Several organizations want the City of Pittsburgh to retract its bid for new weapons in exchange for less lethal weapons for the police bureau.
The groups expressed their concerns at the city-county building Wednesday morning. City officials sent out the bid on April 14th.
The list includes sponge rounds, smoke grenades, tear gas and pepperballs for police officers to use.
Brandi Fisher is the President and CEO of the Alliance for Police Accountability. She explained what happened to her at a protest over the summer.
"The tear gas was so bad that I personally had an asthma attack and passed out and woke up in the dark and did not know where I was."
Fisher says they'll continue to question officials and make their voices heard to prevent these purchases and said she'd like to see data showing how often these weapons are used outside of protests.
"People are unemployed. People are being evicted every day, do not have housing and good jobs. The City decides to spend a half million dollars on weapons to use against its own citizens," she said.
However, a police spokesperson says they also use these weapons for SWAT calls, serving search warrants and crowd control and that these orders are placed on a semi-regular basis.
Myra Taylor, who's a nurse, said weapons like sponge rounds, smoke grenades, tear gas and pepperballs are dangerous and unnecessary, and that injuries from these weapons put a strain on understaffed hospitals.
She said the weapons can cause "permanent disability, but they also cause trauma such as skull fractures, brain injuries, damage to vital organs, permanent blindness and death."
