GrUeberFest 2005: Chemical Warfare (584 hits)
Category: NoneRating: 1.5 on 12 reviews (Rate this item) (V)
Submitted by stardamage (View user info) at 2005-10-27 11:26:50 EDT
"Man does not have the right to develop his own mind. This kind of liberal orientation has great appeal. We must control the brain. Some day armies and generals will be controlled by stimulation of the brain." Dr. Jose Delgado
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BBC World News: Last Updated: Thursday, 25 November 2007, 21:01 GMT 22:01 UK
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'Emochem' blamed in Boston riots
Experts claim 'emochem' technology helped to cause the excessive violence and property damage in Boston last week.
Sources confirm that the new 'emochem' technology developed earlier this year was in use during the Boston riots late last week, specifically the chemical termed 'quiet gas,' as well as a number of other, unidentified compounds.
'Emochem technology', short for 'emotional chemistry technology', was developed and manufactured by Japanese researchers earlier this year, and is intended to give military and police officials an opportunity to dispel riots by chemically altering the moods of the protestors involved through the use of aerosols (see timeline of emochem technology development).
Protestors of the latest petrol ration put into effect earlier this month began to gather in Kenmore Square early Thursday morning, halting commuter traffic and causing major delays in public transportation. Riot police were deployed, but the situation quickly got out of hand as thousands of people joined the protest. The crowd rapidly swelled to approximately 15,000 people by noon, estimates say, and grew larger during the afternoon hours.
At approximately 2 pm, riot police began firing canisters of the 'quiet gas' chemical into the crowd. 'Quiet gas' is an airborne agent developed from a combination of a sedative and various psychedelics, designed to have a calming effect on rioters and, ideally, designed to take away the target's motivation for protest. After firing the canisters, riot police continued to try to contain the large crowds until the drug took effect.
The sedative effect of 'quiet gas' is designed to take hold approximately 5-10 minutes after ingestion, and has a euphoric effect on the target. However, the aerosol dispersion method distributed uneven doses to the protestors, and several deaths from overdose on 'quiet gas' have been confirmed. Doctors from local clinics have reported that they were given little to no information on what chemicals make up 'quiet gas', so they were often left having to guess at the best course of treatment, which led to delays that resulted in multiple overdose deaths.
Riot police administered another round of 'quiet gas' at approximately 4:30 pm Thursday, this time alternated with the use of tear gas and another unknown chemical that Boston officials report as having been developed with emochem technology. It is unknown what effect the third chemical was designed to have on its targets.
A dangerous combination
Soon after the second round of gas dispersal, the crowds began to get steadily more violent, with many people breaking away from the main crowds to wreak havoc on neighborhoods all over the greater Boston area. Eyewitnesses described the scene as 'chaotic' and 'nightmarish'. The combination of the three gases appears to have incited the rioters to greater violence than before, and soon the rioting had spread to all of the neighborhoods in the Boston area, as well as towns on the periphery, including Revere, Chelsea and Everett (see map of Boston and its neighborhoods).
Fires burned out of control for days before firefighters reached them late Friday afternoon
Property damage escalated from the occasional broken window to widespread havoc, including a number of fires that went uncontrolled for days while fighting between riot police and rioters continued.
Boston Police Commissioner Kathleen O'Toole admitted on Monday that the police force's instruction in the use of emochem weapons was 'minimal' before the riots began, but defended the use of 'quiet gas,' saying, 'the situation was obviously spiralling out of control. Our officers used what weapons they had at their disposal to bring order back to the city.'
Our correspondent in Boston notes that although the protestors were not completely controlled after the first round of 'quiet gas,' the riot police for the most part did not revert to using more traditional methods before firing another round of emochem weapons combined with teargas.
Strange behaviour
Our correspondent in Boston reports that soon after the second round of aerosols was released into the crowd, a very rapid change appeared in the temperament of the protestors. Although many rioters had been shouting at the police, at around 4:45 pm, less than fifteen minutes after the second round was administered, projectiles began flying at the officers. Tear gas was repeatedly dispersed, and rubber bullets were used against the crowd, but many people simply ignored the noxious gas and continued to attack, forcing many officers to retreat.
Very soon afterward, reports came from the neighbourhood of Cambridge of numerous explosions, which led to a large fire that soon became very widespread, affecting a total of 274 buildings, mostly residential flats. Fires were also reported in the historic North End and Chinatown. The rioting in these towns and Cambridge, however, had gotten so bad that firefighters were unable to respond to the fires for another three days; it is estimated that the Cambridge fires caused a total of up to 500 deaths. (See the report on the Boston fires.)
Eyewitnesses reported that, in addition to throwing rocks and other projectiles at police, rioters affected by the chemical aerosol would often hurl themselves onto officers, with no regard for their own safety. These people were often very difficult to subdue, and many officers had to resort to the use of deadly force to protect themselves.
Some officers were able to get to safety or to blockade themselves against the rioters until further assistance arrived, but many were overwhelmed by the huge, violent crowds. There are unconfirmed reports that most of the officers were killed by strangulation or numerous blunt blows to the body, as opposed to the use of weapons. There are also reports of officers pulling weapons on their own team members soon after their gas masks were torn off or fell from their faces.
Eyewitnesses also report that although many rioters were attacking police, many were also attacking anyone within reach, often tearing clothes and hair from each other and beating each other with bare fists. One eyewitness reports that she saw two men tearing at the throat of another, older man with their teeth. Children, also, were both victims and perpetrators.
Effects of the emochem gases
Mary O'Reilly, a nurse in the emergency room at Massachusetts General Hospital, reports that the hospital began guarding its doors at approximately 5:00 pm, when hospital security was notified of the increasing danger from the rioting crowds that were spreading towards Charlestown and the hospital.
