How dare the Israeli forces use non violent weapons of this type. they should follow the Palestinian approach of convincing gullible teenagers to blow up themselves and innocent children in the name of religion

Did you just say non-violent weapon, I think you did!

also, dear Jonathan, you seem to have fallen into the trap of confusing some Palestinian extremists with all Palestinians.

Please don't feed the trolls - this was a blatant one. Posts saying things like 'fuck off jonathan' don't help any discussion and will likely be hidden (from experience of other such comments on newswire).

Just ignore them and they will go away... I hope.

"Palestinians have already learned to neutralize the Scream by stuffing
cotton in their ears."


Who ever said that arabs were dumb?

I wonder if there are any helpfull linx to the real effects of a weapon like this,
To cause nausea it obviously resonates inner ear parts, then it may as well resonate braintissue or something similar.
Its known that previous versions of this kind, invoked neural damage.
I'm sorry to say, but i don't believe israelians would be much bothered by long time side effects on protesting palestines health.
So.. are there any references or known studys?

nobody has called the poster a nutter...

or recommended they take off their tin foil hat

many of us have been warning of this type
of 'non-lethal' weapon

for a few years now


electro-magnetic crowd control
silent sound technology
directed energy weapons

now ask yourselves

if this machinery can be calibrated to
induce pain

what else can it be used for?

the next time you are feeling a

'bit low'

or

'not myself today'

flu-like symptoms
tinitus

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

flashback
August 15, 2002

If all goes according to current plans, the United States military will soon field a number of new weapons systems seemingly more at home in science fiction than the battlefield. Known as directed energy weapons (DEW), they will soon make a transition from highly-classified research programs to fielded systems - new additions to the growing arsenal of high-tech weapons at the disposal of the United States and her allies.


Currently, two major types of DEWs are under evaluation for operational capability: laser weapons and high-power microwave (HPM) devices, the latter of which will likely see service first, though both are probably less than five years away.


High-power microwave weapons use broad beams of microwave radiation, similar to radar beams, in short bursts to affect their targets. At low settings, HPM could, theoretically, be used as a non-lethal dispersion weapon intended to break-up mobs and groups of enemy soldiers by heating the water in living cells to create an uncomfortable sensation. No research data exists on the long-term effects of exposure, but it is generally believed to be harmless, in the long-term. At higher power levels, HPM is an extremely effective antielectronic weapon - a pulse only a few milliseconds in length can destroy or cripple sensitive electronics in computers, communications networks and power plants, amongst others.


Ideally, HPM will be used in place of precision-guided munitions to disable high-value targets or installations located in populated areas, in an effort to reduce civilian casualties. Mike Booen, head of Raytheon Electronic Systems' directed energy weapons program, explained to Aviation Week & Space Technology, "We want to replace high explosives with directed energy weapons. Any munitions or platforms that carry high explosives, we want to replace with DEW. We want to enable new missions whereÉ high explosives [are called for but cannot be used] because of problems of collateral damage or the need for a facility after the conflict."


Also under consideration for HPM applications is the suppression of enemy air defenses (SEAD), a role for which the 'Wild Weasel' aircraft were made famous in Vietnam and the Gulf War. Because of the highly sensitive nature of the guidance systems in most surface to air missiles (SAMs) and the general reliance on localized radar for fire-control, most air defense systems appear highly susceptible to high-power microwave pulses, meaning that SEAD missions will likely be less dangerous and even more effective. Environmentally dangerous targets, such as chemical or biological weapon production facilities would also be prime targets for HPM weapons, creating the ability to strike without fear of releasing deadly toxins into the atmosphere.


Current restrictions on power output limit the effective range of HPM devices to a distance in excess of approximately 1,000 feet, though researchers are optimistic that the range will increase dramatically over the next six months. Despite this limitation, HPM has one advantage over conventional weapons in being able to reach targets deep underground. The CIA has noted, in recent years, a sharp increase in sales of Earth-boring and excavation machinery to Middle Eastern nations, an indication of likely construction of hardened underground bunkers designed to defeat the current generation of U.S. 'bunker buster' bombs, the laser-guided GBU-28 and the GPS satellite-guided BLU-82. Because even the deepest bunkers require power, water, air and communications with the outside world, HMP can reach them when explosive munitions cannot. Using antennas, plumbing, electrical conduit or even ventilation shafts as a conductive medium, HPM pulses can travel deep underground to disrupt systems in hardened shelters.


Current plans are to field the first high-power microwave systems onboard expendable, single-use platforms, such as the Tomahawk cruise missile, the Joint Air to Surface Standoff Missile (JASSM), and the fighter-launched BQM-145A unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV). It is believed that the United States is developing and manufacturing HPM modules for the current inventory of these systems in anticipation of their use in the ongoing 'global war on terrorism' or against Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, in the event of another conflict with Iraq.


Future plans involve the installation of HPM systems onboard the proposed Air Force X-45 and Navy X-47 unmanned combat aerial vehicles (UCAVs). Although proposals have illustrated large HPM arrays mounted on the side of C-130 Hercules cargo aircraft in arrangements similar to that of the AC-130 Spectre gunship, concerns that HPM might interfere with avionics and flight control systems will likely prohibit their installation on manned aircraft. Additionally, a number of land- and sea-based applications are under consideration, including a proposal by the Marine Corps to mount a large HPM array atop an HMMWV (Humvee) for use in urban operations and crowd dispersal. The Navy, similarly, has plans to test HPM applications aboard ships as a defense against anti-ship missiles.


Laser weapons, though currently lagging behind HPM in regards to initial operational readiness, are far more likely to be installed aboard manned aircraft. Lasers would be used, in place of precision-guided smart-bombs to destroy ground targets. Though most effective against vehicles, storage dumps and non-hardened structures, lasers could be used for a variety of missions which call for precision strikes with minimal damage to surrounding areas and structures. Moreover, lasers may see use as an addition to the side-firing artillery cannons and gatling guns installed on Air Force AC-130 gunships. Unlike high-power microwave beams, lasers, operating at a lower-frequency, would require a pulse two to four seconds long in order to inflict damage at longer ranges.


