In the open desert, those CS grenades are mostly useless. Pretty much a riot starter, instead of the intended effect.
I defer to your expertise on it. All I know is that being prepared in this manner (what we could see) and possibly having unseen backup stores of a different sort isn’t something that real Americans do to other real Americans.
If my son were a BLM, Park Ranger or even a goon contractor that had participated in this, I would disown him completely. I didn’t raise him to be a tyrant.