As tear gas billowed around him on Friday, Curtis Evans found himself drawing on his time as a Marine.

“My Marine Corps training hit me. They’d gas us every year for fun, just for training, not just in boot camp, you got it later, too,” Evans told Task & Purpose over the weekend. “One of the things you learn from Marine Corps training is that it sets off all of your body’s alarms. You can’t breathe, you can’t see, it hurts, but it’s just the alarms. But boy, all of the nerves are screaming.”

Evans was taking part in protests against Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids at a facility in Broadview, just outside of Chicago on Sept. 19. As federal agents fired tear gas canisters and pepper balls into the more than 100 people outside the building, Stacey Wescott with the Chicago Tribune

See Full Page