Lasers possess the inherent advantage of a virtually inexhaustable ammunition supply and a firing rate limited only by the need to cool components. Additionally, lasers employed as a strike weapon also have the advantage of being largely undetectable. Their use, therefore, would not only cause damage, but chaos and confusion within enemy forces and commanders. "There's no huge explosion associated with its employment," a Lockheed Martin official told Aviation Week & Space Technology. "There are no pieces and parts left behind that someone can analyze to say, 'This came from the U.S.' The damage is very localized, and it's hard to tell where it came from and when it happened. It's all pretty mysterious."


Multiple programs designed to implement laser-based weapons are currently underway, including the Air Force's airborne laser system (ABL), which will use a large megawatt-class chemical laser to destroy ballistic missiles in flight. Though chemical lasers are currently the most effective solution, the focus for the future remains on solid-state lasers, which are more compact, more robust and easier to maintain in field conditions. Boeing is working with U.S. Special Operations Command (SOCOM) on a system known as the Advanced Tactical Laser (ATL), a medium-power laser device. To be mounted aboard the CV-22 Osprey tiltrotor, the AC-130 Spectre, or the MH-47 Chinook helicopter, the ATL will be employed in both lethal and non-lethal applications at ranges of up to 10 miles. As noted by JINSA in an earlier article, Raytheon Electronic Systems is developing a solid-state laser system for use on the Lockheed-Martin F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, which will first reach operational status around 2010.


The largest hurdle currently facing the introduction of laser devices within the U.S. military is that of power - current solid-state lasers lack it, producing only a tenth of the energy believed necessary to be effective at useful ranges. Expectations are that new battery technology and elements of the electric drive system being designed for the Navy's advanced destroyer program, known as DD(X), will enable portable lasers to reach 100kw - the minimum energy output required to inflict damage - within the next few years.


Although the United States is currently furthest along regarding DEW research, it is not alone. Both the United Kingdom and Israel have significant DEW programs, and Germany is reportedly considering its own research program. Britain, is pursuing similar systems to that of the United States, though the short-term focus is more skewed toward developing reusable delivery methods such as UAVs and re-deployable cruise missiles. Israel, on the other hand, is limiting research to purely defensive systems, primarily missile defense, out of concern that the use of offensive DEW weapons, such as HPM beams, could lead to unforeseen legal consequences as a result of unanticipated collateral damage. The murky legal situation that has led to this cautious approach will not likely be cleared up until after DEWs are fielded, and possibly even until after they have been used for the first time.


Though most defense officials and industry leaders state that directed energy weapons will not likely see operational status for four to five years, there is mounting evidence that the United States is pushing hard to procure a large number of systems in case of a near-term conflict with Iraq. In such a conflict, DEWs could see widespread use, destroying command, control and communication (C3) networks and causing power interruptions - effectively part of a major evolutionary step of the network-centric strategy that employed high-tech power and communications disruption techniques, first introduced during Operation Desert Storm, more than a decade ago.


Written by JINSA Research & Communications Manager, Daniel V. Smith.
 http://www.jinsa.org/articles/articles.html/function/view/categoryid/164/documentid/1667/history/3,2360,656,164,1667


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Sweeping stun guns to target crowds

19:00 16 June 2004
Exclusive from New Scientist Print Edition
David Hambling




Weapons that can incapacitate crowds of people by sweeping a lightning-like beam of electricity across them are being readied for sale to military and police forces in the US and Europe.


At present, commercial stun guns target one person at a time, and work only at close quarters. The new breed of non-lethal weapons can be used on many people at once and operate over far greater distances.


But human rights groups are appalled by the fact that no independent safety tests have been carried out, and by their potential for indiscriminate use.


The weapons are designed to address the perceived shortcomings of the Taser, the electric-shock gun already used by 4000 police departments in the US and undergoing trials with some police forces in the UK.


It hits the victim with two darts that trail current-carrying wires, which limit its range to a maximum of seven metres (see graphic). As a single shot, short-range weapon, the Taser is of little use in crowd control. And Tasers have no effect on vehicles.


Ionised gas


These limitations are beginning to be overcome. Engineers working for the US Department of Defense's research division, DARPA, and defence companies in Europe have been working out how to create an electrically conductive path between a gun and a target without using wires.


A weapon under development by Rheinmetall, based in Dorf, Germany, creates a conducting channel by using a small explosive charge to squirt a stream of tiny conductive fibres through the air at the victim (New Scientist print edition, 24 May 2003).


Meanwhile, Xtreme Alternative Defense Systems (XADS), based in Anderson, Indiana, will be one of the first companies to market another type of wireless weapon. Instead of using fibres, the $9000 Close Quarters Shock Rifle projects an ionised gas, or plasma, towards the target, producing a conducting channel. It will also interfere with electronic ignition systems and stop vehicles.


"We will be able to fire a stream of electricity like water out of a hose at one or many targets in a single sweep," claims XADS president Peter Bitar.


Solid-state lasers


The gun has been designed for the US Marine Corps to use for crowd control and security purposes and is due out in 2005. It is based on early, unwieldy technology and has a range of only three metres, but an operator can debilitate multiple targets by sweeping it across them for "as long as there is an input power source," says Bitar.


XADS is also planning a more advanced weapon which it hopes will have a range of 100 metres or more. Instead of firing ionised gas, it will probably use a powerful laser to ionise the air itself. The idea has been around for decades, says LaVerne Schlie, a laser expert at the US Air Force Research Lab in Kirtland, New Mexico. It has only become practical with advances in high-power solid-state lasers.


