Pain Ray, Rejected by the Military, Ready to Blast L.A. Prisoners

[inna]

Pain Ray, Rejected by the Military, Ready to Blast L.A. Prisoners
By Noah Shachtman August 24, 2010 | 3:02 pm | Categories: Lasers and Ray Guns

http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2010/08/pain-ray-rejected-by-the-military-ready-to-blast-l-a-prisoners

Inmates of the Pitchess Detention Center, watch your step. If you get out of line, you may get blasted with an invisible heat ray.

The jail’s energy weapon is a small-scale version of the Active Denial System, the experimental crowd control device that the U.S. military brought to Afghanistan — and then quickly shipped back home, after questions mounted about the wisdom of blasting locals with a beam that momentarily puts them in agony. The pain weapon seemed at odds with the military’s efforts to appear more humane and measured in the eyes of the Afghan populace.

The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department not only found those concerns overblown; they used the military’s long-standing reluctance to zap Afghans as fodder for the plan to zap Pitchess’ prisoners. “I already had contacts at Raytheon who were reeling from the short-sided, self-serving cowardice of people who were more interested in saving face than saving lives, and leveraged it right into getting it into our jails,” former LASD Cmdr. Charles “Sid” Heal tells Danger Room.

The LASD has long been a hotbed of advocates for exotic weaponry — everything from sonic blasters to spy drones. But the Active Denial System has long been of particular interest. Heal calls it the “Holy Grail of crowd control.” He’s been trying for years to get the technology deployed in Los Angeles.

~snip~

Link from the article for background:

Pain Ray Heading for LA Streets?
By Sharon Weinberger September 24, 2007 | 7:30 am | Categories: Weapons and Ammo

http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2007/09/pain-ray-headin/

It could soon get a lot hotter in LA. The Los Angeles County Sheriff is apparently looking at the Active Denial System, a directed energy weapon that created a burning sensation, for possible use in the City of Angels:

Charles "Sid" Heal stands excitedly in the parking lot of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s station in San Dimas, tinkering with a prototype for the ominously named "Active Denial System."

With one zap from what looks like a satellite dish on a tripod, those within target range feel a burning sensation on their skin.

Heal, a Sheriff’s Department commander, tested the device on himself.
"It is like stepping into a scalding shower. You are going to step back quickly," Heal said. "It just stops them in their tracks."

Heal likes the system because he sees it as one day making rubber bullets and tear gas obsolete — giving police a less-violent way to control crowds and combative suspects. Heal said he believed the Sheriff’s Department would deploy some form of the weapon within a few years.

Gotta love those high-tech crowd control devices.

More background:

US army heat ray gun in Afghanistan
15 July 2010 14:27 UK

http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/10646540

The ADS heats up a person's skin 'intolerably' says the US military

A newly-developed heat ray gun that burns the skin but doesn't cause permanent injury is now with US troops in Afghanistan.
The Active Denial System (ADS) is a non-lethal weapon designed to disperse violent crowds and repel enemies.

It uses a focused invisible beam that causes an "intolerable heating sensation", but only penetrates the skin to the equivalent of three sheets of paper.

Active Denial System

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_Denial_System#cite_note-5

The Active Denial System (ADS) is a less-lethal, directed-energy weapon developed by the U.S. military.<1> It is a strong millimeter-wave transmitter primarily used for crowd control (the "goodbye effect"<2>). The ADS was deployed in 2010 with the United States military in Afghanistan, but was withdrawn without seeing combat.<6>
...
The ADS has been removed from service in Afghanistan as of July 25, 2010. A spokesperson for the United States Department of Defense said "The decision to recall the weapons back to the US was made by commanders on the ground in Afghanistan."<15>

ADS has been designed as non-lethal, non-persistent method of crowd control and perimeter defense, "the gap between shouting and shooting." Other crowd control methods - including tear gas, water cannons slippery foam and rubber bullets - carry implicit dangers of injury or accidental death, and often leave residue or residual material. ADS can be used to disperse a crowd or to move them from an area; a mob can be dispersed or induced to leave the street without damage to personnel or the environment.

[onehandle]

1. What's the Obama Administration doing to stop this? nt

[Chulanowa]

4. Schwarzenegger administration

Once again, everything wrong in the world is not Obama's fault. He's not a fucking wizard.

[inna]

6. well, the good thing is that they decided against using it in Afghanistan, at least...

That would've been bad PR, wouldn't it. Unlikely to win hearts and minds, likely to generate some burnt skin and a lot of resentment. :shrug:

[Chulanowa]

2. Another reason they were removed from Afghanistan...

They're hard to target if you're on anything other than flat clear ground. Or if the target is moving. And they're only marginally useful against crowds. ANyone kicking up a prison riot isn't going to let a little pain stop him from knocking your microwave truck over.

Way to waste Californian's money!

[Recursion]

5. Exactly. You need a phalanx of them

I was in some of the early trials when the Marine Corps played around with them; we were on both sides of the thing at different times. Yes, it hurts like hell. But, it doesn't really do much against an angry crowd, except make them angrier.

[inna]

7. I'm not sure what the ADS has to do with California and Schwarzenegger. (?)

[Recursion]

3. I don't know that "inhumanity" was why the military rejected it

It's actually not that effective at controlling a large crowd, since a few steps to the side gets you out of the beam. The crowd just kind of separates and charges the operator from the sides.