Robocops come to Pittsburgh and bring the latest weaponry with them
By Mike Ferner
Online Journal Contributing Writer
Sep 30, 2009, 00:22
No longer the stuff of disturbing futuristic fantasies, an arsenal
of �crowd control munitions,� including one that reportedly made its debut in
the U.S., was deployed with a massive, overpowering police presence in
Pittsburgh during last week�s G-20 protests.
Nearly 200 arrests were made and civil liberties groups
charged the many thousands of police (most transported on Port Authority buses
displaying �PITTSBURGH WELCOMES THE WORLD�), from as far away as Arizona and
Florida with overreacting . . . and they had plenty of weaponry with which to
do it.
Bean bags fired from shotguns, CS (tear) gas, OC
(Oleoresin Capsicum) spray, flash-bang grenades, batons and, according to local
news reports, for the first time on the streets of America, the Long Range
Acoustic Device (LRAD).
Mounted in the turret of an Armored Personnel Carrier (APC),
I saw the LRAD in action twice in the area of 25th, Penn and Liberty Streets of
Lawrenceville, an old Pittsburgh neighborhood. Blasting a shrill, piercing
noise like a high-pitched police siren on steroids, it quickly swept streets
and sidewalks of pedestrians, merchants and journalists and drove residents
into their homes, but in neither case were any demonstrators present. The APC,
oversized and sinister for a city street, together with lines of police in full
riot gear looking like darkly threatening Michelin Men, made for a scene out of
a movie you didn�t want to be in.
As intimidating as this massive show of armed force and
technology was, the good burghers of Pittsburgh and their fellow citizens in
the Land of the Brave and Home of the Free ain�t seen nothin� yet. Tear gas and
pepper spray are nothing to sniff at and, indeed, have
proven fatal a surprising number of times, but they have now become the old
standbys compared to the list below that�s already at or coming soon to a
police station or National Guard headquarters near you. Proving that �what goes
around, comes around,� some of the new Property Protection Devices were
developed by a network of federally-funded, university-based research
institutes like one in Pittsburgh itself, Penn State�s Institute for Non-Lethal Defense
Technologies.
- Raytheon Corp.�s Active
Denial System, designed for crowd control in combat zones, uses an
energy beam to induce an intolerable
heating sensation, like a hot iron placed on the skin. It is effective
beyond the range of small arms, in excess of 400 meters. Company officials
have been advised they could expand the market by selling a smaller,
tripod-mounted version for police forces.
- M5 Modular
Crowd Control Munition, with a range of 30 meters �is similar in
operation to a claymore mine, but it delivers . . . a strong,
nonpenetrating blow to the body with multiple sub-munitions (600 rubber
balls).�
- Long Range
Acoustic Device or �The Scream,� is a powerful megaphone the size of a
satellite dish that can emit sound �50 times greater than the human
threshold for pain� at close range, causing permanent hearing damage. The L.A.
Times wrote U.S. Marines in Iraq used it in 2004. It can deliver
recorded warnings in Arabic and, on command, emit a piercing tone . . .�[For]
most people, even if they plug their ears, [the device] will produce the
equivalent of an instant migraine,� says Woody Norris, chairman of
American Technology Corp., the San Diego firm that produces the weapon. �It
will knock [some people] on their knees.� CBS News reported in 2005 that
the Israeli
Army first used the device in the field to break up a protest against
Israel�s separation wall. �Protesters covered their ears and grabbed their
heads, overcome by dizziness and nausea, after the vehicle-mounted device
began sending out bursts of audible, but not loud, sound at intervals of
about 10 seconds . . . A military official said the device emits a special
frequency that targets the inner ear.�
- In �Non-lethal
Technologies: An Overview,� Lewer and Davison describe a lengthy
catalog of new weaponry including the �Directed Stick Radiator,� a
hand-held system based on the same technology as The Scream. �It fires
high intensity �sonic bullets� or pulses of sound between 125-150db for a
second or two. Such a weapon could, when fully developed, have the
capacity to knock people off their feet.�
- The Penn State facility is
testing a �Distributed
Sound and Light Array Debilitator,� a.k.a. the �puke ray.� The colors and
rhythm of light are absorbed by the retina and disorient the brain,
blinding the victim for several seconds. In conjunction with disturbing
sounds it can make the person stumble or feel nauseated. Foreign Policy in
Focus reports that the Department of Homeland Security, with $1 million
invested for testing the device, hopes to see it �in the hands of
thousands of policemen, border agents and National Guardsmen� by 2010.
