DHS Official expresses interest in Shock-Collar type bracelets for travellers

[whopis01]

http://www.washingtontimes.com/weblogs/aviation-security/2008/Jul/01/want-some-torture-with-your-peanuts/

This bracelet would:

• take the place of an airline boarding pass

• contain personal information about the traveler

• be able to monitor the whereabouts of each passenger and his/her luggage

• shock the wearer on command, completely immobilizing him/her for several minutes


According to a letter from DHS official, Paul S. Ruwaldt of the Science and Technology Directorate, office of Research and Development, to the inventor whom he had previously met with, he wrote, “To make it clear, we are interested in…the immobilizing security bracelet, and look forward to receiving a written proposal.” The letterhead, in case you were wondering, came from the DHS office at the William J. Hughes Technical Center at the Atlantic City International Airport, or the Federal Aviation Administration headquarters.

Unbelievable! They even have a video to promote it!

http://www.lamperdlesslethal.com/video_gallery.asp?video=http://www.lamperdlesslethal.com/video/EMDsafetybracelet.flv&title=

[eShirl]

1. where did he get that idea

(I know these are collars, not bracelets, but still...)

[whopis01]

3. Actually, that's not a bad idea when you put it that way.

Instead of in-flight movies, you can just have the passengers battle each other and bet on who will win.

[villager]

2. Read Cory Doctorow's "Little Brother" yet?

http://craphound.com/littlebrother/download/

[1monster]

4. Is DHS trying to finish off air travel? Aren't fuel prices and other problems (since

deregulation) fast enough for them?

[Sam Ervin jret]

5. You know that the companies would be zapping people all over the place for any small infringement.

Even if you are insane enough to believe this would work (the first thing any terrorist would do is find a way to get the thing off) and you cared not one bit about human dignity and basic rights this would be abused just like tasers are now by many police agencies and officers. Who decides whom to taser? Under what conditions? Do you taser the whole plane or does someone need to ask the terrorist for his/her badge number in order to selectively taser? Do we put tasers on all, including the elderly and infants? What happens when, and I do mean when not if, the thing misfires and shocks someone who is not a terrorist? The video advertising the gadget admits that technology is only as good as the people who use it. Do you trust mass produced taser bracelets to never misfire? Will they be made in China? Does the person get to press charges of assault and battery? Sue for damages and take over the airplane company?

Just the fact we are discussing the possibility of this product being put in use shows how far we have fallen away from our ideals and goals stated so movingly in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.

One scientific study after another has shown that people cannot be trusted to do this to other human beings. Abuse always follows.

Tasering is supposed to be the last resort. The only correct use of a taser is when an officer thinks he needs to use lethal force but finds he has a better solution in the form of a taser.

Not to quiet troublesome people or make arrests easier for the police.

Taser use needs to be more restricted not given a new form.

[Peace Patriot]

6. Back to train travel, I guess--although if they can force you to wear stun bracelets on

an airplane, they can force you to wear stun bracelets ANYWHERE--for instance, to vote, to attend public meetings, to walk into any public or commercial building, to get on any bus or train, to walk on any sidewalk, to be qualified for jobs (you have to wear it to work in case you go postal), even to get a driver's license, which could mean having to wear it almost all the time.

Would someone explain to me the corporate ruler reasoning for making commercial air travel such a fucking drag? I don't for a minute believe that anything these fascists do is for our "safety." I understand what the nazi motives are--as well as the war/police state profiteering. But I don't understand it from a BUSINESS standpoint. They're all into global corporate predation. Air travel is an essential component of global trade and global tourism. It doesn't make sense to me. And making me take my shoes off, and get x-rayed and not take bottled water on board just seems to me insanely humiliating and inconveniencing, and, above all, TIME CONSUMING. Two to four hours of this bullshit just to take a short hop from one city to another, and even more bullshit for international flights. I will only do it out of dire necessity. (Somebody dies and the funeral is this week.) Not to mention jammed flights, cancelled flights, reduced routes, new charges every day (now for luggage), and no more honeyed peanuts! WHY are they doing EVERYTHING IMAGINABLE to alienate me from air travel?

I even understand it as a typical corporate business model--get people dependent on something, then squeeze them like a lemon, squeeze every last drop of profit out of it, move your money to Chinese sweatshops or Hong Kong hotels, and retire to your penthouse in Dubai. However, it just doesn't make sense to do this with a transportation system. How do you get your sales people to China? How do you get tourists to Hong Kong? How do you get products that require speed to world markets? It's like the corporate rulers and the super-rich are chewing off their own hands.

