Adam Sennott
Wicked Local
Editor’s note: The following is the first article in a two-part series examining tear gas use by Cambridge law enforcement.
Although tear gas was officially banned only recently in Cambridge Police policy, there s no record of its use by law enforcement in Cambridge since the Harvard Square antiwar riots of the early 1970s, according to the department and archived newspapers.
The first anti-Vietnam-War riot occurred in April 1970 and was so serious that it prompted then-Councilor – and former mayor Walter J. Sullivan to propose several controversial orders, including one requiring protesters to post a bond to the city before future demonstrations could be held, according to a Cambridge Chronicle article from the time.