A journalist shot by police during the 2020 Minneapolis unrest following the murder of George Floyd is dying from her injuries, friends say.
Linda Tirado was in Minneapolis from out of state covering the protests and rioting when police shot her in the face with a rubber bullet, also known as a “less-lethal” round. She suffered a traumatic brain injury and was blinded in one eye.
WCCO asked the city whether Tirado’s settlement resulted in any changes to the city’s use of less-lethal rounds. A spokesperson declined to answer.
I’ll save the suspense: this means it didn’t change.
Shit. This hits close to home. I was very active on twatter back then and followed Linda. Her girls are pretty young to be losing their mom.
Fucking cops.
bastards doesn’t even begin to cover it any more. I don’t think there is word bad enough - even cunts - to adequate describe their bullshit.
That summer, I went to witness the protests in Raleigh, NC. The most intense of it was limited to a group of 7-12 people yelling at a group of police holding a line in a street outside the courthouse. Someone threw a firework at them, and then the tear gas came out, with police shooting rubber bullets at us. My friend and I were off to the side, not doing anything but watching, he got hit by a rubber bullet on his collar bone. Broke the skin, leaving a baseball size bloody petechiae welt. Regulations say that they’re supposed to fire those bullets at peoples legs. But of course, police are given 3 months of training tops, so they just fire them wherever.
On a side note, whole milk is the best thing to use to wash tear gas off your face. Also hold your breath if you have to walk through it’s smoke, getting that shit in your nostrils, throat, or lungs feels like inhaling fire.
But of course, police are given 3 months of training tops, so they just fire them wherever.
I don’t think they fire them wherever. I think they aim at people’s faces because they think it’s funny.
They’re meant to be fired any where. They say at the legs so people will be okay with it. It’s like when people go to Vegas with their friends for girls/boys trip. There aint nothing there but gambling and debauchery. Most people go there to cheat.
They’re literally meant to only be bounced off the ground, that’s some BS propaganda
Don’t use dairy milk for tear gas. Comes with infection risks. Water or saline is generally recommended instead. Plant-milks might be ok (but I’m not 100% sure)
That means bacteria can contaminate the milk and potentially cause infection if applied to eyes or skin wounds. Jordt says it’s better to use water or saline solutions to wash out eyes after a tear-gas attack.
EDIT: accidentally pasted the wrong link earlier somehow, fixed now
Yeah no. Water doesn’t wash away tear gas, don’t use water. it just spreads it around, making it worse.
Source: water was the first thing I tried
From what I’ve been told, it takes large amounts of any fluid to get it to go away. One difference you may have observed with milk was that it was cooled vs room temperature water. Cooled water can have similar effects compared to cool milk
Or the time factor itself since it was the second thing used
I think I just saw a study that milk was as effective as saline but more likely to cause an infection
Edit, here’s some info from the comments discussing it: https://lemmy.world/comment/10780787
Yes, ignore that. Saline may work, but can you buy that at a corner store immediately before a raucous protest? no. Water just doesn’t work, so ignore that. Also, odds are, if you were pepper sprayed/tear gassed, and you’ve washed it off with milk, you’ll probably wash yourself off afterwards. You don’t have to worry about getting an infection from pasteurized milk. This Lemmy user has been spreading that, and it’s just blatantly false. water does not work.
No offense intended, but deliberately placing yourself in the vicinity of potentially violent protests is also deliberately subjecting yourself to a certain amount of risk.
I knew a guy in my social circle that was a sheriff deputy during the George Floyd protests. He was known for being an all-around douchebag and was mostly tolerated. No one ever wondered where he was at or of he was coming. He kinda just heard of plans and showed up. His conversations would be things like complaining about women or people of color and sharing that he takes 30-mins shits.
There was someone else in the circle that needed a place nearby since he was going to school, so the cop offered him a room in his house for an affordable rate with no lease. Once the guy moved in and gave up his previous residence, the guy jacked up rent, imposed ridiculous rules like an overbearing curfew, monitored him with cameras and sensors throughout the house, and belittled him every chance he got in front of others. I am not exaggerating at all. That’s who this guy was.
Come the protests, we saw this dude out there. He was purposely instigating unrest so that he could use force. That’s what he wanted. He was open about it. He even came out in the news doing it on video and it became a thing in the city.
All he wanted to do was demonstrate power over others to overcome his deep-seated inferiority complex. He was a complete sack of shit.
I would have liked some more info on how the brain injury is slowly killing her. My perception of what a brain injury could be is clearly wrong because I have been under the impression that the brain is pretty sturdy as long as the initial injury doesn’t kill you.
TBI’s can resonate as issues later on in life for anyone.
American Football players and even Rugby players have been known to get them or Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE) as the result of repeated mild TBIs occurring over months or years playing.
As another example, I was in a near fatal rollover accident as a child and developed partially complex seizures in the left temporal 22 years later as an adult from that incident.
I am so sorry for what you went through and that you still struggle with symptoms today.
I honestly read this as a near fatal Rollercoaster accident and I was struggling so hard because boy did I want to know more of what that meant, but how insensitive to ask!
I’m sorry it wasn’t that. At least then you could avoid going on a roller-coaster ever again but it was and probably still is difficult being in or driving a car. I hope you’re doing well!
https://www.npr.org/2024/06/21/nx-s1-5015030/linda-tirado-journalist-shot-police-2020-george-floyd-protests-hospice-care looks like it progressed to dementia.
She has a substack, and is a bit wavey around the details sometimes, but she writes about coming to terms with it.
https://lindatirado.substack.com/
The NPR article is also far more detailed.
Thank you. Early onset dementia seems about right. It also feels like something insurance companies will claim would have happened anyway.
Never mind insurance; I’m hoping a prosecutor will take on the odds at the murder trial!
It also feels like something insurance companies will claim would have happened anyway.
Fascinating reasoning. As all mortal being eventually die (because living and dying are the same process), this would entail that no death is worth caring about, as all deaths ‘would have happened anyway’.
Rubber bullets are supposed to be skipped off the pavement in front of the people you’re shooting at. This reduces their impact and is supposed to make the bullets “less lethal.” These cops didn’t do that. Her maiming was the result of a deliberately aimed shot from a rifle.
the brain is pretty sturdy as long as the initial injury doesn’t kill you.
As a nurse, I’m confused at that sentiment. How on earth did you get there?
If the brain is damaged, it rarely gets much better after that. Unless you have just one mild concussion, brain injuries tend to more likely getting worse over time and rarely better.
Your brain is not just a broken bone that heals back together after a few weeks.
By not being a trained nurse. Being wrong is pretty easy, you just have to not know things.
My perception was that if you get something like a stroke, the initial damage is horrendous and that usually don’t heal. Any improvement is the brain offloading the lost functions to other parts of the brain. But once the damage is done and doctors and nurses stopped the source of the damage, I figured the brain would just remain where it was.
Sure the brain may survive, but will the consciousness that you identify as you survive?
It’s amazing that she’s found a way to stay involved in the community, and inject that cash into all the little places that it helps by going around and getting to know everyone and what they need.
