I'm not going to dig up sources for this. However, when I looked into the reasons for laws prohibiting these items about a decade ago I discovered that these laws came to be in the late 19th and early 20th century. Washington explicitly prohibits nun-chucks and butterfly knives. It appears this was intended to target Chinese Americans who were more likely to poses these. Those individuals may have been disenfranchised from owning firearms. This was a way to further disenfranchise them from owning any weapons. Readers of this comment should do their own research to confirm or disprove.