US police could get 'pain beam' weapons

[Leftest]

Source NewScientist:

The research arm of the US Department of Justice is working on two portable non-lethal weapons that inflict pain from a distance using beams of laser light or microwaves, with the intention of putting them into the hands of police to subdue suspects.

The two devices under development by the civilian National Institute of Justice both build on knowledge gained from the Pentagon's controversial Active Denial System (ADS) - first demonstrated in public last year, which uses a 2-metre beam of short microwaves to heat up the outer layer of a person's skin and cause pain.

Like the ADS, the new portable devices will also heat the skin, but will have beams only a few centimetres across. They are designed to elicit what the Pentagon calls a "repel response" - a strong urge to escape from the beam.

~snip~

Human rights groups say that equipping police with such weapons would add to the problems posed by existing "non-lethals" such as Tasers. Security expert Steve Wright at Leeds Metropolitan University describes the new weapons as "torture at the touch of a button".



http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn16339-us-police-could-get-pain-beam-weapons.html

[lala_rawraw]

1. we have an entire national mechanism

geared not toward maintaining the quality of life or creating life, but with pain, and death. it is very sad

[DJ13]

2. I think my mother in law already has one of those

:silly:

[Mind_your_head]

4. LOL - I *understand* that comment

sadly, :rofl:

[Webster Green]

3. Fuck the goddamned pigs!

It's time to put a stop to all this escalating police brutality. :mad:

[KamaAina]

5. Time to put on one of these

:tinfoilhat:

edit: and then bow down to our new overlords :evilgrin:

[LynnTheDem]

6. weapon of mass destruction; and when the old, the infirm, the infants can't get out of the way

they will be "cooked".

What a government will use against others, it will eventually use against its' own people.

Wake up, America.

[shadowknows69]

10. Wide awake and scared shitless.

[Deja Q]

7. You mean, arranged marriages?

:scared:

[notesdev]

8. Suddenly the tinfoil hats

don't seem so crazy.

A little bit of reflective material and that expensive pain gun is as effective as a flashlight. Call it the Renyolds Revolution.

[DemBones DemBones]

9. Disgusting. Just disgusting. nt

[salguine]

11. To begin with, those things aren't non-lethal; they can inflict

burns serious enough to be fatal.

I'm normally on the side of law and order in crowd-control situations, but this crosses a line. If these things were ever deployed, I'll bet Molotov cocktails would fix them.

[Fumesucker]

12. Just do what the nice policman says and there is nothing to worry about..

There will be a Democrat in the White House very soon and there will be nothing to fear from government again, government is only to be feared when Republicans run it into the ground.



Poe's law: Without a winking smiley or other blatant display of humor, it is impossible to create a parody of Fundamentalism that SOMEONE won't mistake for the real thing