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Modern arms in the war against behavior deviant from the system
By Thomas Meyer Falk
A: Introduction
: By chance I learned about a study accessible to the
STOA(Scientific And Technological Options Assessment) committee of the
European Parliament.
The title of this paper which contains 120 pages and was distributed to the committee members in July 2000 is:"Prison Technology- An appraisel of technologies of political control"
The study is concerned with means and options of supervising above all prisoners or convicted people under probation who are allowed to move freely, and of breaking possible physical resistence,e.g. in the case of an attack of the imprisoned person against the staff.
However, reading the report makes clear that prisons and convicted people serve as areas of experiment for those modern techniques which will later be used especially by the police and"institutions of public safety" to supervise the population and to suppress unwanted resistence (e.g. "wild strikes", demonstrations, uprisings)
In the following I will give a survey of the technical means dealt with. Bt the study, before I end with an outlook.
B: Electronical supervising technology
In this sector there is a distinction between 3 main technologies:
1: Electronic monitoring (EM)
2: Video supervision (VS; german: "Videouberwachung" = VU)
3: Biometrical Identification (BI)
1: Electronic Monitoring (EM)
EM refers to the supervision of individuals by electronical parts attached to the body (e.g. a box of the size of a cigarette box tied to a wrist or an ankle). There are active EM systems: here the device sends out a permanent signal to a control room. If the supervised person leaves a certain radius which has been priorily ascribed to her or him, an alarm is released.
The passive system, mainly used for "electronical house arrest" implies that the person is called at home and must then enter a number in the phone for confirmation. This number is shown on the display of the device which has been attached to the body. This way it is ensured that it is indeed the person in question who is at home, entering the number. (That number, by the way, is created by a computer programme in the chip of the electronical chains.) In both cases the destruction of the tie or the box itself causes a defect which results in an alarm signal.
What is today "only" designed for (former) prisoners and used in some countries like Germany, the U.S., or Great Britain, can just as well be applied to "normal citizens". For example in order to supervise politically undesired people and their places of residence and action. And this is not an Orwellian idea. In 2000 and 2001, German security institutions decided to stop certain anti-fascist and anti-capitalist comrades from travelling to demonstrations in other countries. In order to conrol their not-travelling, they had to register regularly at local police station. It will only be consistent if they have to wear an EM device in the future.
2: Video supervision (VS)
Probably all of us have cameras in public places, in banks, subway stations and other places. In Great Britain sales in the VS industry add up to 150 million pounds per year; in GB alone 300000 cameras supervise "public places"!
Modern cameras can identify the name on a cigarette box over a distance of up 100 metres. By skilful combination with computer software, control rooms with cameras can identify faces in crowds, compare car registration plates with data bases, and so on. So that the citizens, once they leave their apartments, are subject to a total and comprehensive control by the state or safety institutions.
This is also not an apocalyptic irrational horror scenario, but everyday life, e.g. in the city centre of London and in some cities in the US.
3: Biometrical Identification (BI)
BI is based on the fact that certain traits in each person are unique, so that he or she is individually identifiable among the 6 billion inhabitants of this earth. Examples include fingerprints (known since the 19th century) and newer methodes of controls of the iris or the retina (both are as unique as a fingerprint), or DNA analyses and geometrical data of the body or body parts.
In the USA it has been ordered that there must be forced contols in all national prisons. In these controls the geometrical data of the hands of all prisoners, visitors (relatives, friends, lawyers), staff, suppliers, etc, i.e. of each person entering the prison, are taken, recorded and added to a central data base. Institutions in Germany think about adding biometrical data to identity cards. This is a threshold to a system enabling complete control.
C. Neutralization technologies (NT)
The term is a euphemism for killing somebody, or making him or her unable to fight, i.e. to "neutralize" the person.
Today we will only deal with non-lethal technical tools, i.e. tools not killing people.
