European here. "Pepper munitions" aren't military weaponry as they're banned for use in war by the Chemical Weapons Convention. This all reads like riot control stuff. The only weird thing is that american universities have their own police departments.
Does that actually count as a police department or is that more like a private security company and they have to call the real police if anything happens?
Yeah, the idea of "train police" is actually perfectly sensible since it's specialized and both the criminals and victims will be constantly transiting between jurisdictions. The fact that they're actually owned by the railroads is a creepy legacy of the original gilded age plutocracy. I first learned about this when I saw the BNSF cops driving around Fort Worth with "Police" on the door instead of "Security" like I would have expected.
But yeah, this was a shock for me a few years after I graduated. My school made a big deal of “Campus Security” becoming spcertified as a police force “University Police”, but the only reason they ever gave was so they could carry guns.
I’m not denying there may be a gun threat occasionally, but this was in a small university town, not near any cities. This was as safe a place as you could expect, and I’m sure almost all their calls were kids binging on new intoxicants, and kids fumbling through dating and relationships
They're banned in war because in War you're unable to run away. You have to decide to stay there in your trench which amplifies the gas and suffocates you or run and get shot.
That's why they're banned in war and why they're perfectly fine for police
Agreed. The "Pepper munitions" might be paint-ball style rounds shot from paint-ball style guns. I'm not sure in this case, but other police departments have had them. The grenade launchers are for tear gas grenades. Perhaps also flash-bang or stun grenades.