Fighting Protesters With Colored Water
You must have seen photos of protesters being doused with
colored-water cannons by the police. Using water canon is understood as
it’s an easy non-hazardous way to disperse mob, but why would police
spray protesters with purple and pink water? Simple: to identify and
arrest them later. Many water cannons on the market today come with a
tank specially designed to store a semi-permanent colored dye. If police
decide they want to "tag" protesters with the dye, they can press a
button to inject it into the main water stream. Once the water cannon is
trained on a crowd, anyone hit by the spray will be easily recognizable
by police.
The most famous use of colored-water cannons took
place in South Africa in 1989, when police soaked anti-apartheid
activists with purple water. But in the ensuing chaos, one of the
protester turned a water cannon back at police and towards the local
headquarters of the ruling National Party. The headquarters, along with
the historic and white-painted Old Town House, were doused with purple.
The next day, a graffiti artist tagged the Old Town House with the
phrase "The Purple Shall Govern," which soon became an anti-apartheid
slogan.
During the last 15 years, protesters in Hungary,
Indonesia, Argentina, Malaysia, India and Israel have all been showered
with colored water. In Uganda last year pink dye was employed to
humiliate protesters. In Israel, Palestinian rioters were sprayed deep
blue, the colour of the Israeli flag. The Hungarian police use green,
the Koreans orange. Indian police is particularly fond of purple.
Police use a water cannon during a demonstration on the streets of Dhaka, Bangladesh, April 5, 2011. (Shuvo Das—Demotix/Corbis)
A
man holding a Palestinian flag is sprayed by Israeli police during a
protest in the West Bank village of Bilin, August 18, 2006. (Abbas
Momani—AFP/Getty Images)
Indian
policemen fire purple colored water from a water cannon on Kashmir
government employees during a protest on April 06, 2011 in Srinagar.
(Yawar Nazir—Getty Images)
Demonstrators
are sprayed with a water cannon by Israeli border police during a
protest against Israel's separation barrier in the outskirts of the
village of Bil'in, near the West Bank town of Ramallah, August. 18,
2006. (Nasser Shiyoukhi—AP)
Riot
policemen use water cannons to disperse thousands of protestors during a
demonstration, October 23, 2006, in central Budapest, as Hungary
commemorates the 50th anniversary of its 1956 anti-Soviet uprising. (Joe
Klamar—AFP)
Police
shoot water cannons as Jammu Kashmir state government employees shout
anti government slogans during a protest outside the civil secretariat
in Srinagar, India, May, 5, 2008. (Dar Yasin—AP)
Riot
police fire water cannons towards protesters during a rally against
U.S. President George W. Bush's visit on August 5, 2008, in Seoul, South
Korea. (Chung Sung-Jun—Getty Images)
Ugandan
opposition politician Olara Otunnu is shielded by his supporters during
an attack with water cannon by Ugandan police after he refused to stop
his protest march through central Kampala, May 10, 2011. (Marc
Hofer—AFP/Getty Images)
Anti-riot
police officers use colored water to disperse opposition supporters in
the Kireka area on the outskirts of Kampala on August 17, 2011. Ugandan
police fired teargas and water cannon to disperse opposition supporters
who had gathered in a Kampala suburb on Wednesday to mourn people killed
during demonstrations earlier this year, witnesses said. (James Akena /
Reuters)
Police spray Ugandan opposition party leaders with colored water during demonstrations in Kampala. (James Akena / Reuters)
Kashmiri
government employees are sprayed with purple colored water by Indian
police to disperse a protest in Srinagar on May 9, 2012. (Tauseef
Mustafa / AFP - Getty Images)
Indian
police in Srinagar on May 9, 2012 used a water cannon and batons to
disperse hundreds of government employees while detaining dozens as they
attempted to reach the civil secretariat. (Fayaz Kabli / Reuters)