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Anti-Empire
The Saker Indymedia Ireland is a volunteer-run non-commercial open publishing website for local and international news, opinion & analysis, press releases and events. Its main objective is to enable the public to participate in reporting and analysis of the news and other important events and aspects of our daily lives and thereby give a voice to people.
Public InquiryInterested in maladministration. Estd. 2005
Human Rights in IrelandIndymedia Ireland is a volunteer-run non-commercial open publishing website for local and international news, opinion & analysis, press releases and events. Its main objective is to enable the public to participate in reporting and analysis of the news and other important events and aspects of our daily lives and thereby give a voice to people.
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Gardai test lethal weapons national |
miscellaneous |
news report
 Monday May 05, 2003 00:13 by Noone aracegoneinsane at hotmail dot com
 The Garda have ordered a new range of non-lethal weapons for testing, which have claimed dozens of lives. TWO supposedly 'non-lethal' weapons being tested by the gardai as a result of the fatal shooting of John Carthy in Abbeylara have been involved in dozens of deaths when used by police in the US, Canada and Australia, it has emerged. Several police forces have withdrawn the weapons and at least one force is suing manufacturers. The 'bean bag' round, which manufacturers say is fired from a 12-guage shotgun, is supposed to be a safer alternative to the live round. It is one of two 'non-lethal' weapons recently acquired by the gardai for testing. The other is a highly controversial 'pepper' spray, using oleoresin capsicum - chilli pepper in an aerosol form - which is claimed to be highly dangerous when used near people with respiratory illness like asthma. It is being associated with dozens of deaths in the United States and elsewhere. The gardai are testing the weapons as part of its response to the controversy over the Carthy killing in April 2000. Gardai at the scene had only automatic shotguns, machine guns and hand guns. Sources say that in recent weeks the gardai have taken delivery of two 'non-lethal' weapons for testing, presumably prior to deployment to officers in potentially dangerous situations. Many other police forces have already been issued with the weapons around the world but assessment of their effectiveness is still in its early stages. Aerosol pepper sprays are very widely used and are reported to have caused deaths in as many as 60 cases. Opponents of the sprays which used capsaicin, the active chemical ingredient in chillies, say it is most commonly used as a crowd control weapon, particularly at demonstrations. It is widely used as a 'deterrent'. The bean bag is being dropped by police forces across the US who had been using it since the mid-1990s as an alternative to shooting people with live rounds. Claims by the manufacturers that the bean bag round, a tea-bag sized pouch made of synthetic material filled with lead shot, are being hotly disputed following the deaths of at least 12 people in the United States and Canada. The bean bags are supposed to bounce off their human targets, yet experience has shown that they are capable of penetrating people's chests, pulverising limbs, rupturing eyeballs and, in at least one instance, penetrating deep into a man's chest. In Los Angeles, the weapon was withdrawn following the death of a mentally ill man hit by a bag. Police concluded that the rounds frequently failed to work as designed and the Huntington Beach Police are suing the country's largest bean bag manufacturer, claiming that the company failed to properly warn police about the dangers of the rounds. Bean bag manufacturers defend the accuracy and safety record of their products, saying the ammunitions should only bruise or graze a target when used correctly. They maintain that many of the deaths and severe injuries have been caused when officers fire from too close a range or aim for sensitive areas. The bean bags are designed to unfurl when fired, slapping a suspect with their open face but tests discovered that the rounds often strike on an edge or while still curled up, turning them into sometimes deadly projectiles. Sales of the bean bag have dropped dramatically as a result of their re-evaluation by police. Police dispute claims by manufacturers that injuries are caused by firing the weapons too close to the targets. Capsicum spray is also under re-evaluation following reports of serious incidents worldwide and at least 60 connected deaths in the US. When sprayed into a person's face, it causes blood vessels to dilate rapidly, bronchial passages to constrict, mucous membranes to secrete freely and eyes to burn and close tightly. The pain can be extreme. JIM CUSACK (Wasnt sure if URL would work, so I posted the article itself.) |
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Comments (6 of 6)
Jump To Comment: 6 5 4 3 2 1The gardai are also "field testing" out 100 Telescopic steel batons (or night sticks as they are known in the US) in 10 regions throughout the country.
Havent heard of any sightings of them in public, nor have i heard any reports of their use.
Wonder how they 'field test' them? 10 cops in the backyard truncheoning the stuffing out of a bean-bag burglar?
I don't get you meaning "GUNMAN"?
Are you looking for a list of my "activities", are you looking for ideas and direction or are you just having a heckle?
Instead of blathering on about US muliti national companies supplying TASERS,paranoid rants about PULSE.What are you/me goin to do about it???
Nice big private sector job on the cards?
Today Reichfurher McDowell called for the law to be changed so he could privatise out the "points system insurance racket" and other "Speed trap rackets" and the like from the Garda to the private maney-train sector. You know, the areas of the Garda that they have been fattening up for privatisation for years. Don't worry about the Gardai having too much access to you tax, social welfare, and other records through P.U.L.S.E. They will only have the terminals. The sustem itself will be run by the "best qualified" lowest bidder. America is full of such companies develoed by the NSA for just such a time when the world would accecpt their control.
Like Bush with Halliburton, "Mr McDrool & Co." will make sure the contracts go to "ze right peeple" .
How about Israeli cmpanies on the M50 doing speed traps? "Pay up or your home will be rocketed". The future is only as riduculous and absurd as the the minds of some of the little Hitlers we have allowed by our apathy and belief in our own powerlessness to run the "regime" for so long.
When we wake up we can start to make it better.
Pat Byrne is resigning soon.
The contracts for these very expensive toys will go to the same manufacturers who are already making a fortune from supplying the US and its slaves markets.
With the stroke of a pen Comissioner Pat Byrne can give a few of his friends(FBI) friends (US Corporations) a nice amount of the Irish peoples money.
Can't you just see him and McDrool out in the woods having a sniff of the marching powder and playing "paint-ball" at the Irish taxpayers expense. My word can't these basterds really piss down on us when we give them power without accountability?