"Before, it took a laser about the size of two trucks," says Schlie. "Now we can do it with something that fits on a tabletop."


The laser pulse must be very intense, but can be brief. So the makers of the weapons plan to use a UV laser to fire a 5-joule pulse lasting just 0.4 picoseconds - equating to a momentary power of more than 10 million megawatts.


This intense pulse - which is said not to harm the eyes - ionises the air, producing long, thread-like filaments of glowing plasma that can be sustained by repeating the pulse every few milliseconds. This plasma channel is then used to deliver a shock to the victims similar to a Taser's 50,000-volt, 26-watt shock.


Instrument of torture


HSV Technologies of San Diego, California is also working on stun and vehicle-stopping shock weapons with ranges of over 100 metres. And another company, Ionatron of Tuscon, Arizona, is due to supply a prototype wireless vehicle-mounted weapon to the US Department of Defense by the end of 2004.


But the advent of wireless stun weapons has horrified human rights groups. Robin Coupland of the Red Cross says they risk becoming a new instrument of torture. And Brian Wood of Amnesty International says the long-range stun guns could "inflict pain and other suffering on innocent bystanders".


And there are safety concerns. Of the 30,000 times US police officers have fired Tasers, in 40 instances people stunned by them later died. The deaths have been attributed to factors such as overdoses of drugs and alcohol, or fighting with officers, rather than the electric shock.


In a statement, Taser International chief Rick Smith said: "In every single case the medical examiner has attributed the direct cause of death to causes other than the Taser." Amnesty is not convinced, however, and wants an independent study of the effects of all existing and emerging electric-shock weapons.

 http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn6014




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US: Torture by Taser

by Peter Gorman, Fort Worth Weekly
June 24th, 2005





Robert Guerrero may have died because he wouldn't come out of a closet.

The small-time crook had been looking to steal some electricity. When he tried to illegally reconnect a neighbor's electrical meter at the North View apartment complex near the Fort Worth Stockyards last November, someone called the cops. And when the officers arrived, someone else pointed them to the closet in Apartment M where he was hiding.

Guerrero, 21, wasn't a violent criminal. His rap sheet was littered with convictions for things like misdemeanor theft and burglary of a coin-operated machine. Normally, theft of electricity won't even get you arrested - just reported to the electric company. But when Fort Worth police arrived at the apartment on Clinton Street that afternoon, they treated Guerrero like a dangerous character.

Two officers entered the apartment and pulled open the door to the closet, where Guerrero was hiding under a black plastic trash bag. Officer P.R. Genualdo, a six-year veteran, told him to step out of the closet. When the 143-pound Guerrero refused, Genualdo unholstered his Taser and shot him in the chest, sending electricity through Guerrero's body. A police report of the incident indicated that Genualdo held the Taser's trigger down for 10 seconds - double the normal length of time. Worse, in the next minute he jolted Guerrero three more times with five-second blasts before pulling him from the closet floor.

A few minutes after the officers pulled him from the closet, Guerrero stopped breathing. Neither the officers nor paramedics could get his heart started again, and Guerrero was declared dead when an ambulance got him to John Peter Smith Hospital a short while later.

The Tarrant County Medical Examiner's Office later listed the cause of death as heart failure brought on by "acute cocaine overdose," but a member of the ME's staff -who asked not to be named - told Fort Worth Weekly that "the amount of cocaine found in Guerrero's blood would not normally have caused him to have heart failure."

What about the Taser hit? Manufacturers of the Taser maintain that no one has ever died from their "nonlethal" weapon, which is zooming in popularity among police agencies. But the Taser that hit Guerrero that day was no minor-league cattle prod. It delivered a 50,000-volt lightning strike to Guerrero's chest like a Mack truck - and delivered that jolt four times.

His was one of two deaths following Taser use by Fort Worth police in the last year. The other Taser victim, Midland architect Eric Hammock, died in April after he ran from police, tried to take on an officer, and ended up suffering heart failure - like Guerrero, after getting hit repeatedly with a Taser while he had cocaine in his system. The Fort Worth cases are part of a tide of Taser-related deaths that is rising with the weapon's popularity - more than 5,000 police agencies across the country have purchased them since 2000. In a massive report released late last year, Amnesty International documented hundreds of cases in the last three years in which Taser-happy police used the weapon on everyone from disturbed children to old men and women who didn't follow orders fast enough to a Florida man - strapped down on a hospital bed - who wouldn't provide a urine sample.

Fort Worth officers, who all receive at least a two-second jolt as part of their training with the Taser, are supposed to refrain from using the weapon until they face "active resistance" from a suspect - which could include fighting, fleeing, or showing a weapon. They are also supposed to limit the blasts to five seconds. Genualdo, who faced no such resistance from Guerrero, was suspended for 16 days without pay, both for using the Taser at all in that situation and for delivering a 10-second jolt. The second officer present received a three-day suspension.

Such punishments are rare. In similar cases around the country, Taser abuse has been found to violate no police policy. Despite the explicit rules that most law enforcement agencies follow about employing various levels of force, police in many parts of the country are using the devices, not like potentially death-dealing weapons, but more like light taps from the old beat cop's baton - as if they were capable only of producing a little pain and punishment to encourage obedience. Meanwhile, a growing number of those hit with the Tasers, like Robert Guerrero, are turning up dead.

Fort Worth Police spokesman Dean Sullivan got shocked with a Taser as part of his training before being allowed to carry one. When the bolt hits, "you just lock up. There is no fighting it. Imagine the worst charley horse you've ever had in your whole life, and now imagine it from your head to your toes," the lieutenant said. "It will definitely get your attention. And it hurts. It really, really hurts. But as soon as it's over, it's over. You can function and think and move. You don't want to get it again. It is hard to imagine someone needing to get hit more than once."

