unusualmusic_lj_archive

So you're a police officer. You see a mentally disturbed naked man on a ledge swinging a long light bulb yelling at passersby. What do you do?

You taze him, of course. So he falls off the ledge and dies And this is the fun part:

Mr. Morales’s death on Wednesday afternoon was another episode in the controversial history of Taser use in the city. While Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly has looked cautiously on the use of stun gun technology by the Police Department, he recently said he was open to broadening the use of the weapons after a city-commissioned study on police shooting habits urged the department to consider using Tasers more frequently instead of deadly force when applicable.

So instead of teaching police to negotiate more and shoot less, its lets give 'em a taser, so at least you won't kill them! Uh...oops! Funny how high and mentally ill people seem to be getting tased a lot these days.

So you remember the RNC protests not too long ago? Remember how those went (not so good for the protesters?) Well, life can always get worse...

Dispatches from Torture Nation

But as bad as putting more tasers on the streets, there's an even worse possibility. The article says:

The 1st BCT’s soldiers also will learn how to use “the first ever nonlethal package that the Army has fielded,” 1st BCT commander Col. Roger Cloutier said, referring to crowd and traffic control equipment and nonlethal weapons designed to subdue unruly or dangerous individuals without killing them.

I think you have to wonder if this is what they might be talking about:

The US military has given the first public display of what it says is a revolutionary heat-ray weapon to repel enemies or disperse hostile crowds.

Called the Active Denial System, it projects an invisible high energy beam that produces a sudden burning feeling.

[....]

How the heat-ray gun works

The prototype weapon was demonstrated at the Moody Air Force Base in Georgia.

A beam was fired from a large rectangular dish mounted on a Humvee vehicle.

The beam has a reach of up to 500m (550 yds), much further than existing non-lethal weapons like rubber bullets.

It can penetrate clothes, suddenly heating up the skin of anyone in its path to 50C.

But it penetrates the skin only to a tiny depth - enough to cause discomfort but no lasting harm, according to the military.

A Reuters journalist who volunteered to be shot with the beam described the sensation as similar to a blast from a very hot oven - too painful to bear without diving for cover.

[...]

It would mean that troops could take effective steps to move people along without resorting to measures such as rubber bullets - bridging the gap between "shouting and shooting", Col Hymes said.

A similar "non-lethal" weapon, Silent Guardian, is being developed by US company Raytheon.

What's a raygun? Oh I am SO glad you asked!

Now wouldn't those make GREAT weapons of torture? All the pain with none of the evidence? *snort* Twenty years from now? This country will be in a VERY interesting position. And I am SURE that the official line will be... "Nobody could have predicted...."