Orrex (58,589 posts) https://www.democraticunderground.com/100211486198
Help with something I'm seeing from a lot of Trump cultists
I have seen the claim made dozens of time that Obama authorized the use of tear gas and pepper spray at the Mexican border "hundreds of times."
They don't offer any citations in support of this claim, and I'd prefer not to waste time chasing it down if someone already knows the answer.
What's the truth on this?
the reports are tear gas was used on the border about once a month during Barry's term.
8 years x 12 months...
maybe not 'hundreds' of times... but yeah... they used it.
shraby (21,338 posts)
1. They would have impeached him if he had done that.
He wasn't impeached, so he didn't do it.
They made enough noise because he wore a tan suit.
Response to Orrex (Original post)Wed Nov 28, 2018, 11:25 PM
Star Member Botany (48,868 posts)
2. Let it go
No facts will change their minds.
BTW not one scintilla of truth to what they say .... President Obama never had
American law enforcement or the military fire ANYTHING across an international
border.
https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/obama-tear-gas-border-migrants/Customs and Border Protection agents used tear gas 1.3 times per month on average between 2012 and 2016, the final five years of Barack Obama's tenure as president.
oh, higher than originally reported, actually...
On 26 November, the Washington Times published an article whose headline declared that “Tear gas [was] used once a month at border under Obama”:
The same tear-gas agent that the Trump administration is taking heat for deploying against a border mob this weekend is actually used fairly frequently — including more than once a month during the later years of President Barack Obama’s administration, according to Homeland Security data.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection has used 2-chlorobenzylidene malononitrile, or CS, since 2010, and deployed it 26 times in fiscal 2012 and 27 times in 2013. The use dropped after that, but was still deployed three times in 2016, Mr. Obama’s final full year in office.
oh, my... that's more than twice a month! The numbers keep climbing...
CBP sent us the following breakdown of incidents involving tear gas and pepper spray by their agents since 2012. Since these numbers represent incidents, it should be noted that the number of individuals affected is greater than the number of incidents:
Incidents involving CBP use of 2-chlorobenzalmalononitrile (CS gas)/ Incidents involving CBP use of PAVA (pepper spray)
Fiscal Year
2012: 26/ 95
FY 2013: 27/ 151
FY 2014: 15/ 109
FY 2015: 8/ 30
FY 2016: 3/ 49
FY 2017: 18/ 56
FY 2018: 29/ 43
These figures show that from 2012 to 2016, the final five years of Obama’s tenure as president, CBP agents used CS gas (tear spray) in 79 incidents, which is the equivalent of 15.8 incidents per year, or 1.3 per month
The 2013 incident was also the focus of a widely shared 26 November article by the conservative Washington Examiner.
These reports are also accurate and describe a real incident from November 2013 which was not widely reported but was covered by the San Diego Union-Tribune:
A group of about 100 people trying to illegally cross the border near the San Ysidro port of entry threw rocks and bottles at U.S. Border Patrol agents, who responded by using pepper spray and other means to force the crowd back into Mexico, federal officials said …
The incident occurred about a quarter-mile west of the San Ysidro border crossing in the Tijuana River channel. No one was seriously injured, no shots were fired and no arrests were made, said Mary Beth Caston, a Border Patrol spokeswoman.
The group first approached a lone agent stationed about 1/8 of a mile north of the border. They ignored his commands to stop, so he fired pepper balls to try to stop them and protect himself, Caston said. As the crowd kept advancing and throwing rocks and bottles, she said, more agents came to the scene and used other “intermediate use-of-force devices” to push back the group.
The Associated Press also reported on the 24 November 2013 incident:
In the latest confrontation, people crossed the border west of the San Ysidro Port of Entry and got about an eighth of a mile north when a Border Patrol agent ordered the group to stop. The agent fired pepper-balls when the crowd kept coming, the Border Patrol said, and as the people grew unruly other agents arrived and used so-called “intermediate use-of-force devices,” such as pepper-ball launchers, to drive the crowd back across the Tijuana River.
Initech (72,793 posts)
4. According to Politfact the incident Sanders is quoting was from 2007.
And Obama was not the president then, George Bush was. Trump cultists seem to forget that there was a president before Obama. But there were multiple incidents of teargas being used during the Obama administration, but they were not at the Mexican border and they were not aimed at children.
California_Republic (766 posts)
8. You can tamp it down and then " yeah well then what about this?"
It never ends
there is a reason we call you DUmbies...