- Spider silk is cited in
the University of Bradford�s Non-Lethal Weapons
Research Project, Report #4 (pg. 20) as an up-and-comer. �A research
collaboration between the University of New Hampshire and the U.S. Army
Natick Research, Development and Engineering Center is looking into the
use of spider silk as a non-lethal �entanglement� material for disabling
people. They have developed a method for producing recombinant spider silk
protein using E. coli and are trying to develop methods to produce large
quantities of these fibres.�
- New Scientist
reports that the (I�m not making this up) Inertial
Capacitive Incapacitator (ICI), developed by the Physical Optics
Corporation of Torrance, California, uses a thin-film storage device
charged during manufacture that only discharges when it strikes the
target. It can be incorporated into a ring-shaped aerofoil and fired from
a standard grenade launcher at low velocity, while still maintaining a
flat trajectory for maximum accuracy.
- Aiming beyond Tasers, the Homeland
Security Advanced Research Projects Agency, (FY 2009 budget: $1B) the
domestic equivalent of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), plans to develop
wireless weapons effective over greater distances, such as in an
auditorium or sports stadium, or on a city street. One such device, the Piezer, uses
piezoelectric crystals that produce voltage when they are compressed. A
12-gauge shotgun fires the crystals, stunning the target with an electric
shock on impact. Lynntech of College Station, Texas, is developing a projectile
Taser that can be fired from a shotgun or 40-mm grenade launcher to
increase greatly the weapon�s current range of seven meters.
- �Off
the Rocker and On the Floor: Continued Development of Biochemical
Incapacitating Weapons,� a report by the Bradford Disarmament Research
Centre revealed that in 1992, the National Institute of Justice contracted
with Lawrence Livermore National Lab to review clinical anesthetics for
use by special ops military forces and police. LLNL concluded the best
option was an opioid, like fentanyl, effective at very low doses compared
to morphine. Combined with a patch soaked in DMSO (dimethylsufoxide, a
solvent) and fired from an air rifle, fentanyl could be delivered to the
skin even through light clothing. Another recommended application for the
drug was mixed with fine powder and dispersed as smoke.
- After upgrades, the
infamous �Puff the Magic Dragon� gunship from the Vietnam War is now the
AC-130. �Non-Lethal
Weaponry: Applications to AC-130 Gunships,� observes that �With the
increasing involvement of US military in operations other than war . . .�
the AC-130 �would provide commanders a full range of non-lethal weaponry
from an airborne platform which was not previously available to them.� The
paper concludes in part that �As the use of non-lethal weapons increases
and it becomes valid and acceptable, more options will become available.�
- Prozac and Zoloft are two
of over 100 pharmaceuticals identified by the Penn State College of
Medicine and the university�s Applied Research Lab for further study as �non-lethal
calmatives.� These Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors (SSRIs), noted
the Penn
State study, � . . . are found to be highly effective for numerous
behavioral disturbances encountered in situations where a deployment of a
non-lethal technique must be considered. This class of pharmaceutical
agents also continues to be under intense development by the
pharmaceutical industry . . . New compounds under development (WO
09500194) are being designed with a faster onset of action. Drug
development is continuing at a rapid rate in this area due to the large
market for the treatment of depression (15 million individuals in North
America) . . . It is likely that an SSRI agent can be identified in the
near future that will feature a rapid rate of onset.�
In Pittsburgh last week, an enormously expensive show of
police and weaponry, intended for �security� of the G20 delegates,
simultaneously shut workers out of downtown jobs for two days, forced gasping
students and residents back into their dormitories and homes, and turned
journalists� press passes into quaint, obsolete reminders of a bygone time.
Most significant of all, however, was what Witold Walczak,
legal director of the Pennsylvania ACLU, told the Associated Press: �It�s not
just intimidation, it�s disruption and in some cases outright prevention of
peaceful protesters being able to get their message out.�
Mike
Ferner is a writer from Ohio and president of Veterans For Peace.
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