Well, this question occurs to me about a lot of things. Bushite policy...doesn't make sense--even from the point of view of Bushites. The only sense I HAVE been able to make of it is that the American people are an especially big danger to global corporate predators. We are potentially the most progressive force on earth. And they MUST subdue us--they must "kill the golden goose" of the American middle class--outsource all our jobs, bust our Constitution, directly control our elections with 'TRADE SECRET' voting machine code, demoralize us, disempower us, loot our government treasuries, treat us like prisoners in our own airports, and totally ravage us, because we hold the keys to their corporate charters. The potential power of the American people is actually very great. They had to bust us--including hijacking our military for corporate resource wars--because they FEAR us. If this theory is correct, all this humiliation and aggravation in our airports may be deliberate psyops. 'You think you are a free people? Ha! We can swipe your water bottle right out of your hand. We can get into your underpants looking for weapons. You are nothing! You have no more rights, dignity or protection than our torture victims in Guantanamo Bay!'

[Igel]

7. The blogger seems to have a gap in his thinking.

Where in the letter does the DHS guy say what the bracelets would be used for?

The blogger assumes for air travel. The company seems to think something along the same lines, for part of its product.

But it could be for putting on the ankles of those detained when crossing the border (allegedly) illegally, which would match the content of the first page of the multipage letter.

I suspect that if we read the letter from the start to the finish, we might disagree with the blogger. Which, probably, is why we get to read the last page first, after it's been set up for us what the letter must certainly mean; and only at the end do we get to read the first page. As for other pages, well, they probably make it clear the blogger is stretching the truth to fit his point.

The gap, of course, is filled by suspicion, which seems to fill almost any argument as needed.

[benEzra]

8. The company is marketing them for airline use. Look at their website.

www.lamperdlesslethal.com

EMD Safety Bracelet for Airline Security

Documentation below concerning the EMD Safety Bracelet. To clear up some misconceptions: The bracelets remain inactive until a hijacking situation has been identified. At such time a designated crew member will activate the bracelets making them capable of delivering the punitive measure - but only to those that need to be restrained. We believe that all passengers will welcome deliverance from a hijacking, as will the families, carriers, insurance providers etc. The F-16 on the wingtip is not to reassure the passengers during a hijacking but rather to shoot them down. Besides activation using the grid screen, the steward / stewardess will have a laser activator that can activate any bracelet as needed by simply pointing the laser at the bracelet - that laser dot only needs to be within 10 inches of the bracelet to activate it.

FWIW, if they can be activated remotely, then the activation system can and WILL be hacked.

[Mopar151]

9. And how easy will it be to defeat this?

Would sliding a thin sheet of plastic between the bracelet and the wrist skin insulate the wearer from the shock?
If the device is defeatable with a little planning, then it becomes an AID to hijackers - leaving its "legitimate" use to drunks and crazies. Better to give the stews cattle prods or sap gloves......

[WinstonSmith2600]

10. easy hijacking

I'm all for it. One of my friends built a garage door war dialer. He would drive down a street and open all the garage doors. I'm sure you could do the same thing for this device. Make the bracelet wardialer and hook it up to a good amp and point a parabolic dish towards an airplane in flight or at an airport and then record that nights news for a good laugh. If they do put this device into service I'm sure many people will abuse it and it wont last for long. Especially since people sometimes die from tazers.

If I was going to hijack an airplane I would bring a bracelet wardialer and shock everyone on the airplane except for myself and a few other guys that would strongarm the pilot take over the airplane without any weapons.

[katty]

11. DHS and chertoff that evil freak have nothing better to do

[Joanne98]

12. The DHS is a horror movie.

[RainDog]

13. is this the stupidest idea I've read in a while

this fear and paranoia will break this nation.

do they really think people would be willing to travel to this country if they thought they had to wear a prison stun anklet or whatever?

if the U.S. doesn't import graduate students, then U.S. high tech. industry would take a big hit. it's simply the truth because American schools do not turn out the same number of science and math students. however, they do produce some major fucking Friday night football teams... just so it's clear that parental priorities indicate what is imp. and they also do not give a shit about education, or knowledge in general at the level that makes a difference.

I wish I could move somewhere that still wants democracy.