The brutal and militarized police of Ferguson, Missouri used teargas indiscriminately to violently disperse peaceable citizens protesting the murder of an unarmed African-American teenager by a Ferguson cop recently.

Ferguson police threw multiple canisters of tear gas into the crowd to disperse protesters. Wesley Lowery, a journalist from The Washington Post that was arrested in the incident described the events that unfolded after the police used tear gas.

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Some of the unfortunate protesters affected by the tear gas fled and cried out for water to rinse their eyes.

"'I had to go back for my sister," explained 18-year-old Travis Hollins, who ripped off his shirt as tears streamed from his eyes. His 21-year-old sister had fallen near a tear gas canister, he said, so he had to run back into the fray to help her.

Tear gas is a chemical weapon whose use was banned in warfare since the 1993 Chemical Weapons Convention, according to The Washington Post.

The international agreement, however, doesn't cover the use of tear gas as a tool for riot control in domestic affairs. In recent years, the weapon has been used to subdue crowds, significantly as part of the 2011 Occupy demonstrations throughout the U.S.

Tear gas is commonly used by other nations overseas. Residents of the Gaza Strip in Palestine have prior experience with tear gas. They posted tips on Twitter Wednesday night on how protesters can treat and protect themselves in case of tear gas exposure.

Sven-Eric Jordt, a tear gas researcher at Duke University, said he is concerned with prolonged exposure to the chemicals in tear gas.

"The way these gases work, and this is what we do research on, is that they activate pain receptors -- the pain sensing nerves in our body," Jordt said.

"The cornea is densely covered with these receptors. When tear gas activates these pain receptors that leads to body reflexes like profuse tear secretion and a muscle cramp in the eyelid that causes them to close. These are all protective responses that the body has to pain, and with the gas they become extremely exaggerated."

He also said that there are certain situations where tear gas could be very dangerous or even lethal. If an individual is hypersensitive to the chemicals, for example, or asthma.

TagsChemicals, hazardous chemicals, Tear gas, Ferguson, ferguson protests, shooting at ferguson