The pioneers in this section are the US, especially the military. Many of the following devices have been developped for being used in wars, and are now slowly entering the spheres of both state and private security institutions and prisons.
Five main technologies shall be shortly introduced:
1: Laser technology
Torch-like lamps have been developped for the US- Air Force. Instead of normal light, they send out pulsating short-wave laser light (650 mm- red laser; 532 mm- green laser ); thus putting the victims to a state of complete disorientation. The US "tested" these devices several years ago during their operation in Somalia under UN leadership.
These weapons can be used in daylight and from a distance of up to 50m against individuals or crowds.
2: Electrical shock devices
Developped in the 60s, devices with a voltage of up to 300000V have been introduced e.g. by the police offices of L.A. from 1980 onwards.
Today there are 5 times as frequent as pepper spray or CS gas.
The physical results of the electrical shocks: complete loss of control of the muscles, spontaneous urinating and shitting, enormous pain, sometimes even casualties, for the electrical shocks can cause malfunction of the heart.
Batons with a voltage of 160000V (when hiting a body) can be bought for $69,95.
Another one of the electrical shockers is called "sticky shocker", a projectile which attends to the clothing and sends out waves of 50000V.
Let us quote the head of the board of directors of STUNTECH, a compagny located in the US.:"Electricity talks to all people the same language. No translations are necessary. Everyone is afraid of electricity and this is a good thing."
Besides, hundreds of so-called "stun belts" have been, and still are, sold to prisons in the US. They are belts containing an electrical shock device activated wirelessly. They send out electrical shock waves of 50000V for 8 seconds. In Louisiana HIV-infected prisoners regarded as "dangerous" have to wear these belts throughout the time of their imprisonment.
3: "Capture Nets"
With a shooting device similar to a gun a capsule can be fired up to a distance of 30 m which then spreads out to a KEVELAR net , rendering the victim unable to move, especially if an electrical shocking device is integrated. This tool was originally designed to be used on animals!
4: Chemical weapons
Best known and mostly spread are CS & CN (tear gas) and pepper spray.
Almost all states in the world keep those substances and regularly use them.
The physical results are irritations of the eyes, breathing problems occasionally causing death, disorientation and pain in the face and the respiratory organs.
A German minister of the interior said at the end of the year 2001 when pepper spray was introduced to the police forces in his federal state that now weapons were being "ecologized". Thus he wanted to play down the disastrous effects that pepper spray may cause.
5: Future technologies
The "Non-Leathal-Weapons-Programme" of the US ministry of defense plans to get the following weapons ready for use within the next 5 to 10 years:
"Sticky Foam", a substance sprayed out by means of a pistol (resemblingthe childrens toy of a water pistol with a water tank) and hardening immediately. A person hit by it is rendered unable to move.
Weapons of sound; sound of a very low frequency (16 Hertz) and strong intensity leads to nausea, vomiting, and disorientation
Electro-magnetic weapons; the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee has been ordered to develop a weapon to make victims fall unconscious or at least disorientated by means of electro-magnetic fields.
D: Outlook
Reading the article up to this point may have made you feel uneasy; at some points you may have shaken your head,thinking"allthis cant be true."
Well, all of these devices are dealt with in detail in the above-mentioned report and are-with the exception of future technologies mentioned under C.5- being used world-wide day after day. We are dealing with technically well-armed governments and security institutions that are prepared to do anything; they will carry on developping devices for better supervisions and "neutralization"! And even if those technologies are said to be used in prisons, every day life proves that most of the devices are found anywhere.
That means people who believe its only a question of controlling criminals are mistaken.
In view of a globalizing resistance against inhuman capitalism we have to state that there is a globalization of the military and paramilitary apparatuses of the governments aiming at maintaining the status quo. Individual human rights dont count for these governments (compare the"treatment" of the Afghanic prisoners of war in Guantanamo/Cuba or the regular reports by Amnesty International on torture and murder). We should draw our conclusions from that.
AGAINST TORTURE AND OPPRESSION!
