When will they start using it to torture black people?

psanf420: When will they start using it to torture black people?


As soon as it's plugged in.

Approves

Great. Another device that police are going to abuse.

Why not just fit them with Obedience Collars?

The inmates will be making grilled butt cheese sandwiches in no time.

Yeah they actually posted a video about this not too long ago
Link is here (new window)

How the hell does our government get away with treating non-violent drug offenders, likely to be American citizens, as a more appropriate target for hi-tech torture beams than self-declared-violent-enemies-of-everything-post-6th-century Islamists in Afghanistan?

I predicted this tech would be used against protesters within 10 years, but now that they're already using it against citizens I'll move that figure up to 5 years.

When I saw the headline I immediately imagined a room with an 8x8 beam running along the middle ceiling, and violent prisoners hanging from it in handcuffs.

If it were turned on me, I'd prefer the beam the article is talking about over the beam I imagined. Giving the electronic beam a "scary" tag is silly.

"Scary" is how I describe the job of the guards who are employed to rush into that violent mess and clean it up. I bet they won't find the beam scary.

dfacto: I predicted this tech would be used against protesters within 10 years, but now that they're already using it against citizens I'll move that figure up to 5 years.

Of course it's going to be used against citizens - there is no way in hell the armed forces would accept trading in their lethal weapons for a non-lethal weapon in a warzone. Every last one of these non-lethal weapons are designed to be used against the populace - foreign enemies of the state get bombs dropped on them.

beoswulf: How the hell does our government get away with treating non-violent drug offenders, likely to be American citizens, as a more appropriate target for hi-tech torture beams than self-declared-violent-enemies-of-everything-post-6th-century Islamists in Afghanistan?

*gets out popcorn*

ze_foster:
"Scary" is how I describe the job of the guards who are employed to rush into that violent mess and clean it up. I bet they won't find the beam scary.

No, scary is when it comes standard as a cop sidearm and they start heat beaming people for minor violations.

At least it's not bulky and awkward to use or easy to detect. Here's hoping all the fights or riots take place within clear sight of the giant microwave oven beam.

beoswulf:
How the hell does our government get away with treating non-violent drug offenders, likely to be American citizens, as a more appropriate target for hi-tech torture beams than self-declared-violent-enemies-of-everything-post-6th-century Islamists in Afghanistan?

The same way they get away with everything else, they just do it and dare the proles to object. Anyway the Taliban get shot at with real bullets, not such a good deal for them when you think about it.

I saw that movie, it was called "Fortress"

beoswulf
Think of it like pain beam beta, if it's successful then we get to use it on hajis.

The device can be installed on a vehicle -- just imagine cops driving through an area getting their jollies by targeting specific individuals. Or using it on a busty woman for kicks.

dfacto: ze_foster:
"Scary" is how I describe the job of the guards who are employed to rush into that violent mess and clean it up. I bet they won't find the beam scary.

No, scary is when it comes standard as a cop sidearm and they start heat beaming people for minor violations.

like tasers?

dfacto: ze_foster:
"Scary" is how I describe the job of the guards who are employed to rush into that violent mess and clean it up. I bet they won't find the beam scary.

No, scary is when it comes standard as a cop sidearm and they start heat beaming people for minor violations.

don't they already taze people for not complying, don't they spray pepper spray in their faces for not complying? what is scary about this is the potential for abuse. they don't have to get involved in a physical confrontation with the inmates at all. before if you wanted to be sadist gaurd you had to go out of your way to f*Ck with a guiy I imagine. now just press a button from the safety of the computer control room. zap - burn little piggy. but apparently there are no marks either. inmate 457 was threatening inmate 435, I had to give the whole pod the juice for 30 seconds. ok zed, yeah sure whatever, write up the tps report. nice job, see you tomorrow.

Didn't they show something like this on that show Future Weapons a while back? Maybe 2 years-ish?

6655321: The device can be installed on a vehicle -- just imagine cops driving through an area getting their jollies by targeting specific individuals. Or using it on a busty woman for kicks.

I'd love to have it at work for when our QA person comes rolling down the hallway with some new database idea that she's come up with.

*knock knock*
*bzzzzzz*

Yes they taze, yes they pepper spray, but I can see this being far easier to abuse. It's also unlikely to have as bad of a reputation (until someone goes blind from prolonged exposure)

Cops breaking up skateboarding teens with indiscriminate heat beaming comes to mind for some reason.

/not that there's anything inherently terrible about that, I'm sure it'd make a hilarious youtube vid

Oh yeah first it came to the battle field and we said nothing. Now it's in our prisions and soon it will on our streets. Of course then the police will need it control the army of homeless people that will be soon popping up. The militarization of any police force is clear sign that democracy (or our case democratic republic) is dieing.

psanf420: dfacto: ze_foster:
"Scary" is how I describe the job of the guards who are employed to rush into that violent mess and clean it up. I bet they won't find the beam scary.

No, scary is when it comes standard as a cop sidearm and they start heat beaming people for minor violations.

like tasers?

Tasers still shoot an accountable projectile, don't they? Determining whether a pain beam was used will akin to determining if the officer used his flashlight (assuming they ever become small enough for handheld use).

Call me when they have the pleasure/orgasm beam.

StarshipPooper: Call me when they have the pleasure/orgasm beam.

Might be just as effective.


"IMMA GONNA CUT YOU AND...[ZAP]...WHOAAAAAAA OH OH OHHHHHHHO UGhhhhh aahh.....do it again!"

I feel your pain.

'Pain Beam' to be installed in LA jail

A 24/7 broacast of Justin Bieber music throughout the jail?? Oh the humanity...

I have been hanging around the "POLITICS" threads too much since I saw this headline as "Palin Beam." Damnit.

"Prison aint so bad. You can make sangria in the terlet. Course, it's shank or be shanked."

xanadian: 1. Have the largest per capita prisoner population in the civilized world.
2. Install microwave burn-em-up beams in prisons...and prison sweat shops!
3. Profit!

Where can I invest money in this scheme!??

I sense a really bad joke about concentration camps waiting to make it's appearance in this thread.
Has anybody told North Korea about these yet?

I have no idea why, but I read the headline and assumed we were talking about some kind of wooden plank that would be used for hitting, or being dropped upon.

Then I RTFA.

/need coffee

marcand: Palin

I have to shamefully admit I did this too. I was expecting a much more entertaining article.

So now we have to wear faraday mesh when we protest?

I read that as "Palin Beam" and was quite upset.

Not so much now that I've re-read it.

strife: "Prison aint so bad. You can make sangria in the terlet. Course, it's shank or be shanked."

Of course.

I was going to make a comment about how it's only a matter of time before one of us "people of color" complain that it's racist, but I was beaten to it.

THX 1138: I read that as "Palin Beam" and was quite upset.

Not so much now that I've re-read it.

I did too.
I like it my way better

Sure, it'll be a wise investment of tax dollars at first. Oh, look at this awesome non-lethal device to stop fights in jail!

Until some guy wearing a tin foil hat that got arrested for trying to get rid of the fluoride in the city water supply gets in the way of one of those beams and he blows up the entire cell block.

A machine that lets you repeatedly make someone feel like their skin is burned off and leaves no trace-- in the hands of prison guards...

How could there possibly be a problem with this?

I wonder if the guards would support a camera attached to the device that sends an internet stored image of both the person using and being targeted that can't be disconnected or interrupted without disabling the device?

WoahThereFatty: Approves

also approves

Has anyone pointed out that they're deploying microwave weapons inside of a facility known primarily for its high content of grounded ferrous metals?

"developed in secrecy"

...so that Future Weapons episode I caught about 5 years back was secret?