Bullets too small to bring
down drug crazed fanatics
In a news article in
The Sun (Wednesday October 28th 2009) they
reported that "Bullets used by British Troops
are too small to defeat Taliban fighters ... Five
direct hits can be needed to bring down fanatics -
many of them high on opium".
This was reminiscent of the now famous
Edward Huntington Williams article in the New
York Times (Sunday, February 8, 1914) entitled
"NEGRO COCAINE "FIENDS" NEW SOUTHERN MENACE
- Murder and Insanity Increasing Among Lower Class
Because They Have Taken to "Sniffing" Since Being
Deprived of Whisky by Prohibition" which
claimed (in relation to cocaine use) that "the
drug produces several other conditions which make
the "fiend" a peculiarly dangerous criminal. One of
these conditions is a temporary immunity to shock - a
resistance to the knockdown effects of fatal wounds.
Bullets fired into vital parts, that would drop a
sane man in his tracks, fail to check the
"fiend"--fail to stop his rush or weaken his
attack."
This lead to many Southern sheriffs
increasing the calibre of their weapons from .32 to
.38 to "bring down Negroes under the effect of
cocaine".
Another version of this article can be found
here.
Further information can be found in Cockburn and
Sinclair (1998).
Whiteout: The CIA, Drugs and the Press.
