Militarized cops’ scary new toys: The ugly next frontier in “crowd control”

[G_j]

http://www.salon.com/2014/08/20/militarized_cops_scary_new_toys_the_ugly_next_frontier_in_crowd_control/

The horror we saw in Ferguson may be just the start. Here's some other police gear our military is working on

HEATHER DIGBY PARTON

Now that the sight of American police decked out as if they are replaying the events of Blackhawk Down has alerted the American public to the militarization of our police agencies, perhaps they will finally be receptive to the warnings that some of us have been making for years about the next generation of weapons that are being developed for “crowd control.” As we’ve seen over the past few days, regardless of whether it’s created for military purposes, this gear tends to eventually end up on the streets of the United States.

In Ferguson this week the police used one of these new weapons, the LRAD, also known as a sound cannon. These were developed fairly recently as an interdiction device to repel pirates or terrorists in the aftermath of the attack on the USS Cole.

But their use as a weapon to disperse crowds quickly became obvious. In Ferguson it seems to have served mostly as a warning device, but it can cause substantial pain and hearing damage if it’s deployed with the intent to send crowds running in the opposite direction. It’s been used liberally by police departments for the past few years, even at such benign public gatherings as a sand castle competition in San Diego, California. The police chief (as it happens, the former FBI agent in charge at the Ruby Ridge standoff) explained that it was there in case they needed it. Evidently, San Diego takes its sand castle competitions very seriously.

But the LRAD is a toy compared to some of the other weapons the military industrial complex has been developing to deal with “crowd control.” Take Shockwave, the new electric shock weapon developed by Taser International, a sort of taser machine gun:
The cartridges are tethered by 25-foot wires, which can be fired from a distance of up to 100 meters in a 20-degree arc. The “probes” on the end of the cartridges can pierce through clothing and skin, emitting 50,000 volts of electricity in the process.

..more..

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[HooptieWagon]

1. To serve and protect the 1%. nt

[G_j]

2. exactly

it's really very simple..

[Ikonoklast]

4. Purchase governments. Ensure your family's massive wealth, forever increasing.

Use the force of law, courtesy of the government and legal system you now own, to cow and intimidate those who clamor for more than crumbs.

Eliminate those that refuse to capitulate, because now you can starve them out...all nice and 'legal'.

[malaise]

16. +1,000 n/t

[jwirr]

3. I don't think this comes as a surprise. We are going into an era of climate change, income

inequality, water shortages, lack of housing and food scarcity. The rich, the banksters and their corporations are fully aware of these problems and they are actively working to keep themselves safe from the consequences. And militarized police crowd control will be a huge part of that action.

We may only be in the experimental phase of this in Ferguson MO but it is a well developed theory. We can go two ways here. Either we can follow the example of the fascists and the Nazi control or we can go back and look at the post civil rights actions that tried to recognize the rights of the individual and the need for social change.

IMO we are looking at the first option in Ferguson MO - control by fear and violence. This way is going to be the mode that the 1% sees as most effective because it does not involve them in any action (taxation or change). It will never work for the 99% because as Bill Cosby told us - first they come after ......

[G_j]

5. They've been experimenting for a while now.

the WTO protests in Seattle are just one example.

[jwirr]

8. Exactly. And that was not a pretty picture. I do not know how we are going to show them that this is

not the way. The Ferguson MO people are doing a good job of showing peaceful demonstration but I am not sure that most Americans see that. But then they did not see that in the 60s - what they saw was a bunch of "damned hippies".

[TheKentuckian]

6. But...but...but this is just another escalation in response to an arms race with the citizens

Ever since these guys hit the streets it has been hell for our intrepid "security forces".

<>

Lead by the terrorist Maudib these savages have wrecked havoc on our communities with their sound weapons.

< >

Damn you Atredies! We will have to respond to your cursed sandworms too. Unleash the nuclear weapons and call Beetlejuice!

Idiots! This is occupation gear, stop making excuses and spitting rationalizations and stop the occupation of America before it is too late.

[G_j]

12. that's why I don't buy that excuse

they have been steadily advancing crown control technology for a long time now.

[JEB]

7. Thing keep going the way they are

and they'll have plenty of crowds to try and control.

[jwirr]

9. I think you are correct. Unfortunately.

[elias49]

10. But how many will they be willing to kill? n/t

[JaydenD]

11. I think one of the reasons Bush the Dumbya's war was fought was to test these new toys out.

Riot Control Ray-Gun for Use in Iraq
samzenpus posted more than 9 years ago | from the not-just-for-popcorn dept.
Technology 1317

team99parody writes "An 'Active Denial System' weapon that 'fires a 95GHz microwave beam at rioters to cause heating and intolerable pain in less than five seconds' is scheduled for service in Iraq in 2006 according to CNET and the print version of New Scientist. It was recently tested on people playing the part of rioters at Kirtland Air Force Base in New Mexico where they asked the subjects to remove glass and contact lenses to protect their eyes. Hopefully real rioters will get the same courtesy. Police and the Marines are working on portable versions. Sandia Labs also has a nice writeup on this system with pictures of smaller versions of the weapon."

[kentauros]

13. Speech-jamming tech could counteract this

Just scale this thing up, and we could silence probably all of the police in the area!


http://www.extremetech.com/computing/120583-new-speech-jamming-gun-hints-at-dystopian-big-brother-future




I thought it might work against the LRAD, but it's not noise-cancelling technology. Seems like that could be scaled up as well and silence loud noises such as the LRAD. Think of the noise-cancelling headphones people use in hearing-damaging environments, such as airports, around industrial equipment, and so forth...

[L0oniX]

15. Reminds me of those anti dog bark devices.

[L0oniX]

14. Do we need a MAD policy with the pigs?