<HTML>Auch CNN berichtet über diese neuen elektrischen Waffen und warnt davor, dass diese in die Hände von Kriminellen und Terroristen fallen könnten!
Next generation of stun guns
CNN Headline News
June 23, 2004
[
www.cnn.com]
Auszüge:
(CNN) -- Shocked, I'm just shocked, I say.
The June 16 issue of New Scientist made waves when it reported on a next generation of law enforcement "stun guns" supposedly capable of sweeping over entire crowds and from greater distances than the currently used Tasers.
These projected new crowd control devices, as described in the article, rely on electrical shock wizardry that defies the imagination.
Aside from potential risks to health, human rights advocates are concerned an electrical shock administered by police could constitute a significant punishment with no trial or finding of guilt. Are constitutional rights violated by a technology that, when used on hooded prisoners, would be considered torture?
The systems New Scientist lists as under development don't use wires to transfer the electrical current. Instead they shoot out very fine, conductive fibers, or use a process to ionize gas or plasma in the path of a laser to carry the current.
Logic says that where you can step down an electrical current to safe levels, you can also turn it up. There must be meters to measure and adjust charge levels, as well as prototypes that do carry deadly levels of shocking power. The military, through DARPA, is also researching these types of weapons.
I can only speculate, but I do know this: We must critically examine and choose carefully the technologies we unleash on our world. Technology isn't synonymous with progress. Sometimes it's a genie that won't go back into the bottle once let out.
Now would be a good time to debate the technology to electronically shock a crowd, before the tools are used, before terrorists, criminals, and rogue states steal them and turn up the juice, and before governments decide freedom of assembly is a luxury we can't afford.</HTML>
