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DC police used sonic cannon to direct crowd flow during Women's March

muckrock.com

81–90 of 216 posts

Re: DC police used sonic cannon to direct crowd flow during Women's March

#81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I really agree with this. Specifically, American politics, although technically democratic, is not representational. The US elections are first past the post, where as Australia's is order of preference with instant runoff (you literally cannot throw your vote away) and New Zealand's is MMP (where 50% of Parliament gets equal representation based on party preference and the other 50% get the majority vote). Also, Ame…

> where as Australia's is order of preference with instant runoff (you literally cannot throw your vote away) This is a tangent, but IRV is horribly broken: it throws your vote away for you, by ignoring all your preferences other than the top choice until it decides that your top choice no longer matters. If you vote A > B > C, IRC ignores that you prefer B over C until it eliminates A. That can cause C to win. That…

It is also a powerful force for forcing cooperation between political parties, which trade preference deals.

This is a powerful force for centrism, an important feature of stable democracies - compare australia’s Relatively centrist governmnents and political parties (despite what the stagnation we see at present) VS the vast and expanding gulf between us parties

Re: DC police used sonic cannon to direct crowd flow during Women's March

#82
post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not simply (ed: only) based on ethnicity.

It's definitely not. My dad had one of those 'extensive questioning' sessions the first time (and only the first time) he flew to Israel because (we think) he is former non-US military. He's also whiter than snow, basically the definition of Caucasian.

You're right that there are many ways to profile, but race and religion have been historically pervasive profiling techniques.

It does seem more fair to simply put everyone through the same process. If you're annoyed at why you (an innocent) have to be subjected to such stringent and time consuming security, that's how innocents who fit "the profile" might feel as well.

Re: DC police used sonic cannon to direct crowd flow during Women's March

#83
post #17

High power directed ultrasound can potentially cause brain damage from induced mechanical strain in brain tissue. I feel like parametric ultrasonic speakers should be more stringently regulated before every single police department starts using them as if they were regular loudspeakers. I support requiring something akin to an amateur radio license to operate high powered parametric ultrasonic speakers.

It’ll take some high dollar lawsuits getting paid out before any regulation around these will happen.

Ah, one of the remaining only ways "doing the right thing" ever gets done in the States these days.

Why can countries like South Korea, Taiwan or Japan provide public services like roads, internet infrastructure, police and healthcare at an incredibly small fraction of the cost that is lightyeaes ahead in quality and competency (for the 99%)?

Re: DC police used sonic cannon to direct crowd flow during Women's March

#84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And that wasn't even a candidate with a positive approval rating...

During the election? Yeah. Before the election? No. https://elections.huffingtonpost.com/pollster/hillary-clinto... Before the election she was a Senator, a Secretary of State, a First Lady and about 20 times the Most Admired Woman in America. Her unpopularity was manufactured. It says more about the electorate than the woman.

That chart shows her popularity dropping starting around 2010 and her unfavorability going up big time in 2015. All before the election.

Re: DC police used sonic cannon to direct crowd flow during Women's March

#85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

During the election? Yeah. Before the election? No. https://elections.huffingtonpost.com/pollster/hillary-clinto... Before the election she was a Senator, a Secretary of State, a First Lady and about 20 times the Most Admired Woman in America. Her unpopularity was manufactured. It says more about the electorate than the woman.

That chart shows her popularity dropping starting around 2010 and her unfavorability going up big time in 2015. All before the election.

Now why would that be? Must have been something. Not sure what it was. Maybe you can remind me. It was repeated over and over and over, endlessly. You'd think I'd be able to remember it. I'll think of it eventually.

Re: DC police used sonic cannon to direct crowd flow during Women's March

#86
post #17

High power directed ultrasound can potentially cause brain damage from induced mechanical strain in brain tissue. I feel like parametric ultrasonic speakers should be more stringently regulated before every single police department starts using them as if they were regular loudspeakers. I support requiring something akin to an amateur radio license to operate high powered parametric ultrasonic speakers.

It’ll take some high dollar lawsuits getting paid out before any regulation around these will happen.

Even that won't cause any real regulation. If anything the legal battles will just drag on for years before they're eventually settled out of court for almost nothing.

Re: DC police used sonic cannon to direct crowd flow during Women's March

#87
post #18

America's becoming the scary police state we all despise. And with good tech.

becoming? It's been this way for a very long time. Very few major media outlets cover the Democrat/Republican National Conventions, but you can watch videos online of the protests from past years going back quite a bit. Rage Against the Machine use to do protests at both the DNC and RNC which I thought was hilarious. It's very common for protesters to be smoke bombed, herded, arrested and detained. There are several…

> Trump coined the term "fake news"

Trump did not, in fact, coin the term “fake news”.

Re: DC police used sonic cannon to direct crowd flow during Women's March

#88
post #53

I wonder what kind of hearing protection the police use while this is active. I feel like it'd be a hazardous job to operate this frequently. Also, is it illegal for a civilian to own and use one?

If it is just a speaker I doubt it is illegal to own but operating it such that it causes hearing loss could probably be considered assault.

[deleted]

Re: DC police used sonic cannon to direct crowd flow during Women's March

#89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even if she won, she was still the Secretary of State that gave us more predator drones, more bombing and served under a president that spent every day at work (the first president in history). I feel like people don't realize the corruption is pretty equal between both candidates/parties, they just toss a few pandering policies here and there to get people angry, or spin things differently.

> I feel like people don't realize the corruption is pretty equal between both candidates/parties So what? Even if one accepts the unimaginative premise that all politicians are equally corrupt, there are very clear differences in the policies they enact, so it is a rational decision to make discerning choices between them; the implied suggestion that it's all a wash is very obviously incorrect.

If you look at the primary abuses of the plutocracy in the States (ie War Complex, Wall Street & Central Bankkng, psrticulsr kinds of constitutional abuses) there is little difference. For example, Goldman Sachs wins with unelected powerful positions after every election(1). Obama was anti war and said he would protect whistle blowers, but prosecuted more whistle blowers than any president in history, and dropped over 25,000 bombs, primarily targeting Muslims. He also didn't stand up to the healthcare lobbies, or use any seriois political capital to end unconstitutional Guantanamo. So you can't tell me any rhetoric coming from our last presidents has much of anything to do with what really matters in the world. All the huffing and puffing is just targeted at people's emotions to keep them occupied with political battles other than going after the plutocracy.

Re: DC police used sonic cannon to direct crowd flow during Women's March

#90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

El Al security is not a good model at all. I'm still yet to figure out what they achieved by seizing my backpack (that had all of my personal documentation) and damaging my brand new MBP 2016 and Pixel tablet (by very clearly dropping them a dozen times) had to do with security. Especially when they lied about putting it on the plane and I arrived at Ben Gurion with literally nothing other than a passport in one pock…

Why has El Al security seized your backpack? I can see why they'd want to search a backpack, but can't for the life of me understand why they'd seize it. I know airlines can sometimes check-in your carry-on items when they run out of cabin space. Is this what happened to you?

Seized my 23" LG travel monitor for 3 weeks, claiming it was a potential bomb.

Fortunately I was in Israel for 4 months, so a minor inconvenience in the scheme of things, but still, seemed a bit over the top...until I stepped out of the airport and saw teenagers wielding machine guns (serving in military), the Israelis aren't messing around ;-)

If you're Israeli I'd imagine the security measures aren't nearly as stringent.

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