BC cops get ‘directed acoustic device’
p2pnet news view | Off Topic:- “What makes the LRAD product unique is its ability to transmit your message with exceptional voice intelligibility and tonal clarity in a highly directional beam, even with significant ambient noise,” says the text accompanying the pic on the right.
It goes on:
“The directionality of the LRAD device reduces the risk of exposing nearby personnel or peripheral bystanders to harmful audio levels.”
LRAD is short for long-range hailing and warning, directed acoustic device.
Clearly, “reduces the risk” of exposure to “to harmful audio levels” means the risk does exist.
The quotes come from the site of LRAD maker the American Technology Corporation and now it seems LRAD is coming to British Columbia and, “Vancouver police won’t rule out using a new crowd-control device as a weapon capable of emitting loud, painful blasts of sound that are potentially damaging to hearing,” says the Vancouver Sun, continuing:
“But police spokesman Const. Lindsey Houghton insisted Tuesday that the Long Range Acoustical Device was bought principally to replace ‘antiquated hand-held megaphones’ as a tool to communicate in emergencies and for crowd control.
Asked whether police would ever use it for anything more than communication, Houghton said, “We can’t rule out anything.”
In another story, “Aside from what happened in Pittsburgh at the G-20 conference a month ago, it was only repressive regimes in the Third World that were making use of this,” the Canadian Press has Robert Holmes, president of the British Columbia Civil Liberties Association, saying.
It goes on, “The long-range acoustic device, or LRAD, emits sound waves strong enough to cause intense pain, damaged hearing and temporarily disrupted vision. There has been no safety testing of the weapon in Canada, Holmes said.”
And the story has Houghton protesting the LRAD is “nothing new since the force has long had access to noise-emitting devices that can subdue crowds”.
They’re “the sirens on our police cars,” he said.
With a Taser in one hand and an LRAD in the other …
First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win ~ Mahatma Gandhi
Vancouver Sun – New hailer is a loudspeaker, not a crowd-control device, police say, November 11, 2009
Canadian Press – Vancouver police’s new weapon could pose risk, November 11, 2009
Use free p2pnet newsfeeds for your site. It`s really easy!
Subscribe to p2pnet.net | | rss feed: http://p2pnet.net/p2p.rss | | Mobile – http://p2pnet.net/index-wml.php
Net access blocked by government restrictions? Use Psiphon from the Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto. Go here for details.
November 14th, 2009 at 5:00 pm
I cannot believe a civilized country would turn this on its people.
I’ve only ever heard of it used on pirates in the past. (The killing and kidnapping kind, like off the coast of Somalia)
Maybe the CRIA/RIAA is going to lobby to have it deployed against file sharers. It seems to fit into their strategy perfectly. After all, you won’t want to download/share music if you’re deaf.
November 14th, 2009 at 8:33 pm
The fuzz will counter with “We can use our fuzz box, I mean LRAD, because Manuel Noriega didn’t go deaf! And anyway, nobody stopped cops from tasering.”
November 14th, 2009 at 10:21 pm
LRADs, Tasers, microwave guns. . .
For LRAD you need hearplugs. For Taser and microwave guns you need conductive clothes easy to make with aluminum foil or copper wires.
Let them waste their money and time with this stuff, cowardly persecuting the harmless innocents
while we shall courageously stick to our guns.
November 15th, 2009 at 1:16 am
“you need conductive clothes easy to make with aluminum foil or copper wires. ”
I anxiously await your test results- please video tape this!
November 15th, 2009 at 2:21 am
Guns can destroy these things.
November 15th, 2009 at 4:49 pm
“I anxiously await your test results- please video tape this!”
See you in the street cop!