Government scientists have been impressed by initial trials and are preparing to ask police to test it as potential weapon in a growing armoury of equipment aimed at preventing a repeat of the August riots.Oh, great! Well, this won’t be abused and overused and turn out to have unpleasant side-effects, will it?
Update: Angry Exile has similar reservations...
Easy to criticise Julia,so what equipment should we be allowed to have during riots? Witty retorts? Custard pies?
ReplyDeleteAnswers on a postcard please to "Armchair Generals c/o Daily Mail,1 Hindsight Towers,London W8".
Jaded
..."so what equipment should we be allowed to have during riots?"
ReplyDeleteGadget's plan A equipment list:
1. Mayor Daley's patent nerve gas and blister agent
2. Deadfall traps
3. Grenade launchers
4. Wheelchair clamps
5. Slow burning Napalm (for areas not subject to Smoke Control Orders)
6. Agents provocateurs (to give peaceful protest a riot appearance)
7. Concealed pits with spikes
8. Piano wire snares
9. Remote control tripping devices
10.Tyre necklaces
Gadget's plan B:
Nuke from orbit
Mirror mirror on the chav
ReplyDeleteWho's the fai... fuck, sarge, I've gone blind.
Jaded, I won't get much agreement round here but personally I wouldn't lose much sleep if you had S&W .40s like the ones down here, though having said that I've never heard of Aussie cops harassing someone for taking a picture short of them wearing a dishdash and holding a large black sphere with 'bomb' painted on it. In fact I'd prefer it to lasers and tasers because the consequences for you BiBs (no offence if you're actually a GiB) for pulling the trigger are so serious if you're wrong that it'll always be the last resort. For that matter I wouldn't lose sleep if you could take them home with you simply because you're a law abiding citizen and a responsible adult, but that's a different debate.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, forget the laser thingie unless you want welding goggles and hand held mirrors to be among the the first things looted next time there's a riot. Gadget Plan B is better: it's the only way to be sure.
You wouldn't need all this bollocks if the courts dealt with those found guilty of crimes properly e.g. like just after the summer rioting when crime dropped noticeably as the scumbags actually thought they might get weighed off big time. One of Gadgets earlier request for sentences given to be served in full. Excellent idea. No need for any new laws at all, just need the prison spaces and the will of judges and magistrates to sentence. Oh, and kick the ECHR into touch. Reintroduce the riot act and the reading of it ; if kettled and nicked after this - tough. Only cost - building costs for the 20 new super prisons and staff salaries. Win, win all round for regenerating the economy.
ReplyDeleteHeard of sentencing guidelines ?
ReplyDeleteThings that tie a courts hands ?
NO ?
Read some more.
Released early ?
NOTHING to do with courts, once the tariff has been imposed the rest is up to the PRISON SERVICE.
Angry Exile-I can't decide about being armed full-time.I've decided to stay on the fence.If we get issued guns eventually then I will have one,if we don't then I wont worry about it.I am favour of tazers though.
ReplyDeleteRegarding the mirrors-hadn't thought of that! Hopefully Parliament will bring a law in making it illegal to carry one in public!!.Let's hope the manufacturers have a secret plan to combat this glitch.
Jaded
abused and overused ...
ReplyDeleteThat, or it will locked in the baton round and water cannon cupboard and never used...
Heard of sentencing guidelines ?
ReplyDeleteThings that tie a courts hands ?
YES!
I thought my comment covered that - sentence given- served in full. Fucking sentencing guidelines didn't apply after the rioting did they?
The lasers available on 't net are mostly way over the eye-safe exposure level, and they're only 5mW to 10mW. They can cause permanent retinal damage if directed into an eye.
ReplyDeleteIt's difficult to understand how a high-power police laser could be both temporarily incapacitating and not also cause long-term harm. The sort of coverage mentioned would necessarily involve powers in the Watts region, which would make them cause irreversible, permanent retinal damage at close range. Compared with a plastic baton round, bruising at 30m, but deadly at 5m; these are dangerous weapons unsuitable for the non-technical police and inevitably liable to cause blindness.
I don't have any issue with tasers, but do wonder why our police, who are quite capable of dealing with rioters exactly as most countries police do, if, and here's the big problem the a***holes in charge give them the go-ahead and support them when the inevitable (and yes I have had to restrain a number of people over the years, and it's virtually impossible without some injury if they resist) injuries occur.
ReplyDeleteWhy the demands for guns and high-tech weaponry when, as others have already stated, they wouldn't bloody be needed if the criminals were arrested and sentenced to terms appropriate to their crimes. How many of the supposed rioters had long and extensive criminal records. Many if not most.
It's just another case of punishing (or threatening to) the many for the actions of the few - a liberal/progressive idea that no one is ever responsible for their own actions - it's always someone elses fault.
Lock the usual damn suspects up (yes I know that's the courts and politicians fault) and support the right of individuals to defend themselves and their property and there wouldn't be any riots. As it is I have a horrible feeling that what's gone before will be as nothing to what may come soon - and why not when criminals are actively rewarded for crime.
Why the demands for guns and high-tech weaponry
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure there is a demand. It looks suspiciously like sales hype. A great deal is being made of having persuaded "the police" to test it. It would be interesting to find if any police officers have actually held and fired one or if they've only seen a rather poor graphic of the weapon.
Photonic Security Systems is a Clyde-side Scottish based company with five employees, which was established in 2010.
It appears to be supported by a quango, Scottish Development International.
The anti-piracy system looks promising. Using lasers at sea may present some problem of light bouncing off the surface of the water, but not half so unpredictably as it would in an urban environment which contains a great deal of glass and polished metal in a sticky-up position.
The difference between this and a laser pencil that could temporarily blind a policeman/pilot/MOP is what?
ReplyDeleteSo lets get this right. There is a riot in the high street. Police fire this thing at thug who is standing in front of a glass shopfront. Glass reflects laser. OOps.
ReplyDelete"Easy to criticise Julia,so what equipment should we be allowed to have during riots? Witty retorts? Custard pies?"
ReplyDeleteWhat's wrong with what you already have? Batons, kettling, shields?
The problem in the riots wasn't that you were outgunned, it's that your senior officers were too lily-livered and far too slow to react!
"Mirror mirror on the chav
Who's the fai... fuck, sarge, I've gone blind."
:D
"You wouldn't need all this bollocks if the courts dealt with those found guilty of crimes properly..."
Amen!
"NOTHING to do with courts, once the tariff has been imposed the rest is up to the PRISON SERVICE."
Yes, and that particular Augean stables needs a good hosing out too.
"That, or it will locked in the baton round and water cannon cupboard and never used..."
ReplyDeleteSpot on!
"...these are dangerous weapons unsuitable for the non-technical police and inevitably liable to cause blindness."
It worries me that we seem to be seeking non-lethal methods right out of 'Minority Report'. I wonder if some boffin somewhere is working on a sick-stick too?
"...a liberal/progressive idea that no one is ever responsible for their own actions - it's always someone elses fault."
From the pages of the 'Guardian' to our very own high streets. And yes, like you, I fear there's worse to come...
" It looks suspiciously like sales hype. A great deal is being made of having persuaded "the police" to test it."
Indeed. But, once the idea's out there...
"The difference between this and a laser pencil that could temporarily blind a policeman/pilot/MOP is what?"
ReplyDeleteAbout £735,000 by the time the quango's development costs are taken into account!
It's funny, 'cos they get ever so cross when council estate chavs use them on their helicopters too...
"So lets get this right. There is a riot in the high street. Police fire this thing at thug who is standing in front of a glass shopfront. Glass reflects laser. OOps."
The horror-comic potential is obvious, isn't it?