Bahrain Feature: Rubber Bullets --- Another "Non-Lethal" Weapon For The Police

American Scott Olsen, an Iraq war veteran, was shot in the head by rubber bullets, fracturing his skull, for filming police at the Occupy Oakland protest

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The Bahraini Minister of Interior called yesterday for new legislation which ensured a harsh sentence of up to fifteen years for anybody who attacks a police officer or who incites violence against the police.

The announcement by Lieutenant-General Shaikh Rashid bin Abdullah Al Khalif also outlined the training and new equipment for police, after the declaration of "reforms" introduced by John Yates and John Timoney, the former US and British police chiefs brought in to advise Bahrain's forces. The training involves a one-year "rehabilitation" programmes, whilst the equipment involves a complete kitting-out of protective clothing and gear, communications systems, and weapons.

That list of weapons includes "guns that fire rubber bullets".

Whilst the use by security forces of rubber bullets was often reported in February and March, soon after the start of mass protests and as foreign officers were brought in by the Bahraini regime, this seems to be the first formal announcement that Bahraini police will be equipped with the ammunition.

Abir Aramim, 10, killed in 2008 when a rubber bullet fired by Israeli soldiers struck her in the head

There has been global debate about both the safety and efficacy of rubber bullets since they were first deployed by the British in Northern Ireland in 1970. This discussion has escalated in recent years, centring especially on the question of whether they can be rightly deemed "non-lethal".

As Nigel Parry and Arjan El Fassed noted nearly a decade ago, "rubber bullet" is a misleading term, implying something soft and almost bouncy. Rubber bullets, or baton rounds, are in fact typically rubber-coated steel bullets, which "are capable of entering the skull cavity and also breaking bones".

The debate over rubber bullets in both the UK and US has largely focused on the policing of demonstrations. Last November in England, police were given the authority to use rubber bullets on student protesters, who were campaigning against the tripling of university fees. This was the first time British police had been given advance permission to use baton rounds on civilians outside Northern Ireland --- where they have been linked to a series of deaths and serious injuries across the past 40 years --- demonstrated a marked increase in the willingness to use violence against protesters.

The Metropolitan Police cited the need for "self-defence" and insisted that baton rounds would only be fired in extreme situations. Police also pointed to the violent riots across England in August, arguing that they might have stopped sooner if they had been given rubber bullets from the start.

Such a defence has proved shallow, however. History has shown --- indeed, by the British themselves in Northern Ireland --- that police, once armed with rubber bullets, often abuse the new power they possess.

US police chief John Timoney, who along with his British counterpart John Yates, is now in Bahrain to reform the police service, was a long-standing proponent of rubber bullets during his time as the head of the force in Miami, Florida. In this video from the 2003 Free Trade protests in Miami, Elizabeth Ritter is hit twice by rubber bullets --- the second shot, to her forehead, appears to be retaliation for her protest against the first shooting. Later, a large group of police were filmed laughing about having shot Ritter, enjoying a joke by Sergeant Michael Kallman.

Whilst Timoney was scolded for this incident, there is little to suggest his ideas have changed. Moreover, there is currently little indication that the Bahraini police are being reformed in any significant manner. One US law-enforcement official, to whom EA showed recent footage, observed: " That is not how you make an arrest, and this is not how to control a crowd. Are you sure these guys are the police?".

The main issue with rubber bullets remains the question of how dangerous they may be. Whilst still regarded as a "non-lethal" weapon for manufacture and export, they have been responsible for many deaths and severe injuries. This is magnified in situations where baton rounds are used by security forces, outside of the original intent to stop a clear and imminent danger to an officer, as an offensive weapon.

Writing for Discovery last year, Cristen Congee posed the essential question: Can Rubber Bullets Kill You?:

Classified as "nonlethal" or "less lethal" weapons, along the same lines as chemical irritants and stun guns, rubber bullets -- which typically consist of a 40-millimeter metal shell coated in rubber -- are meant to incapacitate targets without causing serious injury or death.

But since their early use in the 1970s, medical professionals, human rights groups and government officials have criticized rubber bullets, also known as baton rounds, because they say the so-called nonlethal weapons can kill.

The British government was one of the first to deploy rubber bullets on a large scale -- and see resulting casualties -- during clashes with the Irish Republican Army.

From 1970 to 1975, the British military fired off 55,000 rounds of 5.9-inch (15-centimeter) rubber bullets in Northern Ireland, reportedly killing 13 people at a death rate of 1 in 18,000 rounds and resulting in a severe injury rate of 1 in 800.

Rubber bullet design and technology has progressed since then to improve accuracy and reduce injury rates, yet autopsy reports of Palestinean civilian fatalities from 1987 to 1993 concluded that rubber bullets fired by the Israeli military killed at least 20 people.

Just like a real deal bullet, the potential danger of baton rounds also depends on how they're fired.

In a widely publicized study in The Lancet in 2000, which analyzed the Israeli military's use of rubber bullets against Palestinians, the medical researchers concluded: "Inaccuracy of rubber bullets and improper aiming and range of use resulted in severe injury and death in a substantial number of people. This ammunition should therefore not be considered a safe method of crowd control."

Out of 152 casualties, the study highlighted 201 noticeable injuries inflicted by rubber bullets on the limbs, as well as the head, neck, face and chest, indicating improper weapon handling, since rubber bullets should be aimed at the lower half of a person's body to avoid causing serious harm.

Despite this evidence of rubber bullet-inflicted injuries and fatalities, the U.S. Department of Defense includes rubber bullets in its arsenal of nonlethal weaponry deployed "to incapacitate personnel and material while minimizing fatalities, permanent injury to personnel, and undesired damage to property and the environment." It even looked into developing rubber bullets for use in rapid-fire machine guns earlier this year.