AGAINST EXPLOITATION AND OPPRESSION!
FOR FREEDOM AND HUMAN DIGNITY!
The title of this paper which contains 120 pages and was distributed to the committee members in July 2000 is:"Prison Technology- An appraisel of technologies of political control"
The study is concerned with means and options of supervising above all prisoners or convicted people under probation who are allowed to move freely, and of breaking possible physical resistence,e.g. in the case of an attack of the imprisoned person against the staff.
However, reading the report makes clear that prisons and convicted people serve as areas of experiment for those modern techniques which will later be used especially by the police and"institutions of public safety" to supervise the population and to suppress unwanted resistence (e.g. "wild strikes", demonstrations, uprisings)
In the following I will give a survey of the technical means dealt with. Bt the study, before I end with an outlook.
B: Electronical supervising technology
In this sector there is a distinction between 3 main technologies:
1: Electronic monitoring (EM)
2: Video supervision (VS; german: "Videouberwachung" = VU)
3: Biometrical Identification (BI)
1: Electronic Monitoring (EM)
EM refers to the supervision of individuals by electronical parts attached to the body (e.g. a box of the size of a cigarette box tied to a wrist or an ankle). There are active EM systems: here the device sends out a permanent signal to a control room. If the supervised person leaves a certain radius which has been priorily ascribed to her or him, an alarm is released.
The passive system, mainly used for "electronical house arrest" implies that the person is called at home and must then enter a number in the phone for confirmation. This number is shown on the display of the device which has been attached to the body. This way it is ensured that it is indeed the person in question who is at home, entering the number. (That number, by the way, is created by a computer programme in the chip of the electronical chains.) In both cases the destruction of the tie or the box itself causes a defect which results in an alarm signal.
What is today "only" designed for (former) prisoners and used in some countries like Germany, the U.S., or Great Britain, can just as well be applied to "normal citizens". For example in order to supervise politically undesired people and their places of residence and action. And this is not an Orwellian idea. In 2000 and 2001, German security institutions decided to stop certain anti-fascist and anti-capitalist comrades from travelling to demonstrations in other countries. In order to conrol their not-travelling, they had to register regularly at local police station. It will only be consistent if they have to wear an EM device in the future.
2: Video supervision (VS)
Probably all of us have cameras in public places, in banks, subway stations and other places. In Great Britain sales in the VS industry add up to 150 million pounds per year; in GB alone 300000 cameras supervise "public places"!
Modern cameras can identify the name on a cigarette box over a distance of up 100 metres. By skilful combination with computer software, control rooms with cameras can identify faces in crowds, compare car registration plates with data bases, and so on. So that the citizens, once they leave their apartments, are subject to a total and comprehensive control by the state or safety institutions.
This is also not an apocalyptic irrational horror scenario, but everyday life, e.g. in the city centre of London and in some cities in the US.
3: Biometrical Identification (BI)
BI is based on the fact that certain traits in each person are unique, so that he or she is individually identifiable among the 6 billion inhabitants of this earth. Examples include fingerprints (known since the 19th century) and newer methodes of controls of the iris or the retina (both are as unique as a fingerprint), or DNA analyses and geometrical data of the body or body parts.
In the USA it has been ordered that there must be forced contols in all national prisons. In these controls the geometrical data of the hands of all prisoners, visitors (relatives, friends, lawyers), staff, suppliers, etc, i.e. of each person entering the prison, are taken, recorded and added to a central data base. Institutions in Germany think about adding biometrical data to identity cards. This is a threshold to a system enabling complete control.
C. Neutralization technologies (NT)
The term is a euphemism for killing somebody, or making him or her unable to fight, i.e. to "neutralize" the person.
Today we will only deal with non-lethal technical tools, i.e. tools not killing people.
The pioneers in this section are the US, especially the military. Many of the following devices have been developped for being used in wars, and are now slowly entering the spheres of both state and private security institutions and prisons.
