7.1 Racial Justice

Police are generally more apt to use heavy responses including chemical weapons against Black protesters in general (Morman et al. 2020). It is therefore not surprising to learn that law enforcement use foggers to deploy chemical weapons on racial justice protests. Indeed, the first use of the fogger in the United States was during the Liberty City Riots, a police action in response to Black community organizations holding conversation among themselves.

7.1.1 Danville, Illinois

Foggers have been used in a variety of cities, not just major metropolitan areas.

Danville, Illinois (1970 pop. 42,570; (USCB 1971)) Police used a pepper fogger to disperse a crowd of Black protesters that had used picnic tables to barricade a street through their neighborhood on a second night of demonstrations (Associated Press 1969o), August 10th 1969.

7.1.2 Rodney King

Although mentioned in a few outlets during the 1992 police response to the protests in response to the verdict in the Rodney King case, I have yet to find documentation of foggers being used explicitly during that time (Askren 1992). For example, Riley County (Kansas; 1970 pop. 56,788; USCB (1971)) Sheriffs had a fogger in their arsenal in 1992 according to Director Alvan Johnson (Askren 1992).