Since the 1950s, guards at jails and prisons have used stun batons - cattle prods - and stun belts on prisoners considered to be dangerous. Those devices carry a jolt of about 5,000 to 10,000 volts. Then in the early 1970s, police began using early-generation TASERS - an acronym for Thomas A. Swift's Electric Rifle. The punch these early Tasers carried was equivalent to or slightly stronger than that of a stun baton.

But those early Tasers were a far cry - a long, agonized scream, victims might say - from the powerful weapons being used by police today. In 2000, TASER International of Arizona introduced the M26, which the company touted as being nearly four times more powerful than its predecessors. Looking like something out of a sci-fi movie, the gun shoots two fish-hook-barbed electrical wires that can travel up to 21 feet and deliver a 50,000-volt shock in a cycle that lasts five seconds. It can also be fired by placing the weapon in direct contact with clothing or skin. The shock renders the recipient instantly immobile, and the five-second cycle may be increased if the officer continues to hold the trigger down. The M26, with bright yellow striping across a black body, comes equipped with "built-in laser sights and an onboard data chip that records the time and date of each firing to back up an officer's use of force reports."

Three years after the M26 came the X26, offering "even greater stopping power." The company now markets both models worldwide and has sold them to more than 7,000 police agencies as well as to some units in the United States military. TASER International says the weapons are intended for use against "dangerous, combative, or high-risk subjects that may be impervious to other non-lethal means," but also says the relatively low-amperage of the electric current (.004 amperes) prevents them from causing permanent damage to those the guns are used on. Tasers, the company literature suggests, lower the risks for suspects as well as police, because the guns give law enforcement officers a "less-lethal" form of force to incapacitate and then subdue an unruly or dangerous person. The company tagline, in fact, is "Saving Lives Every Day."

But for a weapon whose makers crow about its "stopping power," Tasers occupy a strange place in the police rulebook. Law enforcement officers learn what is called a "use of force continuum" to determine what means or weapons they may use in different situations. The "continuum" begins with simple police presence, then moves up to issuing commands, then the use of open hands, and after that, pepper or other chemical sprays, closed hands (including elbows and knees and other takedown moves), the use of a hard baton, and finally, the use of lethal force.

You might think Tasers would fit somewhere near the "lethal force" end of that list, right before a gun. Instead, however, many police agencies place Tasers immediately after the "issuing commands" force level - which suggests to officers that using a Taser is less serious even than a push or pepper spray. Which also means that if an officer asks you to produce your driver's license and you ask "Why?" rather than immediately complying with the order, there's a chance, in some jurisdictions, that you could, within their rules, be hit with a Taser for refusing the command. That's in part how Tasers have begun to be used, not as serious, life-threatening weapons, but as a bully's tool of compliance, something to get people in line - with sometimes egregious consequences.

In Florida, Orlando police figured Antonio Wheeler for a drug dealer. When they stopped him on the night of March 4 this year, he ran. Police gave chase, and when they caught him, Wheeler made the mistake of telling officers he'd swallowed some cocaine. (Officers had found a Chapstick tube where Wheeler had been stopped, filled with 0.8 grams of the drug.)

"Wheeler was taken to the hospital emergency room after he admitted he'd eaten cocaine because the police on the scene didn't know how much he'd eaten," Sgt. Brian Gillian, public information officer for the Orlando Police Department told the Weekly. "The officers were actually trying to save his life there, protect him from overdose."

The 18-year-old was handcuffed to a hospital bed and ordered to give a urine sample - already a violation of his constitutional rights. When he didn't produce one, he was strapped to the bed, and a nurse started to insert a catheter into his penis. Not surprisingly, Wheeler began thrashing around. At that point, Officer Peter Linnenkamp jumped on the bed and put his knees on Wheeler's chest. When even that failed to get the desired results, Linnenkamp pressed his police-issue Taser against Wheeler's leg - not once, but twice. "After the second shock," Linnenkamp wrote in his report, Wheeler "calmed down enough to be given the portable urinal."

Wheeler had another version. He was terrified, he said. "I basically felt like I was being raped."

Within six weeks, Linnenkamp's actions had been reviewed internally by the Orlando Police Department, and he was indicted for assault. The 18-year veteran of the department could lose his job and pension if he's found guilty. It's possible, but less likely, that he'll do jail time.

The only thing surprising to Thomas Luka about Wheeler's case is that an officer is actually being prosecuted for what happened. The Florida defense attorney has brought suit against several officers in Orlando and two neighboring counties over allegations of Taser abuse (though he isn't representing Wheeler). He said that, in agencies where Tasers are used frequently, the weapon has changed the way police work is done, and not for the better. "Cops now approach suspects with a completely hands-off investigative technique," he said. "They used to have to talk with people, do some real police work. Now it's 'Do what we say or we'll Taser you.' The cops are way over the top in their use of these things despite what they tell you," he said. "A lot of them are just plain Taser-happy. And the police policies justify that approach."

Among the cases Luka is handling is one in which police were called to a domestic disturbance involving a father and his adult son. When the officers arrived the argument was over. Nonetheless, the police ordered the father to leave the house. "He told the police he wasn't leaving because it was his house," Luka said. "So he turns around to walk to the kitchen, and they taser him in the back."

It gets worse, the lawyer said. "I've got one guy tasered 12 times. The police report says he wouldn't follow their commands. How could he? He was on the ground nearly paralyzed."

None of Luka's cases have been to trial yet. But David Henderson, an attorney in Bethel, Alaska, won a $1.08 million judgment for a client last October for torture in connection with Taser use. "My client was drunk, and he took his aunt's snowmobile without permission," Henderson said. "She sees it gone and calls the police, and they pick my guy up and put him in the local one-cell jail - which just happens to be guarded by his cousin. So in the morning, his cousin lets him grab a smoke outside, and he decides to wander off to go visit his girlfriend. A trooper goes to apprehend him, and my client resists. The trooper tasers him, my client falls down in the snow, and the trooper gets on top of him and handcuffs him. All legal so far. My client, by the way, weighs 140 and is hung over; the trooper is six-four and weighs 220.

