There is no such thing as a "non-lethal" weapon.

great weapons..

All the death, without the blood

If any cop pulls a Tazer on me, he better have his jockey shorts well grounded, because I will shove it up his ass sideways and pull the trigger.

They used violence against social change in the streets of Europe throughout the 1800's. That is how it happens. Look at the paintings of things like the uprising that created Belgium. Think of the painting "Liberty Leading the People". The main thing to me is whether they can convince the rest of the population that a political movement is somehow lawless or "evil". If the movement expresses the aspirations of enough people, the government itself will be considered lawless and "evil". When violence is used to stop protesters from protesting, the regime in power is expressing an unwillingness to permit certain forms of social change.

Making protesting illegal --

Align! Resistence is futile! Obey and conform and relish the new technological tools that bring forth the sounds of bone-chilling silence to power, truth and life.

Well, i have a feeling the powers that be are getting ready for the new playing field. And i think it is also about climate change, and the changes that they know are coming. It will be the haves and the have nots on a much larger scale.

I am surprised no one is asking john kerry to comment on the tasering of the student who was in the process of asking him a question. Is there any movement in that direction? I would like to know, because i haven't heard about it as yet. Please post if you have information.

Thanks.

Paradigm - The court case involving Kerry and the UF Student has finished up and the University was found innocent of any wrong doing.

www.dont-taze-me-bro.com

I met a traveller from an antique land,
Who said-"Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert... Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed;
And on the pedestal, these words appear:
My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings,
Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!
Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away."

-Shelley

When the governments of Western Europe, the old bastion of liberalism, are racing to get weapons to put down their protesters, it's time for America to re-assume its rightful place as the real leader of liberal freedom worldwide.

Just as they slid backwards to Merkel and Sarkozy, it's
time for us to leap forward to a new Democratic president and the most progressive government since the era of Roosevelt. Yes, Virginia, Democrats actually have that opportunity - in 2008. From here, it's mostly about core liberals not decimating their own ranks.

Honestly, this is nothing new. Just new technology for the same old order of things. Consider this quote:

"We have about 50 per cent of the world's wealth but only 6.3 per cent of its population. In this situation we cannot fail to be the object of envy and resentment. Our real task in the coming period is to devise a pattern of relationships which will permit us to maintain this position of disparity. We need not deceive ourselves that we can afford today the luxury of altruism and world benefaction. We should cease to talk about such vague and unreal objectives as human rights, the raising of living standards and democratisation. The day is not far off when we are going to have to deal in straight power concepts. The less we are then hampered by idealistic slogans, the better."

George Kennan, ex-US State Department Policy Planning
Staff Chief, Document PPS23, 24 February 1948

It just saddens me that governments and business leaders knowingly choose to suppress people and strengthen police forces instead of changing the system to make it fair and just. Greed is such an evil thing.

It's all about enclosing the commons. If you take away public space as a place for free expression of public discontent and desires then (1) people have to pay to be heard (which excludes the rising tide of the poor) or (2) people must trespass (which makes them targets of state and private means of oppression and punishment) while (3) the corporate-state alliances use their overwhelming presence and power to dictate the terms of the public discourse, to say nothing of the details of day to day life.

It is silly to think that throwing more bodies at the problem, which is the essence of street protests, will work anymore. It hasn't worked since the 1980s in any country with thriving multimedia channels for disseminating information, save for the temporary success of the WTO protest in Seattle (until they moved their parties to gated enclaves), which bought time for smaller governments to finally step up and say no to globalization schemes that continue to breach their sovereignty and increase their poverty.

Meanwhile, in the cyber age, all street protests do is waste a bunch of time and energy of well meaning people while giving the forces of fascism an opportunity to put together some reality TV clips to reinforce their message of violent opposition to public dissent. Why play into their hands?

The public square is now on the internet and the airwaves, both of which are being rapidly privatized. Those are really the most worthwhile places to wage rowdy resistance campaigns and disrupt unjust business as usual. As in street protests patrolled by taser toting cops, the stakes are high, the risks are great. The difference is, the opportunities to make a difference and actually reclaim an effective voice and forum for the common citizen, as is necessary to any legitimate form of democracy, still exist within multimedia channels, whereas people waving signs and banging pots and pans in the street are too easily reframed as irrelevant annoyances, if not completely upstaged by the dysfunctional dopeyness of any of several teenaged tarts the major media care to highlight.

