José* was inside his Brighton Park home with his wife María* and their pets on Oct. 4 when the smell of tear gas overwhelmed him.
“The gas seeped in and we started choking, so I said, ‘[Get] the bird and the cat,’” María said. (José and María are pseudonyms we are using due to concerns about retribution.)
Tear gas, thrown in the middle of a residential block by federal agents, seeped into their home through the air-conditioning vents and the old, unsealed windows. It quickly spread throughout the first floor, filling the living room, dining room and kitchen with toxic fumes.
Their house was among several in Brighton Park that were engulfed in tear gas after federal agents threw canisters during an hours-long standoff with Chicagoans.
“I had never felt such fear,” José said. “I’ve lived in Chicago for 40 years, and it’s the first time I’ve seen anything like this. To live it firsthand, it feels awful.”
The tear gas that blanketed the block was part of an unprecedented wave of chemical weapons deployed on Chicago’s streets during Operation Midway Blitz.
An investigation by a group of Chicago-area newsrooms and independent journalists found that federal agents used tear gas and pepper spray at least 15 times in Brighton Park on Oct. 4 — more than the Chicago Police Department has used all year.
A close review of the Oct. 4 protests shows federal agents repeatedly using tear gas and pepper spray, often appearing to escalate encounters with nonviolent protesters.
The events of Oct. 4 also helped establish a pattern of force by federal agents. Our investigation found that federal agents used chemical weapons on protesters at least 49 times across 18 incidents across Chicago and the suburbs since Oct. 1. Federal agents have used chemical irritants at least 30 times since a judge placed restrictions on their use of tear gas and pepper spray.
This investigation was co-produced by Invisible Institute, Block Club Chicago, Cicero Independiente, Race & Equity Project, South Side Weekly, and The Triibe.