"But then," continued Henderson, "the trooper tasers him seven additional times - while he's on the ground, face in the snow, and handcuffed. That's not police work, that's torture."

At the trial, Henderson said, a representative of TASER International "testified that the Taser couldn't leave scars. Well, my client was covered in them. And the fellow says, 'Those are not scars, those are just skin discolorations.'"

The Bethel Police Department, which is appealing the judgment, claimed that Henderson's client refused to cooperate, which is why he had to be hit with the Taser so many times.

Nonsense, Henderson said. "If that trooper didn't have the Taser, he'd have had to do real police work - just wait my client out 'til he settled down. Now the police are all in a hurry to go get that next café latte, and the Taser makes things quick.

"To be honest, there are situations where they're useful, but too often, giving a police officer a Taser is like giving a kid a new squirt gun," he said. "Doesn't matter that you tell him not to use it, he just has to go out and try it. And that's when it can become a tool of torture. In my opinion it's like giving police a portable electric chair."

The cases recounted by Luka and Henderson are anything but rare. In the 97-page document released last Nov. 30, Amnesty International reported finding hundreds of instances between 2001 and 2004 in which the use of a Taser was at best a poor choice of force, at worst criminal. Among the most egregious cases:

- In Baytown, Texas, "a man who had reportedly suffered two epileptic seizures was touch-stunned in an ambulance when, confused and disoriented, he resisted while being strapped onto a stretcher." The same police department blasted Naomi Autin - 59 years old and disabled - three times with a Taser for banging on her brother's door with a brick. Autin was collecting mail for her brother while he was away and became worried after she couldn't reach his house-sitter. She was the one who had called the police for help. In both cases, the officers were cleared of any wrongdoing, and no disciplinary action was taken against them.

- In Oregon, police used a Taser on people "after stopping them for nonviolent offenses, such as littering and jaywalking, selling plastic flowers without a license, and failing to go away when told to." Amnesty also reported that Oregon police jolted an elderly man after he dropped "onto his hands and knees instead of lying flat on the floor, as ordered by police." And 71-year-old Eunice Crowder was hit with a Taser jolt after ignoring police orders not to enter a trailer where Portland city employees had placed rubbish they had legally removed from her yard. Crowder won a $145,000 settlement from the city after it was learned that two officers "struck Ms. Crowder (who was blind in one eye) in the head with a Taser, dislodging her prosthetic right eye from its socket. She was also tasered in the back and on the breast as she lay on the ground."

- In Mesa, Ariz., police shocked an unarmed suspect in a house burglary who had climbed into a tree to escape from four guard dogs. The man fell, landing on his head and leaving him partially paralyzed. In Chandler, Ariz., police told a man who was "standing on the sidewalk yelling and screaming at the sky" to be quiet. He continued screaming and was Tasered. He fell to the ground but "as the subject began to get up, the Taser was cycled a second time."

-In Seattle, police shot a 16-year-old four times with a Taser on the back of the neck when the car in which he was a passenger was stopped for a faulty headlight. Police decided to frisk the youngster outside the car because they claimed he "made furtive movements in the back seat" and used the Taser on him repeatedly when he resisted.

- In Kansas City, Mo., a 66-year-old African-American woman was tasered twice in her home after she resisted being handed a ticket for honking her car horn at a police car.

- In Colorado, "a man was shocked in the genitals for continuing to resist" - while he was already handcuffed and sitting in the back of a police car. In another case in that state, police took an apparently intoxicated and possibly suicidal man to a hospital where he was put into restraints on a bed. The man, who was screaming for his wife, was "told to be quiet, and when he did not comply [the officer] placed the Taser against his chest and tasered him."

In Guerrero's death in Fort Worth, Officer Genualdo was at least disciplined. But in the cases cited by Amnesty, no police officers were found guilty of any wrongdoing. Amnesty did note that in several instances, following highly publicized and controversial Taser use, law enforcement agencies tightened their officers' restrictions on future use - in most cases by prohibiting Taser use on those who simply don't comply with police commands or offer passive resistance. Some agencies have implemented rules against using Tasers on children, pregnant women, and the elderly. None however, restrict the weapon's use to potentially life-threatening situations. Amnesty officials noted that it is still a common practice in many police agencies to use the high-powered Tasers "to secure compliance in routine arrest and non-life-threatening situations."

"Initially, our policy was that if someone resisted arrest - even passively, like not presenting hands when told to - we could use the Taser," said Orlando Police Sgt. Gilliam. "Now, in light of reports that some officers have overstepped that boundary, we've changed the policy to where we won't use it unless they're actively resisting arrest - not just talking, but getting physical with us. But that includes fleeing. We're not gung-ho on using it. ... Most of us, anyway."

Still, the abuses continue. In January, officers assigned to security for the Fiesta Bowl college football game in Salt Lake City used the Taser on at least 24 fans who tried to rush the field in celebration after their team won.

And in Houston, the police department has issued 3,600 Tasers to its officers since November 2004. Added to the 100 such weapons already in use there, the city has the highest number of Tasers of any department in the country. And officers seem to be using them right and left.

Between November 2004, when the Houston Police Department began issuing Tasers to a large segment of the force, and the end of January 2005, cops in that city used their Tasers 194 times, according to Randall Kallinen, president of the Houston chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union - including 14 times when people were blasted simply for "verbal aggression." That means, he said, "that, in the first three months of having these new Tasers ... HPD thought being told to 'jump in the lake' by someone they were talking to was reason enough to taser them."

