Prior to police having access to non-lethal weapons, police were restrained for example using guns against protesters causing an unlawful disturbance otherwise Police could cause serious injury or death. Police with batons could deal only with a limited number of protesters.

Increasingly Police are reported using excessive non-lethal force e.g. Taser Guns and other supposed non-lethal weapons against Citizens when it isn’t justified, perhaps because they can. It was reported last week police used a Taser Gun on an 84-year old woman while she was in bed.

Now that police have new laser guns that can flash blind thousands of protesters at a time, it is problematic police may unjustifiably blind protesters, crushing their right to free speech, because a few demonstrators caused an unlawful disturbance. Should police or U.S. government be perceived by Americans, using non-lethal weapons as lasers to thwart free speech and lawful dissent, to where Citizens are afraid to protest, history has shown Citizens go underground and many have become extremely violent against a perceived despot police or government state. When British forces in Northern Ireland excessively used non-lethal weapons against Irish Catholic populations, it resulted in the community increasing their support for the IRA.

Non-lethal weapons if not used appropriately by police can trigger the violence the purported non-lethal weapons were meant to avoid.