sound weapon at NYC protests - I wrote a blog article.

[Eric J in MN]

I wrote an article for my blog, "MoveLeft Media" about how the police in New York during the Republican Convention will be armed with a sound-device, a military "non-lethal weapon," capable of decibels up to 150 decibels.

That is louder than an air-raid siren. The sound-device/weapon has never been used by police before, only the military.

If you go to the protest, please bring ear-plugs for the limited protection, and decibel monitors, in case you need to file a lawsuit for hearing damage.

My blog article is at:

http://www.moveleft.com/moveleft_essay_2004_08_19_new_york_police_will_be_armed_with_sound_device.asp

[Philostopher]

1. Wow -- most commercially available earplugs

will only pull off 25 dB, at the most. 120+ dB is still in the range of hearing damage, if it's sustained for any length of time. Be careful out there, guys -- look for some professional grade earplugs and/or a headset like the ones flight crews wear at airports. They can still damage your hearing even with the plugs in, at that volume.

[Eric J in MN]

2. I wish the ACLU would get an order to disable the top volume

for domestic use of this device.

[Philostopher]

3. No kidding.

That's just goddamned dangerous -- they fine bands for playing at 120 dB for more than a certain sustained length of time. If it's illegal for bands to perform at that volume because it's dangerous to people's hearing, I'm thinking there should be limits on volume for general crowd control applications. Damage is damage. Permanently damaging somebody's hearing to punish them for expressing an opinion -- however violently they choose to express it, other than actually harming other people -- is pretty outrageous, if you think about it. And no, I don't necessarily think they'd only use it in extreme situations. I suspect if they found out it worked, they'd just use it every time.

They have plenty of temporarily- or non-damaging crowd control measures already. Fire hoses, dummy bullets, tear gas -- none of those things is guaranteed to cause that kind of permanent damage. It's really kind of sadistic, the more you think about it.

[Eric J in MN]

4. Anyone in the area could be permanently hurt.

Peaceful protestors, not-so-peaceful protestors, people passing by.

[Eric J in MN]

5. Please ask the ACLU to help.

Please contact the New York chapter of the ACLU and ask them to seek an injunction to regulate the Long Range Acoustic Device:

New York Civil Liberties Union
125 Broad Street, New York NY 10004
212-344-3005, fax [phone]

[Eric J in MN]

6. kick

kick

[thebigidea]

7. it reminds me of William Burroughs' crazytalk about ultrasound in the 70s

sure, it was crazytalk THEN... but like almost everything else he scribbled, horribly prophetic.

Boy, now would be a good time to crack open my coffee-stained copy of "The Job"

[lostnfound]

8. Maybe we need to alert writers of Unborn Child Pain act..

There surely will be a good number of pregnant women there. Anybody know what kind of effect that level of sound has on the fetus?

[LibraLabSoldier]

9. sounds dubious to me....

There are weapons of this type in development at Nattick. There is also something called the "pain blaster" that is also being developed. However, they are not ready to be used and deployed yet. Otherwise, we would be using them for riot control in Iraq. I would double check your sources.

[lostnfound]

10. What sources? It's been in mainstream press. AP article

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/news/archive/2004/08/19/politics1557EDT0636.DTL

[LibraLabSoldier]

11. Whew...

This is similar, but this is not quite the same as the one the military is working on. We have some other "less than lethal" weapons in the works as well. But I agree. I was an artillery soldier when I first came in the army. I religiously used my earplugs, and still have 25% hearing loss in my right ear. Go to a sporting goods store and get shooters earprotection. No little foam pluggies are gonna work.

[Eric J in MN]

12. I also wonder about the effect of tear gas on fetuses.

Why aren't the pro-life people saying anything about an 8 month fetus ingesting tear gas?