M1A/M14 in action in Haiti

[Mil Novecientos Once]

A riot police stands guard as a children run outside the Academy of Sciences in Port-au- Prince, Haiti, Monday, Jan 19, 2004. A student demonstration turned violent on Monday when police fired tear gas and bullets into the air to break up a student protest demonstration held against embattled President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)

University students are detained by police in Port-au- Prince, Haiti Monday, Jan 19, 2004. A student demonstration turned violent on Monday when police fired tear gas and bullets into the air to break up a student protest demonstration held against embattled President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)

Haitian National Palace guards take up positions and fire in the air to try to stop a funeral march by protesters carrying the coffin of Maxim Deselmours, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, January 16, 2004. Deslemour, a 32-year-old social sciences student, was killed in a recent demonstration. Anti-government activists clashed with police and supporters of Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide Friday as they marched through the capital with his coffin. Deselmours was shot dead by a drive-by gunman during an anti-Aristide march on January 7, according to witnesses. Other demonstrators blamed the president for Deselmours' death, saying the gunman was commissioned by Aristide to terrorize his critics. REUTERS/Daniel Morel

 

[Sven]

> fire in the air

???

 

[Mil Novecientos Once]

Armed rebels take position in Gonaives, Haiti, some 100 kilometers (62 miles) north of Port-au-Prince, Saturday, Feb. 7, 2004. Rebels with the Gonaives Resistance Front took the city of 200,000 people Thursday after a five-hour gunbattle with police. At least seven people were killed and 20 wounded. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)

 

[Grump]

Yeah, firing into the air is BAD riot-control practice. It's why Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young could sing about "Four dead in Ohio" after the National Guard there fired into the air during the 1971 Kent State University RIOTS.

Fire into the ground 10 meters in front of the mob. Rocks and shrapnel are better crowd dispersal tools than noise, as shown by the LA shopkeepers who lost their businesses to riots in -- 1992?. Any serious injuries, even if above the knees, are the price rioters pay for participating. Even death is a reasonable consequence to expect for rioting.

As stated by an anonymous witness at Kent State (radio interview the same day), "a rock can kill just as dead as a rifle round." Or similar words to that effect.