There is no point in exposing one's self to tasers and tear gas any more. The conventional town square is just a place to get hurt, not to be heard far and wide. It's on to studios and servers and switches and broadcast towers if there is to be any effective dissent and resistance to internationally institutionalized fascism.

This will be the beginning of the revolution.

Daniel David,

"When the governments of Western Europe, the old bastion of liberalism, are racing to get weapons to put down their protesters, it's time for America to re-assume its rightful place as the real leader of liberal freedom worldwide."

You're referring to John Kerry here, right? Oh wait, he was the stooge candidate for 2004, sorry. Hillary's more about starting a war with Iran. But don't worry, it's not WWIII, things are getting better, you can go back to sleep now, y'all.

"Go back to bed America, your government is in control again. You are free to do as we tell you!" - Bill Hicks

restive,

Nope. Didn't mention John Kerry.

Powerlessness + comfort = apathy
Powerlessness + discomfort = rebellion

The trick, then, is to provide Americans with just enough comfort to keep them in the former category.

Watch now what you wear on your T-shirts.

Its perfectly OK to be tased for anything that has the possibility of being interpreted as supporting or indirectly drawing attention to things that may be considered controversial.

Got it?

Instead of using cardboard for protest signs, paint signs on plywood shields.

Next comes the Active Denial System. (Google it)

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=2485
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_Denial_System

This is a 64 GHz directed microwave system that heats the molecules of water just under the skin to 130 degrees, causing agonizing pain. Test subjects, who have a kill switch, cannot take three seconds. The button is usually pushed within the first second.

This will also heat wet clothes, possibly the fluid in the eyes. The idea is to turn this on a crowd to break up a demonstration. Imagine being trapped in a screaming crowd that cannot get away from the beam, as it is kept on until the crowd is dispersed.

Naturally, there is work on small units for police and intelligence operatives. Imagine a sadistic guard turning your whole body on "fire" if he thinks you have not groveled sufficiently. Imagine that level of pain if it is felt that you have not confessed "enough." Over and over again.

Imagine that you used to live in the United States of America, where that sort of thing was unthinkable except perhaps in a science fiction movie. Oh, you do? And it isn't unthinkable anymore?

Gee, that's too bad. Perhaps we could use a regime change or something?

Daniel,

"Nope. Didn't mention John Kerry."

Of course you didn't, because then you'd set a precedent.

Police States United against democracy in action

rune couldn't be more wrong in theory or practise. Without being in their face by occupying the corporate offices and halls of congress and having huge organized numbers in the streets, the internet and airwave ranters are merely entertainment for the power brokers. Run some interference on their shit and you get their attention fast. The bloody hands in Condi's face got more attention this week than all the network pundits and cyber bloggers put together.

"Imagine being trapped in a screaming crowd that cannot get away from the beam, as it is kept on until the crowd is dispersed."

Most of the time, they give dispersal orders in some sort of "I was following procedure" sort of way, that doesn't allow in practice anybody the opportunity to disperse. So what will probably happen in such a scenario is that a large number of people will be beaten into submission shortly after being boiled a bit (or a lot), and the ones who can manage to crawl away, they'll run into a phalanx of riot cops, which will then beat them, etc. Also, they're typically using several weapons at once, so it's not just tazers - it's tazers, rubber bullets and/or bean bags, tear gas, concussion grenades, sonic weapons, and so on. In situations where the cops have orders to go after people, it's safe to count on at least three of these being used, on top of batons and pain compliance.

If you are of the mind to go to a protest where you think there is a likelihood of the cops using this high tech crap, make sure to scan for an escape route at least 15-20 minutes before they escalate to the point of telling people to disperse. By the time the dispersal orders happen - if they happen, and if you can hear them - it's dangerously close to being too late to get out.

What really worries me is when the cops start using helicopters and long-distance crowd control, which they are already moving towards. The next step after that is to start shooting people from the air. Good times, people, good times...

Well, if protest becomes too dangerous, then people will resort to much more costly measures, like sabotage. Everything nice and quiet until explosions light up the night at key strategic points. Can't these people learn that if you force protest underground, you get guerrilla warfare next?

When I was first in London these many years ago, I was shocked by their famous "Speakers' Corner", where citizens could freely speak their minds (there was a copper not far away to collar anybody who talked "dirty" -- such magnificient freedom!