The weapons "were sold to the city with the promise that excessive police force against civilians would diminish, particularly shootings," he said. "Well, in 2004 there were 10 civilians shot by HPD. It's now June, and we have the Tasers, and while we still have had five civilians shot by HPD to date this year, we also have had several hundred uses of Tasers - which means that deadly force against civilians is remaining the same, but excessive force is increasing wildly."

Tasers are to batons what bombs are to hand-to-hand combat, he said. "With the baton the officer hears the sound, watches you grimace, hears your scream. With the Taser, you just fall down and shake. You can't scream. It gives the officer a more comfortable distance from the experience."

Despite lawsuits and some highly publicized fatalities, Taser abuse by police seems to be growing rather than diminishing. Probably the most disturbing fact in the Amnesty report is that deaths following Taser attacks seem to be rapidly increasing. According to Amnesty, between 2001 and 2004 more than 70 deaths occurred in the United States and Canada to people in police custody within hours or days of their being hit with a Taser. But in 2005, those kinds of deaths reached 103 just by March - and there were at least two additional deaths in April, including Eric Hammock's in Fort Worth.

While TASER International has repeatedly released reports to the press saying that no Taser has ever been proven to be a "direct cause" of a fatality, Amnesty International points out that "some medical experts believe Taser shocks may exacerbate a risk of heart failure in cases where people are agitated or under the influence of drugs or have underlying health problems."

In reviewing the information on 74 deaths reported since 2001 - including autopsy reports on 21 - Amnesty points out that nearly all the deaths occurred in males between 18 and 59 years old, of varying ethnic origin. Most of them involved the M26 Taser, which is used much more frequently than the newer X26. The majority of those who died following Taser shocks had high quantities of drugs or alcohol in their systems, and "violent struggle, positional asphyxia, and excited delirium were cited in some cases as a sole or contributory factor leading to sudden cardiac arrest." Amnesty investigators, however, believe that the Taser had a role in at least some of the deaths, suggesting the shock "could have exacerbated breathing difficulties caused by factors such as violent exertion, drug intoxication, or other restraint devices, triggering or contributing to cardiac arrest."

Medical examiners in at least five cases included the Taser as a contributing factor in the deaths, though that number could be higher, according to an independent forensic pathologist who reviewed 16 of the autopsy reports for Amnesty.

Most disturbing is the fact that few of the people who died were engaged in violent criminal activity, which would normally be an assumption in deaths while in police custody. "In only 11 cases were suspects reported to be armed," the Amnesty report noted. "While most of the deceased had been engaged in disturbed or agitated behavior, and some were reportedly combative during arrest, few appeared to pose an immediate threat of substantial physical harm at the time force was used."

Several deaths, like Guerrero's, occurred after incidents began with suspects being tasered while passively resisting arrest or "refusing to comply immediately with an order." Those cases include one in which James Borden, 47, a mentally disturbed man, was jolted with a Taser six times for refusing to step out of his shorts while being booked into a jail in Monroe County, Ga. - and several of those jolts were administered while he was pinned down by four officers. He died almost immediately. Glenn Richard Leyba, 37, of Glendale, Colo., was blasted five times while he lay on the floor of his home in a drug-induced stupor. He died while being wheeled to an ambulance. Gordon Randall Jones, 37, was jolted at least 12 times with a Taser after he'd been disruptive outside a hotel in Orange County, Fla. "and refused to leave and pulled away from deputies." After the 12th hit, he accompanied officers to an ambulance and died en route to the hospital.

More than 25 of those who died after being attacked with Tasers had a history of mental illness; several others were "ill through drug intoxication," and at least two more had been shocked immediately following epileptic seizures. "Many of these individuals were not involved in criminal behavior at the time they were taken into custody. Amnesty International believes that the appropriate response in such cases should have been to seek medical attention or ... mental health crisis intervention rather than a law enforcement response," the report said.

In all, four deaths following Taser use have occurred in Texas, including the one that occurred this spring when a 43-year-old architect driving across the state made an unexplained - and ultimately fatal - detour in Fort Worth.

Eric Hammock, 43, was on his way home from Louisiana to Midland on the night of April 3, when he got of I-30 at the Riverside exit at about 8:20 p.m. Autopsy results would later show that he was high on cocaine. For some unknown reason, he drove into the nearby Waste Management truck depot, which was closed at the time, and being guarded by off-duty Fort Worth Police C.P. Birley, a 20-year veteran. When Hammock ignored Birley's request to stop his car, Birley radioed for backup, then followed Hammock in his civilian car when Hammock left the facility a few minutes later. After a short chase, Hammock - almost certainly unfamiliar with the area - drove onto a dead-end street, then abandoned his car and fled on foot. Birley and the backup officers caught up with him in the backyard of a house on Retta Street. According to Birley, Hammock tried to hit him, and the officer discharged his Taser, hitting Hammock in the chest. Hammock pulled the wires from his chest and had to be wrestled to the ground, during which period he was hit by the Taser multiple times. When he was finally subdued, Hammock complained that he couldn't breathe. Police called for an ambulance, and Hammock was taken to John Peter Smith hospital, where he was pronounced dead 40 minutes later.

The medical examiner's report, released on April 28, showed that Hammock suffered from heart disease and that he was jacked way up on cocaine. The official cause of death, in layman's terms, was heart failure caused by cocaine intoxication. As in the Guerrero case, the Taser was not considered a contributing factor in Hammock's death, despite the multiple jolts he had received. The case is still under investigation by Fort Worth police, and no officers have been disciplined.

Hammock's family has hired an attorney. His widow told the Midland Reporter Telegram that a Retta Street resident who watched the end of the chase told her that police made no attempt to aid Hammock after he became visibly distressed and didn't call for the ambulance until they saw the resident watching them.

Hammock's aunt told the Weekly that Eric was a good father and husband and that she thinks he simply got lost "and then turned into that place and got cornered.

"I don't understand any of it," Jackie Hammock said.

