Forget water cannons, the future of riot control is here with the Active Denial System or, as its victims like to call it, the Pain Ray.
By Leo Stiles
While we are not in the business of applauding future developments of war technology, we just couldn’t pass up the opportunity to tell you about the US Air Forces latest toy: the Pain Ray.
Pitched as the more benign-sounding Active Denial System, the Pain Ray (a more accurate description) works by firing high intensity radiation waves that causes water and fat molecules in the body to vibrate and heat up.
This results in an acute burning pain that is akin to having a hot light bulb pressed onto your skin. Its key application in a military situation is as riot or crowd control and we can see why, as who in their right mind would want to stay in an area where there is the threat of being shot by a microwave?
There is some debate about the long-term effects of the Pain Ray on the human body and test subjects with piercings and tattoos were more affected as the heated metal/ink made severe burns more likely.
Typically the Air Force has been reticent about releasing their findings on test subjects and the science behind the project has not been peer-reviewed enough to calm concerns as to the safety of the technology.
Critics of the technology argue that the use of the Active Denial System is not humane, a sentiment that appears laughable when you think about how humane it is for someone to receive a bullet into their lower intestine, but these concerns were echoed by the withdrawal of the weapon from the war in Afghanistan just one month after it was first deployed in June of this year.
According to official sources the weapon was never used in the field after Army chiefs questioned the damage it would do to making the American soldiers appear more humane and more measured in the eyes of the Afghani people.
An Army rejection of a weapon would usually spell the end for most technologies but the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department offered the Pain Ray a lifeline when it acquired a six-month trial to use a scaled-back version of the weapon in the county’s Pitchess Detention Centre.
Yes, the country that brought you the delights of water boarding and extraordinary rendition now says it’s ok to microwave prison inmates and if you thought you might get all up in arms about human rights abuses then we assure you that any protests will be falling on deaf ears – LA penal officials have said that their use of the technology will save lives in prison and will allow the American public to see some good out of a $40 million development programme.
Here at JOE, we wouldn’t condone the use of a pain ray in prisons but we are sure that an active denial system that targets politicians could be just the ticket for dispersing the incompetent Government before it does any more damage to the country.
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