4 Sci-Fi Tropes That Are Coming True Because Of The Cops

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Police Are Using Weaponized Sound To Disperse Crowds

For years, causing damage with sound was relegated to the realm of fantastical movies and shows like 

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The Incredible Hulk or Firefly, plus that one emo song from Hungary that supposedly made all those people kill themselves. And, yes, this would’ve been a great opportunity to take the piss out of Nickelback but … why would we? They’ve never done anything to us. So why all the hate?

Our own personal emotional revelations about Nickelback notwithstanding, we’re going to go ahead and talk about how US cops are using “sound cannons” to make people feel like they’ve been punched in the gut on a Gilbert Gottfried-themed roller-coaster.

Z22/Wiki Commons

As though it wasn’t creepy enough that these cops are with the “Disorder Control Unit.”

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The LRAD (Long Range Acoustic Device) was developed by the military as a kind of “magnifying glass” version of a megaphone. The device can amplify and focus sound with amazingly precise directionality, so much so that LRADs have a viewfinder and crosshairs. Despite having a lot of potential as a next-level communication device, the LRAD was almost instantly used as a weapon. It always goes like this. All communication devices have long been used to hurt people, from bludgeoning someone to death with a speaker to breaking up with your S.O. by texting them “sry ¯\_(ツ)_/¯”. Nowadays, outside the military, the LRAD is most often used as a crowd-control tool utilized by police departments all over the US.

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It was probably used for the first time in 2004 against the protesters outside the Republican National Convention but eventually made appearances at the G20 summit in Pittsburgh in 2009, the Dakota Access Pipeline in Standing Rock demonstrations, and, of course the BLM protests. When used in “deterrent” tone, the LRAD hits people with a “beam” of sound reminiscent of God’s car alarm, clocking in at around 137 dB. That’s about as loud as standing on an aircraft carrier deck. Also, weirdly, not that far from the noise pigs can make, which makes sense as they basically have superpowers. However, the closer you are to the device and the more focused the beam is (depending on the model), it can feel much louder than that. What happens when you get sound-blasted with this sonic shotgun? All sorts of things, and none of them pleasant.

Kimberly Lake/Unsplash

Getting blasted by a pig is rarely pleasant. 

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Besides tinnitus, people have also reported bleeding from their ears, nausea, vomiting, vertigo, and — wait this can’t be right — hearing loss? (Are they sure?) Anyway, the good news is that the NYPD has agreed to “limit” using the LRAD after being sued just a bunch of times by people who’ve developed long-lasting dizziness and migraines as a result of having their earballs assaulted by a freaking Black Bolt machine. Even so, the tool has proven incredibly effective, so it will probably only stop being used once the military perfects a real-life version of that sound-paralysis device from Iron Man.

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3

The NYPD Is Using Robot Dogs

Welp. We did it. We found the one dog that’s definitely not going to Heaven, and the only dog in history to be rated