That was before we got "free speech zones" in the US and the right of peaceable assembly was restiricted to sidewalks and otherwise to those with correct agendas.

The freedom of speech is the mother of all freedom: if you cannot freely speak your thought, you cannot know your mind; if you cannot know your mind, you cannot control it; if you cannot control your mind, there will always be someone who will gladly do it for you.

(Tasers, by the way, remind me of the "neuronic whip" and other such I read about in sci-fi 40 years ago)

The protest movement of the 60's & 70's was a great learning experience for the authoritarians. They have been developing crowd control and suppression technology for 30 years. Since there is not one representative of the people who could account for where the money goes in our system, it is most probable that there is a whole smorgasboard of technology available for that moment when those in power judge that it's time to abolish the first amendment and put an end to public protests altogether.

I really do think that all these forms of repression can be defeated with the proper tactics. The problem is that resistance is all but dead (although it seems to be making a comeback) and the methods of effective protest aren't being used. Instead of the stand-around-bored-for-nothing protests that go on there needs to be solid resistance/direct action in practice and the honing of the skills necessary to win.

With numbers, organization, and proper training we can win these fights. People through history have done much more with much less; faced guns instead of tasers. On top of that there needs to be constant pressure by activists around the world to stop these tactics on international human rights grounds. Just because they develope the technology doesn't mean that have the right to use them. We may be marginal in the media, but not on every front.

Palast says to always wear a ground wire. Just in case.

They have the weapons, but we have the numbers. They can tase us, but they can't faze us.

Hey Bren..in regards to the man tasered in Vancouver International Airport....the man didnt speak a word of english.So nobody was able to understand him and by all accounts he was very intoxicated which would have furthur hampered the situation.He was joining his mother here for a new life in British Columbia.From the facts released so far including interviews with his mother i think it was an absolute tragedy but i dont think that the police had any other choice in the situation they were faced with.The only question i have is why it took over SIX minutes after the man was noticed to be unconsious for a code three to be called. In all it took over TWELVE minutes for the man to have any proper response to the situation he faced. THAT must be addressed.

I agree off22. This includes our troops.

What a load of bullsh*t

Just how many non-lethal weapons do police need anyways? They have:

Water Cannons
Tear Gas
Batons
Rubber Bullets

Just a way to kill people in a legal like way.

A man was tasered in the Vancouver Airport last week--2 minutes later, he was dead. Worse, no one talked to the man before he was shot.

Don't tell me that the taser is non-lethal!

In my above post, I forgot to mention that, apparently the Air Force is having an airborne version developed.

Picture, if you will, a mass demonstration in the big commons in Washington DC. Hundreds of thousands packed tightly perhaps chanting, perhaps holding a silent vigil.

A bullhorn orders the crowd to disperse, A few minutes later, a large, black helicopter appears and hovers over the crowd. Suddenly their skin and their eyes seem to burn. In their agony, they try to run from the invisible pain, but there is no relief. Women and children are trampled into the grass, people rolling on the grass in agony. The helicopter hovers over the scene until people are immobile, then moves off. The pain slowly subsides and people begin to drag themselves away.

Sirens in the distance as police and ambulances swarm to the scene, to arrest those who have not gotten away, and to pick up the dead and maimed.

And they didn't lay a finger on us! What a great country we are becoming.

At any protest, always be aware of possible escape routes and what's going on to your sides and rear. Basic tactics 101.

The notion that a 'new Democratic President' will change this is ludicrous. Remember, it was the Clinton years that expanded the FBI and gave us the violent police response to the WTO in Seattle. In Seattle, it was the Clinton Administration that was being embarrassed by the disruption to its flagship trade conference and that insisted that the Seattle police clear the streets of the protesters. There is absolutely no reason to believe a Hillary administration would be any different.

Come to Denver next year to find out. Right now the city is planning its 'security zones' and 'police tactics' for the convention. All designed for the benefit and comfort of the Democratic party bigwigs. We locals got a taste of it with the ill-treatment of the people protesting the annual 'Columbus, the first slaver' parade recently.

Come to Denver anyways, because the answer to this is overwhelming numbers. When there are 10,000 protesters, they can safely play with these toys. When there are 3,000,000 protesters, they'll know they can't. Wouldn't it be grand to see the Democrats surrounded by millions of American citizens demanding an end to the war and the restoration of civil liberties?

