Pepper Spray

Having been assigned to Precinct 11 in Essex for the last four years until my retirement in November, I am very familiar with the school resource officers at Chesapeake High School who were involved in the use of pepper spray to break up a fight between two students ("How much force is too much?" Dec. 16). Both officers have been at the school for years; they know and care about the kids and work well with the administration. And you can be assured that In the Baltimore County Police Department, every incident like this one is critiqued and evaluated to see if the officers acted properly, whether additional training is needed and whether things should be done differently in the future.

Officials at BWI Thurgood Marshall Airport shut down two concourses for about an hour Monday morning, while investigators tried to determine the nature and source of an unusual odor. All checkpoints reopened by 10 a.m., after investigators removed what they believe was a can of pepper spray from a trash bin. Investigators discovered the item, which they are still processing, discarded in a trash can near the security check point at Concourse B. A passenger may have tossed the aerosol can before going through security, officials said.

IMAGINE, for a moment, that that pepper spray Jodie Ulrich forgot to take off her key ring had hit another student in the face. Picture the child screaming in pain and TV footage of the ambulance rushing from school to hospital.Jodie is lucky things didn't happen that way. Because if they had this story would have played very differently. She would not have been the victim. Instead of calling for leniency, we'd have been calling for tougher rules. Newspapers and TV crews would have focused, not on Jodie's parents asking why their daughter was punished so harshly, but on the injured child's parents demanding to know how such a dangerous substance ended up in school.

Having been assigned to Precinct 11 in Essex for the last four years until my retirement in November, I am very familiar with the school resource officers at Chesapeake High School who were involved in the use of pepper spray to break up a fight between two students ("How much force is too much?" Dec. 16). Both officers have been at the school for years; they know and care about the kids and work well with the administration. And you can be assured that In the Baltimore County Police Department, every incident like this one is critiqued and evaluated to see if the officers acted properly, whether additional training is needed and whether things should be done differently in the future.

Three Overlea High School students were taken to a Baltimore County hospital to be evaluated after school resource officers used pepper spray to break up a fight, a county school spokesman said. About 7:40 a.m. Wednesday, two male students started fighting in the cafeteria, said the spokesman, Charles Herndon. Three school officers responded and used the spray, which then affected other students, according to Baltimore County police. Of the 11 students who complained of being affected, most of whom were in a nearby classroom, 10 were taken to Franklin Square Hospital Center, Herndon said.

A school security officer used pepper spray to break up a fight between two students at an Essex high school, causing the school to be evacuated and sending 16 students to the hospital Tuesday morning, officials said. About 11:30 a.m., two students started a fight in the front lobby of Chesapeake High School, in the 1800 block of Turkey Point Road, according to a statement from Baltimore County police. A school resource officer saw two boys fighting as they were leaving lunch and attempted to break up the fight.

With all the attention to the ouster of Occupy Baltimore, we've been a bit behind in updating some crime. So here is a wrapup of some of the lastest: No criminal charges will be filed against the Howard County police officers who shot and killed an Elkridge teen in November, county prosecutors said Tuesday. Prosecutors decided that "the actions of the officers in using deadly force were justified," Howard State's Attorney Dario J. Broccolino said in memo sent to police. If only Baltimore prosecutors would publicly defend their decisions in such a manner.

A 20-year-old woman was robbed and doused with pepper spray after leaving work Wednesday night in Columbia, authorities said yesterday.About 10: 20 p.m., Howard County police said, the Ellicott City woman was approached on a parking lot in the 5500 block of Sterrett Place by two men dressed in camouflage.One showed a small handgun, police said, and told the woman to "give me the purse." After she did, the other man sprayed her with pepper spray, and the pair fled in an older-model Volkswagen Jetta.

Two teenagers were charged with assault yesterday after a fight that sparked the evacuation of an Owings Mills area high school and sent six students to the hospital when police used pepper spray to quell the brawl, authorities said. The incident occurred shortly before 11:15 a.m., when two officers responded to a fight between the male students, ages 17 and 18, in a second-floor hallway at New Town High School, Baltimore County police said. "Because they could not control the two, they had to resort to pepper spray to get them under control and into custody," said Cpl. Michael Hill, a county police spokesman.

