"Riot Control" Drone To Shoot Pepper Spray Bullets At Protesters

Experts slam technology: "deeply disturbing," "will maim and kill"
by Steve Watson

A drone that is capable of firing 400 rounds of pepper spray and paint balls, as well as employing ?blinding lasers? and loudspeakers to deter protesters has been developed and sold to an undisclosed company following a demonstration at a trade show in London.

Reports indicate that an undisclosed mining company in South Africa has purchased 25 of the ?Skunk riot control copter? devices developed by military surveillance and communications contractor?Desert Wolf.

The company?s website describes the drone as being ?equipped with 4 high-capacity paint ball barrels firing at up to 20 bullets per second each, with 80 Pepper bullets per second stopping any crowd in?its tracks.?

?The current hopper capacity of 4000 bullets and High Pressure Carbon Fiber Air system it allows for real stopping power.? the description continues. ?Bright strobe lights, blinding Lasers and with on-board speakers enables communication and warnings to the crowd,? the company also notes.

Defence Web notes?that the eight-rotored drone also has high definition and thermal vision cameras, and comes with a ground control station to be operated by two people.

Desert Wolf?s director, Hennie Kieser, notes that the operators will be monitored by a camera and microphone, to ensure that they are not ? too aggressive?.

Exactly who will be watching them on the camera and listening to them on the microphone is not explained.

The BBC reports?that a batch of the drones is to be deployed this month by mine owners in South Africa, where worker strikes and protests have led to violence.

Desert Wolf says that the drone?s initial deployment will lead to more orders from police and security companies. Technological and worker?s right experts, on the other hand, are not so happy with the development.

?This is a deeply disturbing and repugnant development and we are convinced that any reasonable government will move quickly to stop the deployment of advanced battlefield technology on workers or indeed the public involved in legitimate protests and demonstrations,? said International Trade Union Confederation spokesman Tim Noonan.

?We will be taking this up as a matter of urgency with the unions in the mining sector globally,? he added, vowing to discover exactly who has purchased the machines.

Noel Sharkey, chair of the International Committee for Robot Arms Control campaign group, described the technology as a facilitation of ?creeping authoritarianism and the suppression of protest?.

?Firing plastic balls or bullets from the air will maim and kill,? Sharkey said.

?Using pepper spray against a crowd of protesters is a form of torture and should not be allowed. We urgently need an investigation by the international community before these drones are used.? he added.

Guy Martin, the editor of Defence Web, described the drone as ?a logical next step in the development of UAVs,? adding ?but nevertheless it is a watershed moment in their evolution and goes to show that UAVs have almost unlimited uses.?

?I predict that we will see a whole new wave of UAVs emerging with payloads more unusual than tasers, dart guns and paint ball guns.? Martin added.

Weaponised drones have long been on the horizon.?Both?government?and?private companies?have considered the development of the technology. When a taser drone was developed and displayed by a hobbyist in Texas recently, both military and police departments expressed interest, unaware that it was purely a?publicity stunt aimed at raising awareness of and debate surrounding such technology.

The technology conjures up memories of the flying saucer spy drones from the 1988 dystopian cult classic movie?They Live. Philip K. Dick's?Minority Report?also features drone robots that can administer electrical shocks to suspects. The opening of George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty Four also features the idea of police flying overhead and snooping into homes. With guns fitted to such devices, as these developers have demonstrated, this nightmare vision is set to become a shocking reality.
_
Steve Watson?is a London based writer and editor for Alex Jones??Infowars.com, and?Prisonplanet.com. He has a Masters Degree in International Relations from the School of Politics at The University of Nottingham, and a Bachelor Of Arts Degree in Literature and Creative Writing from Nottingham Trent University.

View the original article here

Officials: Boston Suspect Had No Firearm When Barrage Of Bullets Hit Hiding Place

By Sari Horwitz and Peter Finn

Although police feared he was heavily armed, the suspect in the Boston Marathon bombing had no firearms when he came under a barrage of police gunfire that struck the boat where he was hiding, according to multiple federal law enforcement officials.

Authorities said they were desperate to capture Dzhokhar Tsarnaev so he could be questioned. The FBI, however, declined to discuss what prompted the gunfire.

Other law enforcement officials said the shooting may have been prompted by the chaos of the moment and some action that led the officers to believe Tsarnaev had fired a weapon or was about to detonate explosives.

These new details emerged as investigators continued their examination of the movements and motives of Tsarnaev, 19, and his brother, Tamerlan, in last week?s coordinated bombing, which killed three people and wounded more than 250.

Read More

(function(d, s, id) {var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];if (d.getElementById(id)) return;js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id;js.src = "//connect.facebook.net/en_US/all.js#xfbml=1";fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);}(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk'));

Latest Cover-Up/Deceptions
- Boston Bombings: State Trooper Fired Over 10 Shots At Unmarked Police Car, Transit Officer Likely Victim Of Friendly Fire
- 7-Eleven robbery not related to Boston bombing suspects
- Boston Marathon Witness Interview: Police Told Us Bomb Drill Was 'Training Exercise'
- Why the DA Murder Publicity Stopped
- Eyewitness: Authorities "Must Have Known" About Bombing
- ATF Sting Operation Used Brain-Damaged Man, Then Charged Him
- Esquire's Bin Laden Killing Story "Complete BS," Says SEAL Team 6 Member
- Cops Pay Convicted Sex Offender $100,000 Dollars To Set-Up Terror Patsy

chris, what about him shooting himself in the neck? I think that was another false report, it seems the police are the ones who shot him in the neck, not himself.

Here's from the article:

"In the immediate aftermath of Tsarnaev?s capture, police officials said he had fired from the boat and he was reported to have been captured with several weapons. There were also reports that the gunshot wound he suffered to the throat might have been an attempt to kill himself as police moved in."

This site contains copyrighted material the use of which in some cases has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. Such material is made available for the purposes of news reporting, education, research, comment, and criticism, which constitutes a 'fair use' of such copyrighted material in accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner. It is our policy to respond to notices of alleged infringement that comply with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (found at the U.S. Copyright Office) and other applicable intellectual property laws. It is our policy to remove material from public view that we believe in good faith to be copyrighted material that has been illegally copied and distributed by any of our members or users.
About Us - Disclaimer - Privacy Policy

View the original article here