• zaphod@sopuli.xyz
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    2 months ago

    European here. “Pepper munitions” aren’t military weaponry as they’re banned for use in war by the Chemical Weapons Convention. This all reads like riot control stuff. The only weird thing is that american universities have their own police departments.

      • zaphod@sopuli.xyz
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        2 months ago

        Does that actually count as a police department or is that more like a private security company and they have to call the real police if anything happens?

            • wjrii@lemmy.world
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              2 months ago

              Yeah, the idea of “train police” is actually perfectly sensible since it’s specialized and both the criminals and victims will be constantly transiting between jurisdictions. The fact that they’re actually owned by the railroads is a creepy legacy of the original gilded age plutocracy. I first learned about this when I saw the BNSF cops driving around Fort Worth with “Police” on the door instead of “Security” like I would have expected.

          • Trainguyrom@reddthat.com
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            2 months ago

            The more oddly specific the police force’s jurisdiction, the more scared to be if they take an interest in you.

    • AA5B@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      Neither are the bean back rounds and launchers

      But yeah, this was a shock for me a few years after I graduated. My school made a big deal of “Campus Security” becoming spcertified as a police force “University Police”, but the only reason they ever gave was so they could carry guns.

      I’m not denying there may be a gun threat occasionally, but this was in a small university town, not near any cities. This was as safe a place as you could expect, and I’m sure almost all their calls were kids binging on new intoxicants, and kids fumbling through dating and relationships

    • CoCo_Goldstein@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      Agreed. The “Pepper munitions” might be paint-ball style rounds shot from paint-ball style guns. I’m not sure in this case, but other police departments have had them. The grenade launchers are for tear gas grenades. Perhaps also flash-bang or stun grenades.