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US: 113 federal agents in Portland said to be injured by protesters' lasers; none were permanently blinded
All officers recovered their sight, according to deputy director Ken Cuccinelli, speaking on August 4 2020. This appears to include the "three officers who currently have eye injuries and [who] may not recover sight." This statement was said on July 21 2020 by a Federal Protective Services official. (FPS is a division of DHS.) Some persons who repeated this, such as the White House press secretary and the Attorney General, repeated the "may not" qualifier, while others — generally news or commentators — said flatly that officers were permanently blinded.
Cuccinelli said "We've had a number of officers who have days-long blindness. So far they've all come back, if you will. But you also get what's called flash blindness … where you can't quite see your entire field of vision for a period." [As explained below, flash blindness is not an "eye injury" and should not have been included in the total of 113 "eye injuries.]
Cuccinelli told the Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on the Constitution that protesters began aiming at police from closer distances. Since laser beams spread out, this reduces the spread and thus increases the hazard potential. Protesters do this, he said, so police cannot identify suspects.
Cuccinelli demonstrated what he called a "commercial grade" laser by aiming it into his hand and saying it got hot within a second or two. He said such a laser could be purchased on Amazon.com.
Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) said he was able to see and use the same "commercial laser" prior to Cuccinelli's testimony. He said within a second he had to yank his hand out of the beam due to the heat.
Cuccinelli said that laser tactics had evolved. Previously perpetrators had stood in the rear of crowds, aiming at officers. But some were using cardboard shields with eye cutouts so the perpetrator could get closer to the officers, so that "the intensity of the strike to the eyes of the officer is much more significant."
Cuccinelli demonstrates how a laser-wielding protester would aim at an officer from a close distance. A protester's cardboard shield, with eye cutout, is shown in the background photo. From 1 hour, 39 minutes into the video of testimony before the Judiciary Committee.
Cuccinelli was asked about the effects on an officer of having a laser aimed into their eyes. He began by describing the aversion response or "lookaway reaction" so that an officer had difficulty looking at or identifying the laser source. He also said "we've had a number of officers who had days-long blindness. So far they've all kind of come back, if you will." Another effect was flashblindness, which he described as "think of it as the old Kodak cameras where [demonstrates taking a flash picture] you'd get that blue spot and you can't quite see your entire field of vision for a period of time."
Senator Michael Lee (R-UT) said the aversion response would make it more dangerous for the officer as they would "recoil from the harm." He said a laser like the one Cuccinelli demonstrated "can be bought anywhere, by anyone and doesn't run out of batteries" — it can be used all night long and across many protests.
Cuccinelli said the most common laser at the protests emitted a green beam.
From the New York Post and the Portland Tribune. Cuccinelli's written opening statement is here; we have not been able to find a transcript of his complete testimony though a video is available. Also see our first story about the July 21 "three officers may be blinded" statement, and our page about Laser use during protests.
COMMENTARY FROM LASERPOINTERSAFETY.COM
It is certainly worrisome that such a large number of eye effects and injuries were reported. As discussed in depth on our "Laser use during protests" page, no one should aim a laser at anyone's eyes or head — not even in a protest situation.
On the other hand it is a relief that three injuries, said on July 21 to possibly be permanent, appear not to have had permanent effects. As Cuccinelli testified,"So far they've all come back, if you will."
IS FLASH BLINDNESS AN INJURY? NO.
Cuccinelli incorrectly seems to be including flash blindness as an "injury" in his list of 113. He correctly described flash blindness as being like "the old Kodak cameras where you get that blue spot" from the camera flash.
Laser flash blindness is essentially the same mechanism. Bright laser light causes a bright temporary spot with an afterimage that gradually fades away. The fading may take seconds, minutes or hours — but just like with an ordinary camera flash, it does fade, causing no permanent injury.
No one has ever said that a camera flash causes an eye injury. Therefore, the list of 113 injuries should NOT include camera flash-type temporary flash blindness.
Laser safety experts agree. Afterimages are not injuries since they are caused by saturation of rhodopsin or "bleaching" in the outer segments of photoreceptors that results in a localized reduced sensitivity for a time. In contrast, an injury results in a minimally visible lesion which histologically involves the retinal pigmented epithelium and the photoreceptors.
It is not known how many of the 113 stated "eye injuries" were flash blindness or similar (e.g., not actual injuries).
DOES AMAZON.COM SELL THESE? YES.
Cuccinelli said high powered lasers were available for sale at Amazon.com.
We conducted a search of Amazon's U.S. website on the evening of August 4 2020. The search term "high power laser pointer" turned up at least two listings for lasers that looked like what Cuccinelli demonstrated, both in size and in beam color. The two listings have different brand names (Loyalfire and JCKSY) but appear to be essentially identical, using similar or identical photos. Here is the Loyalfire laser:
From the form factor, type of battery, and description ("it can light a match or paper easily"), this laser device is likely substantially over the U.S. FDA limit of 5 milliwatts for a laser to be sold as a "pointer" or for pointing applications.
Amazon's laser policy in the past has been to not sell laser pointers or handheld lasers over 5 mW (e.g., Class 3B or 4). The policy currently is behind a wall so that only Amazon Sellers can see the policy.
The Loyalfire (and JCKSY, and many other lasers at Amazon) appear to violate that policy.
Note that sellers can get around this by avoiding the word "pointer"or "pointing," and by claiming their lasers are less than 5 mW. Yet based on the form factor, batteries, and description ("burning," "cutting") a buyer can suspect or know that the laser is well over 5 mW. As far as we know, Amazon does not test, validate, certify or otherwise screen the actual lasers.
Also, in a larger sense it does not matter too much if Amazon.com stops selling such lasers. They are readily available from many other sites on the Internet, some that specialize only in pointers and handheld lasers.
DID EYE PROTECTION HELP? UNKNOWN.
We have not seen news stories stating whether Cuccinelli testified if officers were using laser eye protection, and if that was effective. On July 10 2020 the Federal Protective Service (a division of the Department of Homeland Security) issued a sole-source contract for 1,000 pairs of Stingerhawk FT-2 Laser Protective Eyewear from Revision Military. It is not known if the glasses were delivered in time to be useful to the officers.