So first let me set up the first picture. We were standing in a two by two line in what I can only describe as the closest I will ever come to being a lemming. I saw that people were getting hit in the face with some kind of liquid, they all had similar reactions of extreme pain and yet I continued to move forward. Had I known what I know now, I would have been much more nervous. As first I was bound and determined to take it like a man. Go ahead and give me your worst you sons of bitches!
Now, the first blast of liquid hit me in the eyes and all I felt was pressure. So I opened my eyes wide and blinked. It was kind of a reflex reaction. So both my eyeballs were coated with this liquid. This was one of those slow motion moments of my life and I remember it vividly. It seemed like it wasn't going to be that bad. About one second later I felt it. I can only describe it as sanding your eyeballs with 100 grit sandpaper and then squirting lemon juice over the abrasions. Here is the picture of my first reaction...
Hey! Don't laugh you bitches! Haha, no it is ok, it makes me laugh too. The instuctors told us very specifically NOT to touch your face with your hand, but I lost complete control over my hand and I came very close to doing just that. I pulled my hand away at the last second, thankfully. I will tell you why this is good later.
The deputy that sprayed me got me for about 5 seconds of steady stream. We are friends now, but at that moment I was not his biggest fan.
The instructors told us to try and blink to slowly clear your eyes of the OC. So being the good recruit I attempted to open my eyes and blink every 30 seconds or so. Each time I even cracked my eyes open a little of that vile liquid seeped into my eyeballs and the pain started all over again. They handed us paper towels to blot the spray out of our eyes, but that didn't help much. I used my hand and my pants to wipe off the copious amounts of snot streaming out of my nose. I just didn't care about cleanliness at this point. This went on for about 20 minutes. That was a very long 20 minutes.
So after 20 minutes I was finally able to pry my eyes open and look around. It was maybe a little before this that I realized it felt like I had the worst sunburn of my life on my face and head. It was not really a hot day out, but we were all cowering from the sun like a bunch of weeping, snotting vampires. I would have killed for some rain. They told us there was a breeze out and that we should face the breeze, but damned if I felt it. Everywhere the spray touched burned, this is why I am glad I did not contaminate my hand. I actually wiped the sweat off my brow with my wrist at one point and when I went to put on my watch later, it hurt.
So the sunburn thing lasted for about another hour. After I got home I knew I needed to get decontaminated. The pain had pretty much subsided, but I needed to get it off of me and doing so would not be pleasant. So I took a shower, making sure that the water did not run down my body into more sensitive areas. I scrubbed and scrubbed everywhere doing my best to get it all off. Of course, once I got out of the water, I felt the sunburn feeling kick in. So I stood in front of my industrial sized fan in the garage for about 30 minutes until it subsided.
The moral of the story is this kids. Do not resist the police. You do NOT want to get sprayed! Really, I am not kidding! I would rather get kicked in the nuts than go through this again.
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