You have to wonder who is their target audience, huh? Via Gizmodo:
It’s not the first crowd control tool to use sound waves, but Raytheon’s patent for a new type of riot shield that produces low frequency sound waves to disrupt the respiratory tract and hinder breathing, sounds a little scary.
Crowd control tools like the LRAD Sound Cannon emit bursts of loud and annoying sounds that can induce headaches and nausea. But Raytheon’s non-lethal pressure shield creates a pulsed pressure wave that resonates the upper respiratory tract of a human, hindering breathing and eventually incapacitating the target. The patent points out that the sound waves being generated are actually not that powerful, so while protestors might collapse from a lack of oxygen reaching their brains, their eardrums won’t be damaged in the process. Phew!
And like Roman soldiers joining their shields to form a large impenetrable wall, these new riot shields can actually be networked together to form a larger acoustical horn, vastly improving their range, power, and effectiveness.
Nice to know my eardrums will still work after I’ve suffocated to death.
Non-lethal? NON-LETHAL? Blocks breathing and keeps oxygen from getting to the brain? How is that non-lethal? Sounds like the ghost of Dr. Mengele has found a home with US scientists.
Is crowd control even a legitimate or necessary police function? It seems to me that if a situation truly requires crowd control, then it warrants having the governor mobilize the national guard — something that most governors wouldn’t do at the drop of a hat.
Yeah, “non-lethal”.
Now, if they roll out the high-power ULTRAsonic systems, it can be focussed much more tightly.
And the effect is much more dramatic: tissue homogenization. The “target” is turned into lumpy red goo.
Fortunately, bullets cost less.
So, basically, if you’re going to riot, throw pipe-bombs and not stones.
There’s a reason that most police forces don’t use real weapons or even weapons that trigger instinctual responses. It isn’t because they fear for the safety of their protesters; it’s because they feat escalation.
In America, escalation seems to be the goal.