#HTE

Hong Kong Protestors’ Newest Improvised Weapon Against Tear Gas: Cordless Leafblower

On the one side are riot police armed with tear gas cannisters. On the other side, unarmed protestors wielding common household items and now a groundskeeping tool.

As the Hong Kong protests stretch into their fourth month, resistors have developed a series of clever DIY defense methods. “Demonstrators have formed special ‘units’ in charge of tackling tear gas who leap into action as soon as a canister is fired,” the AFP reports.

First off is respiratory protection. Handkerchief-held-to-face appears to be the default, but the more prepared protestors prefer 3M respirators, of the sort that you and I wear when we’re spraypainting something in the garage. “Online forums host discussions about which models of 3M respirator filters work best against tear gas and which local hardware stores still have the preferred models in stock.”

Pepper spray can irritate the skin, so, sandwich wrap to the rescue. “Some wrap their arms and legs in cling wrap to prevent the painful skin irritations that the gas and pepper spray can cause.

Those tear gas canisters are hot, so you can’t just grab them with bare hands to throw them back at the cops. The solution? Oven mitts or other "heat-resistant gloves.”

If you don’t have the gloves, you can at least contain the tear gas. One way to do this is to drop a traffic cone over it, then extinguish the can by pouring water in the top of the cone.

Another object being used to cover the canisters is “a cheap aluminum wok lid.”

The latest addition to the resistance arsenal is wielded by this guy below, who’s figured out how to blow the tear gas back long enough for a fellow protestor to cover it: