Slashdot Mirror
UK Police Test 'Temporarily Blinding' LASER
esocid writes "Called the SMU 100 it costs £25,000 and sends out a three-meter 'wall of light' that leaves anyone caught in it briefly unable to see. Designed by a former Royal Marine Commando, it was originally developed for use against pirates in Somalia. While tasers and CS gas work well over short distances the laser is said to be effective at up to 500 meters (1,640ft). Being targeted by the beam has been compared to staring into the sun before being forced to turn away. Paul Kerr, managing director of Clyde-based Photonic Security Systems, which came up with the design, said 'If you can't look at something you can't attack it.'"
I think suicide bombers would disagree.
from 09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0
to 45 2F 6E 40 3C DF 10 71 4E 41 DF AA 25 7D 31 3F
Primary source:
http://www.un.org/millennium/law/xxvi-18-19.htm
And, links to the wikipedia articles (if that's not considered too circular):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Convention_on_Certain_Conventional_Weapons
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protocol_on_Blinding_Laser_Weapons
Blessed is he who expects the worst, for he shall not be disappointed.
Geneva Convention only applies to people you're at war with, not your own citizens.
"Have you ever thought about just turning off the TV, sitting down with your kids, and hitting them?"
Blinding laser weapons are specifically mentioned in the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons annex of the Geneva Conventions.
See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protocol_on_Blinding_Laser_Weapons
And yes, it does make a specific distinction between temporary and permanant blindness, so this thing is almost certainly legal as far as this particular protocol goes.
I should point out though, that the UK police have never even resorted to using water cannons outside of Northern Ireland, and use of riot equipment is a very serious political issue here. Breaking out the doom rays on a crowd of protestors is not going to happen lightly, and if it did happen, it would not be brushed off or ignored afterwards.
One of the most depressing aspects of the Iraq war was the large number of civilian drivers that were fatally shot at check-points.
Although I am pretty sure this goes against a Geneva convention
The relevant international treaty would be the Protocol on Blinding Laser Weapons, but that only covers weapons that cause permanent blindness.
SpyDock: Scientific Python in a Docker container
"The protesters were keeping the police from leaving"
Yet, you can clearly see the officer in the same video, going on the other side of the protester, walking over them casually without any difficulty, while waiving in his hand a can of pepper spray, just before spraying them.
Did you accidentally switch US and UK or something? Cops get away with shooting people in the US all the time. Unless the victim is already handcuffed and in the back of the cruiser, when a cop shoots someone in the US, they're put on paid administrative leave for a few weeks, then returned to duty. Maybe if it's really obvious that the cop had no business shooting the guy, he'll return to duty with a nasty letter in his file.
You can find out how many people have been shot by police over the last 20 or so years here : http://inquest.gn.apc.org/website/statistics/deaths-in-police-custody/police-shootings.
53 (about 2.6 a year). Compare that to other countries.