As the global oligarchs met in Pittsburg to discuss how best to preserve their failed system, local and imported police used aerosol tear-gas hand-grenades, pepper spray, batons and rubber bullets against citizens exercising their by now merely theoretical (and in any case carefully portioned out) right to peaceful assembly.
The porcine mercenaries did not limit themselves to such traditional weapons of authoritarian order, however. In addition, they broke the domestic cherry of a new weapon in the fight against democracy, a weapon previously reserved for Iraqi insurgents or Somali pirates: the Long Range Acoustic Device, or LRAD.
(This device had previously been on standby, but not used, in New York during the 2004 Republican National Convention and at town hall meetings in San Diego earlier this month.)
Manufactured by the American Technology Corporation, the LRAD projects sound waves in such a way that they become amplified and directional.
Here is an informative clip from a “Future Weapons” episode on Discovery, where LRAD inventor Woody Norris describes the device:
“It is like putting on handcuffs,” he says. “You drop what you’ve got and you cover your ears.”
If that doesn’t work and people keep peacefully marching toward you, you can “flip it into high gear, and the output increases by about 5,000 times per setting of the volume control.”
Which can, you know, blow your eardrums.
“It is like having bullets where you have a volume control,” says the proud inventor.
And here is a list of some other “crowd control” weapons to watch out for…
And here is another thoughtful take on the Pittsburg G20.