All this violence. . . doesn't bode well.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RjALf12PAWc

How democratic societies are closed down:
The Blueprint for Dictatorship in the US -- the 10 Steps.

1.invoke an internal and external threat;
2. create a secret prison system outside the rule of law where people are tortured;
3. create a paramilitary force; (Blackwater operated in New Orleans & just got a $1 billion contract to operate in the US. The president can declare martial for any reason he now sees fit;)
4.create a surveillance apparatus to oversee and intimidate the entire population;
5. arbitrarily detain and release citizens; infiltrate citizen's groups, break down trust between individuals;
6. military-industrial-media complex profits off the creation of an enemy external and internal;
7. make up lists of critics and dissidents; restrict travel
8. restrict the press, e.g., invocation of the espionage act; vocabulary of demonization expands;
9. recast dissent as treason;
10. declare martial law; the use of crony federal attorneys in the rigging of elections; electoral fraud—but elections continue to exist, merely corrupt. Judiciary still exists, but becomes corrupt; there are still academics, but they learn to be quiet; there are still newspapers, but they know what is allowable.

"We need a democracy movement now, rising up.... No time to waste, millions of people... When people start to wake up, that's when they crack down harder... A national uprising to restore democracy... Not enough to impeach... Criminals must be put behind bars... Ordinary people must ... take on the role to restore democracy...the time to stand up is now"

Talk by Naomi Wolf author of "The End of America: Letter of Warning To A Young Patriot" given October 11, 2007 at Kane Hall on the University of Washington.

This is a MUST see.

"He who passively accepts evil is as much involved in it as he who helps to perpetrate it. He who accepts evil without protesting against it is really cooperating with it."

--Martin Luther King, Jr.

Doesn't really leave us anywhere to turn, does it? Sit back, and accept it.

"If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face--for ever."

Is there anything we can do?

If only the police will connect the dots, that they are just a cog in the fucking wheel, and they do not PROTECT anybody except those with massive amounts of money.

If only the knew their biggest allies were the protesters themselves.

"With numbers, organization, and proper training we can win these fights. People through history have done much more with much less; faced guns instead of tasers. On top of that there needs to be constant pressure by activists around the world to stop these tactics on international human rights grounds. Just because they develope the technology doesn't mean that have the right to use them. We may be marginal in the media, but not on every front."

I completely agree. Seattle was just the beginning - we can learn from what is used against us, and adapt. In fact, that's one of their worst fears, that we will learn from the experience.

Sorry, george w. bush, but as is so often the case, you have missed the point. I was not suggesting that "internet and airwave rant[ing]" is any sort of credible alternative to old school street protests, I was saying that unless dissenters take over the "studios and servers and switches and broadcast towers" with the same level of commitment and determination that once drove street protests that had a significant impact back in the day, Condi will continue to ignore bloody hands waved in her face, Democrats will continue to join Republicans in hauling away protesters who interfere with business as usual, and the fascist steamroller will keep burying people beneath its weight in the name of "progress" (for the corporate ruling class).

See, not only are those "studios and servers and switches and broadcast towers" the places where ideas flow, the are the avenues through which money flows. And what once made street protest potent was that they could shut down commerce while getting out a heartfelt, populist message of power. That has much less impact today because it has lost its shock and novelty appeal and because, as this article points out, the tools and techniques of bodily repression make it much faster and easier to clear the streets and resume the working and shopping activities that define almost all that is dear to the powers that be. When is the last time you heard about, let alone took part in, an effective boycott popularized by street marchers? When is the last time you saw a government agency or corporation stymied, shut down, or forced to reverse policy because a street marchers (or simple blogging, for that matter)? How much impact do you think tomorrow's anti-war marches across the U.S. are going to have on any military policies or plans anywhere in the world? Let me venture a rough approximation: zero. Feel free to verify that in the weeks that follow.

Direct action and civil disobedience still have their places. But their places are no longer in the waiting rooms of a senators and congressmen, the fenced off perimeter of the White House, the entrance gates to factory or federal installation, or streets and parks of any given city. They have ways quickly and painfully dealing with (and mostly hiding) such antics. What is required are tactics that cannot be put down, ignored and hidden from the public.

thomrick - you say "the man didn't speak a word of English, so nobody was able to understand him and by all accounts he was very intoxicated ..." so - these are reasons to TASER him? Seems like a little common sense and kindness might have gone a long way here.