O'Reilly said in an interview on Tuesday that although she had heard that Boston police attempted to set up a barricade to keep rioters from crossing the Charles River, they were overwhelmed at around 7:00 and the hospital braced itself for the wave of attackers. She said that police were once again using emochem weapons to try to subdue the attackers, but they were for the most part ineffective.
A few people who had been running with the crowd soon broke off and ran to the hospital for safety, where they were subdued and treated. The effects of the drugs appeared to be wearing off by this time, but the riots by this time were comprised mainly of people unaffected by the emochem weapons who had joined the protests later Thursday afternoon.
O'Reilly reported that pregnant women were particularly susceptible to the effects of the 'quiet gas' and the unknown third compound used by police on Thursday afternoon; she reports that in addition to numerous deaths from exhaustion and dehydration, many women in later stages of pregnancy miscarried and later told doctors about excruciating cramps just after the drugs took hold.
'It was like the baby was thrashing inside me, trying to fight,' one woman is reported to have said. 'I thought, "The baby's trying to kill me from the inside out."'
Many victims treated at the hospital report that soon after they inhaled the mixed gas, an inexplicable feeling of rage took over them. 'I just wanted to kill as many people as I could get my hands on,' said one man, clearly shaken. 'It was like I didn't have control over my mind anymore. I just wanted to kill and keep killing until I died myself. This is one of the worst things that could possibly have happened.'
An investigation into the training procedures used by Boston police prior to the Thursday riots is pending. 'This is pretty much our worst nightmare,' Mayor Thomas Merino has said. 'We will look long and hard at why these weapons were used and how we can forbid their use in the future. This has changed thousands of lives in the most horrendous of ways and it cannot happen again.'
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User Reviews
Submitted by LadyPlural (user info) at 2005-10-28 10:36:22 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
*shrug*
It did it for me, anyway.
Submitted by kaos-king (user info) at 2005-10-27 23:37:41 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
I thought the format was good. I think horror can be presented many ways...
Submitted by stardamage (user info) at 2005-10-27 22:53:02 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
I plan to, once I'm not on the verge of hysterics every day from dawn to dusk :)
Submitted by thecaes (user info) at 2005-10-27 20:38:12 EDT (#)
Ranking: 1
I agree with what everyone else has been saying. Good idea, un-horrifying presentation. It would have worked better in a more graphically-rich medium, that's for sure. But the news-style reporting isn't scary. In fact, the news is designed to be flat and objective.
Killer idea. You should spin more tales out of it.
Submitted by JonnyX (user info) at 2005-10-27 18:23:32 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
my kind of story
Submitted by Jack_McCallum (user info) at 2005-10-27 18:13:28 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
It's a huge pain in the rectum, if you mean this kind of thing...
http://www.ubersite.com/m/71373
You gotta shop it.
Submitted by stardamage (user info) at 2005-10-27 17:43:50 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
I pretty much had the same concerns but I couldn't really think of another way to present this...I tried putting a character in and doing it from her point of view but it didn't work so hot, to say the least. I wanted something unconventional for the title (I mean, I could have gone for the whole world war I gas attack thing but it just didn't feel right, and it's definitely been done many times before by people far more skilled than I). It was also pretty slapdash because I've had the worst week in the history of...this semester, at least.
But now I've got the same complaint as Caes did...I want to make this into a full-blown thing now! Dammit!
For future reference, Jack, how did you make it so the whole story was in webpage format? I mean, I was able to get it into Word and put my own words and titles and pictures in the BBC format but I couldn't get it to post the way I had it so I had to go all text. I think it lost a lot of potential this way.
Submitted by Jack_McCallum (user info) at 2005-10-27 17:22:01 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
BTW, you did a good job with the layout and language in the news story... Most people on Uber attempting this fail miserably.
Upgrade to +1.5.
Submitted by Jack_McCallum (user info) at 2005-10-27 17:20:21 EDT (#)
Ranking: 1
This was very good... just not horrifying.
Having said that, the title wasn't exactly great.
Well done.
Submitted by Orgasmatron (user info) at 2005-10-27 15:16:09 EDT (#)
Ranking: 1
I've got to agree that the journalistic approach really detaches the reader from the story.
However, I think the overall idea of the piece is fantastic. The baby fighting inside the mother creeped me the fuck out. The EmoTears™/chemical agent idea is fantastic, and could totally be used as the basis for an entire series of stories. The riot, and the news coverage, made me think of Dawn of the Dead for some reason. Which, of course, is a good thing.
I think that the 'news article' format could be used within a greater story - maybe peppered in every now and again to give the reader updates on what's going on in the world, maybe to start off each section like you're taking excerpts from that day's paper, etc. I'd definitely be interested in reading more about this.
You *did* get a title that is difficult to use for this competition. For what you've done with it, I feel like I should give you a higher score.
Submitted by pen_name (user info) at 2005-10-27 14:43:31 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
great story. I liked the tone and the setting.
The only problem is that the news angle kept me from really immersing myself in the situation. i felt detatched, like an observer. I think if you are going to use this format, you have to make it part of a larger story so this can act as a nice background for your characters and what's happening to them.
In any event, i enjoyed what you did with this.
Submitted by Snark (user info) at 2005-10-27 14:38:35 EDT (#)
Ranking: 1
First off, you got handed a shitty title where a horror type competition is concerned.
I'm giving this a +1 because it was well written. I'm not crazy about the format. I've never like the whole story via news reports thing. It leaves very little room for plot and no room for characterization or emotion or imagery... but that's just me.