Five main technologies shall be shortly introduced:
1: Laser technology
Torch-like lamps have been developped for the US- Air Force. Instead of normal light, they send out pulsating short-wave laser light (650 mm- red laser; 532 mm- green laser ); thus putting the victims to a state of complete disorientation. The US "tested" these devices several years ago during their operation in Somalia under UN leadership.
These weapons can be used in daylight and from a distance of up to 50m against individuals or crowds.
2: Electrical shock devices
Developped in the 60s, devices with a voltage of up to 300000V have been introduced e.g. by the police offices of L.A. from 1980 onwards.
Today there are 5 times as frequent as pepper spray or CS gas.
The physical results of the electrical shocks: complete loss of control of the muscles, spontaneous urinating and shitting, enormous pain, sometimes even casualties, for the electrical shocks can cause malfunction of the heart.
Batons with a voltage of 160000V (when hiting a body) can be bought for $69,95.
Another one of the electrical shockers is called "sticky shocker", a projectile which attends to the clothing and sends out waves of 50000V.
Let us quote the head of the board of directors of STUNTECH, a compagny located in the US.:"Electricity talks to all people the same language. No translations are necessary. Everyone is afraid of electricity and this is a good thing."
Besides, hundreds of so-called "stun belts" have been, and still are, sold to prisons in the US. They are belts containing an electrical shock device activated wirelessly. They send out electrical shock waves of 50000V for 8 seconds. In Louisiana HIV-infected prisoners regarded as "dangerous" have to wear these belts throughout the time of their imprisonment.
3: "Capture Nets"
With a shooting device similar to a gun a capsule can be fired up to a distance of 30 m which then spreads out to a KEVELAR net , rendering the victim unable to move, especially if an electrical shocking device is integrated. This tool was originally designed to be used on animals!
4: Chemical weapons
Best known and mostly spread are CS & CN (tear gas) and pepper spray.
Almost all states in the world keep those substances and regularly use them.
The physical results are irritations of the eyes, breathing problems occasionally causing death, disorientation and pain in the face and the respiratory organs.
A German minister of the interior said at the end of the year 2001 when pepper spray was introduced to the police forces in his federal state that now weapons were being "ecologized". Thus he wanted to play down the disastrous effects that pepper spray may cause.
5: Future technologies
The "Non-Leathal-Weapons-Programme" of the US ministry of defense plans to get the following weapons ready for use within the next 5 to 10 years:
"Sticky Foam", a substance sprayed out by means of a pistol (resemblingthe childrens toy of a water pistol with a water tank) and hardening immediately. A person hit by it is rendered unable to move.
Weapons of sound; sound of a very low frequency (16 Hertz) and strong intensity leads to nausea, vomiting, and disorientation
Electro-magnetic weapons; the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee has been ordered to develop a weapon to make victims fall unconscious or at least disorientated by means of electro-magnetic fields.
D: Outlook
Reading the article up to this point may have made you feel uneasy; at some points you may have shaken your head,thinking"allthis cant be true."
Well, all of these devices are dealt with in detail in the above-mentioned report and are-with the exception of future technologies mentioned under C.5- being used world-wide day after day. We are dealing with technically well-armed governments and security institutions that are prepared to do anything; they will carry on developping devices for better supervisions and "neutralization"! And even if those technologies are said to be used in prisons, every day life proves that most of the devices are found anywhere.
That means people who believe its only a question of controlling criminals are mistaken.
In view of a globalizing resistance against inhuman capitalism we have to state that there is a globalization of the military and paramilitary apparatuses of the governments aiming at maintaining the status quo. Individual human rights dont count for these governments (compare the"treatment" of the Afghanic prisoners of war in Guantanamo/Cuba or the regular reports by Amnesty International on torture and murder). We should draw our conclusions from that.
AGAINST TORTURE AND OPPRESSION!
AGAINST EXPLOITATION AND OPPRESSION!
FOR FREEDOM AND HUMAN DIGNITY!