The natural thing we will all learn in response to an increasingly repressive, authoritarian regime is to be sneaky, better criminals. We learn to smile and wave at the cops and, as soon as they have turned their backs, continue on with our black market transactions. We need to turn our minds to taking all of this blogging and making it into some real actions. The protesting is good, but the way to really hurt the plutocracy will be for us to reclaim our independence in small ways by helping each other, bartering, moving our lives "under the table." Maybe even developing our own communication networks. If we reach out to each other as equals, we strengthen our own safety net.

...and the "non-lethal", proven to be lethal weapons have been used against diabetics in insulin shock, the disabled in wheelchairs, rush hr commuters, tax protesters, senior citizens, children, pregnant women, but no politicians? Now that's not fair!

When, for all the hundreds of years of millions of deaths, natural and cultural destructions, will we have enough evidence and human spine to conclude that CAPITALISM IS NOT FREEDOM?

To me the most interesting line in the article is the last one, which mentions high-tone sirens as a non-lethal weapon. Many people who consider themselves to be "progressive" have yet to recognize the problem of noise pollution. Loud rock bands are often sponsored by "progressive" events. Many "leftists" appear to be immune to education about the problem of noise-induced hearing loss, which is the most prevalent of all chronic illnesses. Medical literature has established that loud thumping bass, at close range, can collapse lungs. Every day, stress and sleep deprivation are inflicted on millions by loud "boom cars," yet many who consider themselves to be "progressive" excuse this audio terror as "free expression." Military literature recognizes the potential of low-frequency high-decibel noise, which is made by both rock bands and boom cars, to be used as a non-lethal weapon. Anyone desiring documentation about this can email me at mpwright9 at aol dot com.

A few people on here just stated "We Are The Majority. Well most of that majority sits on the sidelines.
BuT what happens when those line sitters see good people getting Tazered.
I think what will happen is the stirring of their blood and the closing of their wallets
This closing of their wallets will start huge boycotts of the world's goods and services.
BOYCOTTS are the way we can speak our minds and they will listen.
Hit them where they live in their purses.
That how Unions started only they had to walk those picket lines. We will not have to walk any line or be in any line to buy anything.
What can they do then? Nada!
Because if they cart people off to proson more people will take their place.
So everyone who sees a demostrater getting Taze. Take pictures of it Put them on the internet . Remember we are the many We have always had the power.
Reuse everything for a better tomorrow
genaman

Well, if you're not out marching, I at least hope you're writing letters to your reps because how else are they going to know what you want?

My husband, son and I flew from CA to DC last month for the 9/15 march on Washington sponsored by ANSWER to protest the Iraq invasion. While there were about 100,000 of us, there were about 1,000 pro war people protesting us! There were many heated words between the two groups, yet the cops who lined every inch of the mall were in no hurry to pull out their weapons of any sort.

We marched along the edges of the crowd in case we needed to make a quick getaway, but at no time whatsoever did any of us feel threatened or that we were in any danger. Many people carried signs and chanted protest slogans, but no one got violent from what we saw.

Although there were around 200 arrests due to the die in at the capitol, those folks were well cared for by ANSWER as they were released from jail at 1, 2 & 3 am. They were given rides to where ever they needed to go. The sponsors also had volunteers in bright orange vests to help keep the crowd marching in an orderly fashion so as to not incite the police into action.

After our wonderful experience there, we're going to march tomorrow in SF, also sponsored by ANSWER. This demonstration is coordinated with about a dozen other marches in major cities nationwide. The media can't ignore us forever. Besides, are we going to let the 200,000 who marched in Italy last month to protest the Iraq invasion outnumber us?

"From here, it's mostly about core liberals not decimating their own ranks."

Daniel David,

Don't blame us, you weasel! I'm sick of your "everything Democratic" bullshit claptrap. Go peddle your used tires somewhere else.

Passive resistance is hard to tazer. Hurt them where they feel it first. Restrict your shopping to an absolute minimum and go out of your way to buy only locally produced goods. No frills, no imports. Drive as little as possible or not at all, don't fly, vacation at home. In big corporations and government, 'work to rule' which in some union circles seems to mean 'drag your feet as much as possible'.

Blucheek U R Right On!