{"id":33165,"date":"2025-06-13T00:54:16","date_gmt":"2025-06-12T14:54:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/?p=33165"},"modified":"2025-06-13T00:54:16","modified_gmt":"2025-06-12T14:54:16","slug":"arming-civilians-with-chemical-weapons-will-not-make-our-communities-safer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/2025\/06\/13\/arming-civilians-with-chemical-weapons-will-not-make-our-communities-safer\/","title":{"rendered":"Arming civilians with chemical weapons will not make our communities safer"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Background<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Finocchiaro CLP government has today announced they will initiate a 12 month trial allowing civilians to possess and use pepper spray for personal protection. The NT will be the second jurisdiction to do so, following WA.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pepper spray is a dangerous substance for both the user and the person it is used against. It can cause permanent disability, vision impairment, breathing difficulties and burns. It is especially dangerous when used on children. It should not be made available in our community. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The NT Greens oppose this trial and demand that the CLP listen to the experts and people with lived experience, and take a humane, evidence-based approach to tackling crime. The CLP must not enable the proliferation of chemical weapons in our community. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nic Carson, Acting Convenor of the NT Greens<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

“This policy is highly insensitive and offensive in the wake of two Blak deaths in custody in as many weeks. This initiative won’t make our communities any safer.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf the CLP was genuinely committed to community safety, they’d be properly funding preventative and supportive measures, like therapeutic and rehabilitative programs, public housing, and crisis accommodation.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cLegalising civilian use of a restricted chemical weapon risks encouraging vigilantism, which is already so often racially motivated against Aboriginal communities.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPepper spray is banned for military use under the Geneva Convention. It is bad enough that the police have an exemption to use it. We cannot allow chemical weapons to become commonplace in our community.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe have already seen the immense social and health impacts of pepper spray when used by police against civilians. We cannot make this chemical weapon more widespread in our community.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kat McNamara MLA, Member for Nightcliff<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis is vigilantism masquerading as personal safety and choice.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe CLP is fuelling crime panic with this dangerous trial.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis is the CLP sending the message that they have given up actually improving community safety or preventing crime.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s foolish to think that we can control whose hands these weapons fall into. It\u2019s only a matter of time before we start seeing pepper spray being misused.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe want less weapons in our community, not more. This is an incredibly dangerous and ill-thought-out plan.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Background The Finocchiaro CLP government has today announced they will initiate a 12 month trial allowing civilians to possess and use pepper spray for personal protection. The NT will be the second jurisdiction to do so, following WA. Pepper spray is a dangerous substance for both the user and the person it is used against. … Continue reading “Arming civilians with chemical weapons will not make our communities safer”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-33165","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-aussie"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33165","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33165"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33165\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33166,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33165\/revisions\/33166"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33165"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33165"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33165"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}