A thug who menaced a store clerk with a screwdriver Friday got more than he bargained for when the victim blasted him in the face with pepper spray, county police said.Denish Patel, 35, the cashier at the Food Max in the 1600 block of Annapolis Road, said the man came in about 9:20 p.m. and browsed through the store. He heated some food in a microwave oven, then, when he went to the counter to pay for it, pulled ascrewdriver from under his shirt and ordered Mr. Patel to open the cash register, police said.

I am amazed that you call into question the use of pepper spray by a law enforcement officer at Chesapeake High School ("How much force is too much?" Dec. 16). You state that "school officials should reconsider whether the same rules that apply to criminals on the street should apply to students in the school hallway. " I would argue that a student who refuses to obey a direct police verbal command and then proceeds to physically assault the officer is no different from any criminal on the street.

Regarding the recent fight at Chesapeake High School ("How much force is too much?" Dec. 16), while it is unfortunate that some non-combatants suffered non-lethal inflammation and irritation, the fact of the matter is that they were in the vicinity, (and no doubt cheering on the fight) and suffered what is known in combat as collateral damage. Stay out of the combat zone and suffer no injuries. Regarding the altercation itself, what would you have the officer do when his lawful commands had been ignored multiple times and the combatant continued to willfully disobey to the point of escalating the conflict?

When a Baltimore County police officer assigned to Chesapeake High School in Essex tried to break up a fight this week, 16 students wound up going to the hospital as a result of exposure to pepper spray. That's something that should trouble school officials, parents and students at the school who might rightly worry that a similar event could happen again. We can't second-guess the judgment of the officer who decided pepper spray was an appropriate use of force. Police are regularly called on to make split-second evaluations based on the specific nature of threats and the likelihood that not using force could result in even greater harm to the public.

With all the attention to the ouster of Occupy Baltimore, we've been a bit behind in updating some crime. So here is a wrapup of some of the lastest: No criminal charges will be filed against the Howard County police officers who shot and killed an Elkridge teen in November, county prosecutors said Tuesday. Prosecutors decided that "the actions of the officers in using deadly force were justified," Howard State's Attorney Dario J. Broccolino said in memo sent to police. If only Baltimore prosecutors would publicly defend their decisions in such a manner.

A school security officer used pepper spray to break up a fight between two students at an Essex high school, causing the school to be evacuated and sending 16 students to the hospital Tuesday morning, officials said. About 11:30 a.m., two students started a fight in the front lobby of Chesapeake High School, in the 1800 block of Turkey Point Road, according to a statement from Baltimore County police. A school resource officer saw two boys fighting as they were leaving lunch and attempted to break up the fight.

A funny thing happened to the First Amendment on its way to the public forum. It was hijacked. According to the Supreme Court, money is now speech, and corporations are now people. Yet when real people without money assemble to express their dissatisfaction with the political consequences of this, they're treated as public nuisances -- clubbed, pepper-sprayed, thrown out of public parks and evicted from public spaces. The Supreme Court's Citizens United decision last year ended all limits on political spending.

/TC SAN FRANCISCO -- A type of tear gas made from cayenne peppers is not a benign police tool but a potential killer, the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California said yesterday in a report on pepper spray.The report said that as of the end of May, 26 people who had been sprayed with the liquid had died in police custody in California. These deaths had occurred since October 1992 when the state's attorney general, Dan Lungren, certified pepper spray for use by law-enforcement officers.

A Wal-Mart in Catonsville closed yesterday evening after pepper spray was discharged in the store. Eight customers were treated at the scene for skin and eye irritation.Baltimore County police and fire personnel were called to the store at 6205 Baltimore National Pike about 6: 15 p.m. None of the injured customers sought further medical treatment, police said.Police have no suspects in the incident. The store was expected to reopen today, police said.

A Baltimore County police officer was treated for injuries at a local hospital after being bitten by a pit bull Monday outside a Towson elementary school. Police Cpl. George Erhardt said the officer responded just before noon to a call reporting two loose pit bulls outside the Halstead Academy of Science and the Arts, a public elementary school at Deanwood and Halstead roads. He said a six-year veteran of the force responded and was attacked by the dogs. According to Erhardt, one of the dogs bit the officer multiple times.

A Green Party operative gathering signatures at Ellicott City's Charles E. Miller branch library to keep the group on Maryland's 2012 election ballot was pepper-sprayed and arrested by Howard County police, who charged him with trespassing and resisting arrest. That much about the Dec. 18 incident is not in dispute, but practically everything else is, highlighting a sore subject in Maryland, and especially in Howard County — the difficulty in mounting a successful petition drive.