Eight months before that, Troy Dale Nowell, 51, died after being shocked several times while being subdued by Amarillo police after assaulting three people. The autopsy gave the cause of death as a cardiopulmonary arrest during a violent physical struggle. Nowell had a history of heart disease that was listed as a contributing factor. No drugs were found in his blood. Following the death, the Amarillo Police Department immediately announced their intention to quadruple the number of Tasers the department employs.

The fourth Texas case involved Samuel Wakefield, 22, who was driving with three friends on the night of Sept. 12, 2004, when their car was stopped for speeding by an officer in Rio Vista, just south of Cleburne. The first officer called for backup because, according to the police report, one of the passengers was behaving furtively and trying to leave the car. When other officers arrived, Wakefield bolted. He was chased and tackled and then, when he continued to struggle, was hit with a Taser. He became ill and was brought to Walls Regional Hospital where he was declared dead. The autopsy listed cocaine intoxication as the cause of death.

According to Lt. Sullivan, the local Taser abuse cases are not being taken lightly by Fort Worth police brass. "We're treating these as serious investigations. The Tasers record when they were used, how many times, and for how long a duration," he said. The suspensions of the two officers in connection with Robert Guerrero's death, he said, should send a signal to the rest of the force that abuse will not be tolerated.

"The thing to remember when you're talking about Tasers is that they are not non-lethal weapons," Sullivan said. "They are less-lethal weapons. That's a big difference."

TASER International would not discuss with the Weekly the question of Tasers contributing to deaths . However, in a February 2004 letter to the ACLU of Colorado, a company official noted that, "If the electrical stimulation of the TASER device were to play a causal role in the death, the death would be immediate, and this has never happened."

Not surprisingly, a lot of folks remain unconvinced - including a University of Wisconsin-Madison professor who received a $500,000 grant from the U.S. Justice Department to study the matter. Biomedical engineer John Webster told the Associated Press that he believes many Taser-related deaths were actually caused by a combination of drug use and medical factors, but that others may have been caused by a rare condition known as malignant hyperthermia, in which bodies essentially overheat as a result of an electrical jolt. He also theorizes that other deaths may be attributable to potassium released into the bloodstream after muscle contractions caused by a Taser shock reaching the heart. He's hoping his research will help set standards for how powerful Tasers should be and provide guidelines for emergency room doctors on how to treat those who have been hit with the weapon's jolt.

Those familiar with the realities of the streets and police work have no problem believing that drugs and electrical shocks are a potent combination. "In my experience," Luka, the Florida defense attorney, said, "drug people are tasered more often than others, but the truth is that they tend to resist more. They tend to run, get upset and so forth. Still, introducing electricity into a body that's already jacked up on cocaine or speed - well, boom! Heart failure. And while we're not seeing it yet on a regular basis, you have to be careful about cops using these things on poor kids in inner cities. The thing is, cops just don't have to interact anymore. Kid runs? Taser him. And people are dying."

Police officers from several agencies around the country - none of whom wanted to be quoted by name - all said they assume that, in real-life Taser situations, the combination of fear, the heart-pounding nature of a physical struggle, and drug or alcohol intoxication substantially increases the chances of heart failure. "Add to that, that the guy just got shocked to shit and is in extreme pain, and you have a heart-attack cocktail if ever there was one," one 30-year veteran officer said.

"Don't forget that the same bad cop who's going to bully a suspect with half a dozen shocks is the bad cop who's probably going to hogtie him or chokehold him or kneel on his back 30 seconds longer than he needs to cuff the guy," another officer said. "Perps die in custody, but they die in the custody of bully cops more often."

The Amnesty report and the other stories of Taser-related deaths and abuses provide strong evidence that Taser use is out of control in the United States, given that only about 20 percent of those on whom the Tasers have been used were armed and that more than a third of the shocks were administered to people who were simply being "verbally noncompliant" with officers.

There is no national uniform code for the use of Tasers among police agencies. Meanwhile, police agencies are buying and issuing more Tasers every week - without, in most cases, rethinking the policies that list the weapons in their force continuum guidelines as if they were no more dangerous than a shove.

However, TASER International apparently is feeling the heat. In late April, the company announced that it has assembled a group of more than 240 people - from law enforcement, the military, and academic and medical communities - to talk about use-of-force policies regarding what the company continues to call its "nonlethal" product. But the person listed as a media contact on that topic refused to discuss it with the Weekly.

Despite the two deaths here in the last five months, Fort Worth police in general don't seem to be Taser bullies. In about the last four years, Sullivan said, Fort Worth police have discharged their Tasers only about 180 times - a very conservative number compared to the 194 uses the Houston Police Department noted in just its first three months of using the weapons.

The Fort Worth department has about 600 of the weapons. "They're issued to officers who take a course on their use - during which each officer who is issued a Taser gets tasered him or herself so that they know what kind of pain they'll be inflicting," Sullivan said.

He also suggested that there's another way to use Tasers - the kind of tactic that police long ago learned to try before shooting a conventional weapon.

"What's interesting is that while the FWPD has discharged [the Tasers] 180 times, they've been displayed another 223 times in which they were not discharged," he said. "Our officers are trained to show the Taser, and shout: 'Taser! Taser! Stop or I'll taser you!' You'd be surprised how many subjects begin to comply when they see that thing and hear those words."

