"Boston police used a beanbag shotgun to disarm a man threatening to attack police and blow up his home, before arresting him on Saturday night. When police arrived at 383 Geneva Ave. in Dorchester about 9 p.m. Saturday they found Thomas Harrington, 32, allegedly holding a knife to his neck and threatening to attack the officers and kill himself. He had also turned on all of the gas burners on the stove and was threatening to “blow up” the home, police said. Harrington lives with his 56-year-old mother, whom police found in the home with minor injuries. Harrington allegedly assaulted her before police arrived. After Harrington refused to drop the knife, officers fired several shots from a beanbag shotgun, knocking him to the ground and forcing him to drop his knife. Officers then arrested Harrington on charges of assault and battery and assault by means of a dangerous weapon. He is set to be arraigned Monday."
My first thoughts were where has this been all this time people were being killed, and are AmeriKan police forces really looking like Israel's these days.
"Police use beanbag barrage to make arrest; Less-lethal weapon gains more support" by Nestor Ramos, Globe Staff January 13, 2015
Thomas Harrington was playing with fire.
Armed with a large kitchen knife and threatening to kill both himself and the Boston police officers who had come to arrest him, authorities say, Harrington turned on every burner on his gas stove and threatened to blow up a Dorchester triple-decker Saturday night. He locked himself in an apartment as police gathered outside.
“We were really scared that they would kill him,” said Elissa Harrington, who called police because her brother had stopped taking his medication and was attacking their mother.
I don't need to know anymore.
But Harrington, 32, was arrested without serious injury after the officers struck him six times using a shotgun that fired small beanbags, knocking him down long enough so they could restrain him. Elissa Harrington said the so-called “less-lethal” weaponry saved her brother’s life.
I'm grateful he wasn't killed, too.
The killings of men and boys by police in Ferguson, Mo., Staten Island, and Cleveland in recent months stoked protests here and around the country, and Harrington could easily have become the latest man shot to death by police.
I spent the whole day getting up to date on it below.
But the beanbag barrage that subdued him averted what might have become a deadly confrontation, police said, and the weapon that took him down could see wider use in similar cases.
“Clearly we had justification here for using lethal force,” said Boston Police Commissioner William Evans; Harrington weighs about 290 pounds and was brandishing a 13-inch knife. But Evans credited the responding officers for their restraint and for calling supervisors who were trained to use the beanbag rounds.
“This was a very wise decision,” Evans said in an interview Monday. “No one ever wants to have to shoot anybody.”
If you say so.
Harrington was arraigned Monday in Dorchester Municipal Court and ordered to undergo a 20-day mental health evaluation. He faces charges including assault and battery, assault with a dangerous weapon, and resisting arrest.
Elissa Harrington said her brother has battled mental illness since childhood. A gentle giant when taking his medications, she said he spiraled out of control this weekend during a disagreement over their 56-year-old mother’s phone. Both she and her mother called police, Elissa Harrington said, and warned them about Thomas’s history of mental illness.
Related: The Not-So-Gentle Giant of North Andover
Situations that involve mental illness are the most obvious uses for the beanbag rounds, Evans said, estimating that they are only used about a half-dozen times a year.
“It’s been an effective tool for us,” Evans said — one that could be used more often “dealing especially with the mentally ill.”
The beanbags, which are fired from 12-gauge shotguns that have been modified to accept the special shells, are also known as flexible projectiles or “Super Sock” rounds. They are also used to subdue out-of-control dogs, Evans said.
Currently, only patrol supervisors are trained in their use, Sergeant Michael McCarthy, a Boston police spokesman, said in an e-mail. Decisions on when to use them are made on a case-by-case basis, but “beanbags or ‘less-lethal’ force are used only in instances where lethal force would be justified,” McCarthy said.
According to Boston Police Department’s posted policy, firing a beanbag round is subject to the same departmental review as an ordinary firearm discharge.
Chuck Drago, a law enforcement consultant and former Florida police chief who routinely testifies as an expert witness, credited police for their response in Harrington’s case.
“No one wants to kill an innocent person because he’s mentally ill,” Drago said.
If you guys say so. Seems to happen a lot anyway, though.
Ideally, Drago said, every officer would be equipped with beanbag rounds. “Even prior to Ferguson . . . police departments have recognized for a long time the benefits of less lethal [weapons],” Drago said. “It’s something we really need police officers to have.”
Another weapon for their belt, and which well-connected concern makes those?
But the beanbag rounds can be dangerous or deadly, as a 2005 report by the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts describes. In 2001, a mentally ill woman died after being shot in the chest with a beanbag round in Long Beach, Calif.
Evans agreed that the projectiles can be dangerous — less lethal does not mean non-lethal — and said equipping every officer with beanbag rounds could result in their overuse. While deploying them more often could mean more success stories, deploying them too often could be problematic.
He says this after the cops have been armed to the teeth with surplus(?) military gear -- a policy which continues despite the hubbub.
He said relatively few cases look precisely like Harrington’s. In close quarters, a 12-gauge shotgun that fires the beanbags is not maneuverable. And when a suspect is carrying a firearm — hundreds were taken off city streets in 2014 — beanbag rounds would be insufficient protection for an officer.
“You know the old saying you don’t bring a knife to a gunfight?” Drago asked. “Nor do you bring a beanbag.”
But Elissa Harrington said she is glad officers brought them to Geneva Street on Saturday. When officers led her brother away, he was threatening to kill them when he got out of jail, she said — but he was alive. “I prefer that,” she said. “I still have my brother.”
All's well that ends well!
--more--"
What do they make those things out of?
"Supporters of a ban of plastic bags at Connecticut retail checkouts say they plan to renew their push for the legislation. State Representative John Hennessy of Bridgeport tells the Connecticut Post he believes it can pass this year with new leadership on the Legislature’s Environment Committee. The incoming chairman, Representative James Albis of New Haven, has set a public hearing. He said ‘‘it’s a good debate for us to have.’’ Supermarkets oppose the ban. Connecticut Food Association president Stan Sorkin said he hopes the Legislature will realize it’s ‘‘not good policy.’’ Westport banned plastic bags beginning in 2009. Assistant town attorney Gail Kelly, who drafted the ordinance, said it’s been effective and well received."
