climate of fear

a shotgun firing blanks at close range can kill with ease. these new weapons are absolutely guaranteed to stop human beings in their tracks, whilst inflicting (just about) the maximum corporeal damage possible within the framework of the law. there is every possibility that these kind of cartridges will fall foul of the geneva convention, which a) proscribes the use of shotguns (using flechette or area-effect ammunition) and b) the use of torture against protected persons, i.e. non-combatants and civilians. this is an American weapon and the US don't give a flying fuck about this, of course: even their police go tooled up with these brutally inhumane devices. that this country is considering following American lead on this particular issue shows the depths to which this country's leadership has sunk and belies the total lack of regard in which they hold their population. i should imagine liberty international will be taking a very dim view of the above described weaponry, and rightly so.

it seems that we may now face a situation where the police may be carrying loaded shotguns on UK streets. how are civilians supposed to react to this overt display of force? not even our military use shotguns against enemy combatants. what the fuck are the government on? if these 'less-than-lethal' weapons are deployed, criminals will have to get actual guns and the police will have no-one to blame but themselves when they start getting pulped in their boots. no sensible career criminal will want to start carrying heavy metal, but by upping this particular ante the government will render very heavily leaded firearms the only remaining option to the serious outlaw. moreover, these devices, once in general use throughout the MET (for it will be they doing the testing) will, absolutely guaranteed, be used against innocents, peaceful protesters in the interests of 'maintaining order' - viz. repression.

the cops, like anyone trying to do a difficult job, will always moan that they don't have enough resources. this may be true in certain cases, but they don't need to be armed with shotguns loaded with high tech weaponry to protect the public from itself - they can already deploy lethal weapons when necessary, a truncheon should be more than sufficient when not. it is hard to admit, but when our establishment considers arming its civilian peacekeepers with weapons like shotgun fired electric shock ammunition, it only seems to be seeking the next step on the route to blur the line between citizen and criminal.

i read articles like the above and cannot help but think about civil disobedience. AC for very fucking obvious reasons.

Slippery slope

"Less lethal" weapons are always deployed on the basis that "it's better than shooting them with a gun".

But the procedures in place for investigating a taser discharge are much much more relaxed than the procedures for investigating a fatal shooting. (And it seems even an unprovoked fatal shooting of an innocent man won't get a cop fired).

So the cops use them routinely for trivial things that couldn't possibly justify the use of a gun. They do this because it makes the cop's job easier and safer and they know there won't be repercussions. Cops have no incentive to care about the possibly innocent person they're tasering. (Of course, good cops will care and won't use tasers in this way. But in any job there are plenty of people who don't care, and need an incentive. The good cops might also get in trouble for spending an hour to talk down the guy with a knife, when they could've just spent 1 minute tasering him and then gone on to the next job).

The only solution is to refuse any deployment of tasers.

As I understand it...

...tasers employ Direct Current rather than Alternating Current, so it shouldn't be necessary to ground oneself to defend from them. All that would be needed is a preferred path for the electricity to the salt-water in human flesh. Metal mesh should do the job nicely--with lower resistance, the electricity should prefer the metal, giving you a much weaker shock should you still be contacted.

People have mentioned missed shots that hit innocents. I'm wondering what'll happen if said shot happens to go in the drink...or worse, into an occupied swimming pool.