Peter Gorman is a Fort Worth-area freelance journalist. He can be reached at  peterg9@yahoo.com.

 http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=12455

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

so...whos the nutter now...huh?

love

paul c

----------------------------------------------------------
 http://66.102.11.104/unclesam?q=cache:A4T2PehNYlQJ:www.au.af.mil/au/awc/awcgate/law/nonlet2.pdf+ultrasound+weapon&hl=en&ie=UTF-8
Primer for the deployment of non-lethal weapons
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 http://www.hsvt.org/faq.htmlQ & A :
Non-Lethal Tetanizing Beam Weapon
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 http://66.102.11.104/unclesam?q=cache:pJrCpYzycgIJ:www.de.afrl.af.mil/Factsheets/HPM.html+advanced+weapon&hl=en&ie=UTF-8
Unites states Air Force High powered microwaves
----------------------------------------------------------
 http://www.mobilevulgus.com/bookmark.htm
Mobile Vulgus - NLW links and resources
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 http://66.102.11.104/unclesam?q=cache:Rug9X6sQCq4J:www.usafa.af.mil/inss/OCP/ocp15.pdf+ultrasound+weapon&hl=en&ie=UTF-8
NLW terms and references
----------------------------------------------------------
 http://www.nowtoronto.com/issues/2001-06-07/news_insight.html
Insight Crowd control technologies
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 http://66.102.11.104/unclesam?q=cache:UrB4LPfZ_ZUJ:www.ojp.usdoj.gov/nij/sciencetech/aca/07_01.pdf+ultrasound+weapon&hl=en&ie=UTF-8
Through the wall surveillance technologies
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 http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2004/03/286415.html
Long range acoustic device
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work i have undertaken

techno fascism
 http://www.declarepeace.org.uk/captain/murder_inc/dots.html

the control grid - remote surveillance and control?
 http://www.declarepeace.org.uk/captain/murder_inc/HAARP.html


9-11 remotely possible? - the history of drone technology
 http://www.declarepeace.org.uk/captain/murder_inc/911-7.html

rise of the machines - artificial intelligence and drones
 http://www.declarepeace.org.uk/captain/murder_inc/machines.html


WTC collapse on 9-11 - warning graphic content
[including new investigation of NIST proposals
and the way in which the disaster is being used to implement a multi billion
dollar 'smart buildings' industry]
 http://www.declarepeace.org.uk/captain/murder_inc/911-3.html

each page has a link at the top to the main index

some of the cached uncle sam google links appear to be nulled

do a search for the title

you may be able to pick it up somewhere else

people tend to back these things up nowadays!!!!!

love

paul c

to recompense you going through those bad ones!




------------------------------------------------------------------------
Insight: Crowd control 2002


FUTURE CROWD CONTROL TECHNOLOGIES


By ENZO DI MATTEO


While activists assess the health fallout from the CS gas debacle in Quebec, just around the corner there's a new wave of even more frightening crowd-control weapons: lasers that disorient, chemicals that induce paralysis, radio-frequency weapons that play with your head, electrified nets, toxic foams. Coming soon to a protest near you.




Photo By Nabil Elsaadi






Category 1: Calmatives


What they are: synthetic chemicals and morphine-like analgesics


How they're deployed: dart gun


Effects: sleep, slowed breathing, mental confusion, elevated blood pressure, vomiting, paralysis


Dangers: Certain derivatives of analgesics being tested are more toxic than nerve agents.


Where they've been used: The South African government has already experimented with ecstasy as a means of crowd control.


Manufacturer: U.S. Chemical Corp.



Category 2: Entanglements


What they are: sticky foams, net guns


How they're deployed: spray gun, cannon, grenade


Effects: immobilize and paralyze targets


Dangers: Sticky foam poses a risk of suffocation; requires special solvents to remove


Where they've been used: A number of law enforcement agencies around the world already have net guns.


Manufacturers: Alliant Tech, Minneapolis, Minnesota; Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque, New Mexico; Armament Research Development and Engineering Center (ARDEC), New Jersey


Category 3: Directed-Energy Weapons


What they are: lasers, bright lights, sound, radio frequencies emitted by dazzle devices


How they're deployed: acoustic bullets, blastwave projectors, UV lasers, powerful infra-sound weapons, microwave systems, isotropic radiators


Effects: electric shock, muscle paralysis, strong physical bodily trauma, involuntary defecation, raised body temperature, temporary blindness


Dangers: potentially fatal; precursors to the development of high-frequency electromagnetic technologies to manipulate human behaviour


Where they've been used: Prototype Saber 302 laser dazzle system was used by U.S. marines in combat during operation Restore Hope in Somalia.


Manufacturers: Scientific Applications and Research Associates, Huntington Beach, California; ARDEC


Category 4: Designer Bio-Weapons


What they are: cell-membrane-level micro-organisms


How they're deployed: in food, water and other means


Effects: paralyze synaptic pathways, induce reversible crippling


Dangers: The Human Genome Project, in mapping some 3 million pairs of human genes, has found significant differences in blood group proteins, making possible the development of bio-weapons to target specific racial groups or toxins that select a particular gene marker.


OTHER SCARY CROWD-CONTROL TECHNOLOGIES ALREADY ON THE MARKET


Electric-shock-emitting riot shields; hand-held shock batons that discharge 50,000 to 400,000 volts of electricity; mobile razor-wire-dispensing vehicles to corral protestors; neural-inhibiting plasma guns; tear-gas-spraying water cannons and helicopters; electroshock stun weapons; air guns that deliver a knockout punch at half the speed of sound; dart launchers.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sources: European Parliament report, An Assessment Of Crowd Control Technology Options; Non-lethal Technologies: A framework For Future Integration, U.S. Air Force advanced munitions office; Armament Research Development and Engineering Center; Scientific Applications and Research Association; Sandia National Laboratories; U.S. Defence Associations National Network News


 http://www.nowtoronto.com/issues/2001-06-07/news_insight.html

to be forewarned is to be protected

don't let the above information put you off protesting

half of the game they are playing is psychological

one could well see a vehicle with a blacked up
satellite dish on it
just being used to scare people

who knows...


stand up for your rights

by knowing them


love and good luck
to you

I'm wondering if the IDF will use this sound weapon on the Israeli demonstrators later this summer when they have to evict all of those settlers from the illegal Gaza and the West Bank settlements? if I were one of those demonstrators, I'd bring plenty of cotton balls.