nonlethal weapons

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3 Journalists Hit With Rubber Bullets, and Cop Is Charged

Detroit Cpl. Daniel Debono faces felony assault charges in May 31 incident

(Newser) - A Detroit police corporal is charged with felony assault after allegedly shooting three journalists with rubber bullets. Nicole Hester of MLive and two photojournalists, Seth Herald for AFP and Matt Hatcher for Getty Images, encountered Cpl. Daniel Debono and two other officers while leaving a protest over the death of...

More and More Cops Carrying Batman-Style Tether

BolaWrap designed to wrap up suspect's arms or legs

(Newser) - Police departments across the country are adopting a nonlethal device that would look right at home on Batman's belt. The hand-held BolaWrap 100 from Wrap Technologies dispenses an 8-foot-long barbed Kevlar cord designed to wrap up a person up to 25 feet away, similar to Batman's trusty tether...

Facing 5 Men, Cop Refuses to Draw His Gun

'We got to use all of the resources before going to deadly physical force'

(Newser) - A New York City police officer who fended off five men with a baton and a couple of kicks says pulling a gun should be a last resort. "Life is precious ... There are other tools that we've been given, other tactics that we've been shown, and we...

This Could Be US Military's Next Wild Weapon

Lasers that can mimic human voices and be projected miles away

(Newser) - The Pentagon is working on a funky new weapon that is, in the words of the estimable Popular Mechanics , "profoundly weird." In short, military scientists aim to use lasers to create what sound like human voices that could be projected afar. These "voices" could then be used...

Cops Sued for Killing Guy, 95, With Bean Bag Gun

Police claimed he was belligerent; family says he couldn't have posed threat

(Newser) - When 95-year-old John Wrana refused to go to the hospital last year for medical treatment, cops in suburban Chicago shot him with "five rounds of bean bag cartridges from a 12 gauge shotgun within a distance of approximately only six to eight feet," according to a lawsuit filed...

Cops Kill 95-Year-Old With Bean-Bag Gun

...Because he refused to get medical help

(Newser) - When a 95-year-old at a Chicago senior living community refused medical treatment, police were called in—and wound up killing the man with a bean-bag gun, the Chicago Tribune reports. Officers were called in Friday night to help a private ambulance crew deal with a "combative" resident being "...

Army Puts Out Call for 'Magic' Hovering Bullet

...bullet would be non-lethal

(Newser) - The Pentagon certainly has imagination when it comes to making up dream weapons. It's put out a new list of weapons small businesses should try to design for it, and one of them is a "Nonlethal Warhead of Miniature Organic Precision Munitions," or what Wired describes as,...

Meet the Police's New 'Sound Canons'

Controversial LRAD can cause 'extreme pain,' hearing loss

(Newser) - Last week's police busts on Occupy camps around the United States saw one of the highest-profile deployments yet of high-tech crowd control: sound cannons, reports the Week . Designed to keep birds out of the way of planes at airports, the "long range acoustic device," or LRAD for...

New Way to Fight Pirates: With a Laser

Weapon emits harmless but effective green light

(Newser) - Somali pirates, beware: British scientists are developing a laser that works by confusing would-be attackers from more than a mile away, the Daily Mail reports. The laser hides the ship in a veil of green light, preventing pirates from easily steering toward or aiming at their victims. “We are...

Fla. Man Dead After Deputies Tase Him

Paramedics refuse to help after ex-con is zapped

(Newser) - A Florida man died yesterday after Broward County deputies Tased him for being "naked and belligerent" in public, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel reports. Paramedics said James Garland, 41, was too violent to treat after being zapped, so deputies drove him to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead. Family...

Ray Gun Eyed for Riot Control
Ray Gun Eyed for Riot Control
Oct 9, 2007 10:12 AM CDT

Ray Gun Eyed for Riot Control

Weapon focuses painful microwave beam on skin, but doesn't kill

(Newser) - The US is eyeing a new weapon said to produce "waves of agony" for its potential in riot control and combat situations, reports Information Week. Raytheon's Silent Guardian aims a highly concentrated beam of millimeter waves, heating water just under the skin in a manner that creates a burning...

11 Stories