for certain types of tools (and I'd certainly class weapons as this type) you have to assume that a certain number of operators will be, as you put it, "shitty". Whether it's because they're having a bad day, are genuinely incompetent, are malicious, whatever the reason---some percentage of the operators will be using your tool in a way you'd discourage for PR reasons.

Maybe I am too cynical, but I don't think the people making these tools actually care about this either, not beyond the potential for bad publicity.

knowing the kind of people who sign up for ICE/CBP enforcement, I have no hope that a trained or decent operator will be behind this machine.

I expect a lot of severely traumatized people from this device

Also try not to think about contact lenses, piercings, jewelry, pacemakers, etc.

> The system in question is basically just a directed microwave emitter. It is designed to heat up the first ~0.5mm of your skin.

So what happens when it's shot at someone's eyes?

Oh goody. Let's give cops another toy before we have tamed the use of pain compliance tools already in their hands. We are breeding a class of casual torturers.

> In proper usage, safety is ensured through the combination of operator training, selection of proper settings, and induced compliance. If you have a shitty operator, risk of over exposure increases. The nature of this device means that it's not a barrier, it's a beam.

Yeah, that's going to go well with people aiming this at whoever they think it's "less than" them.

This is a high power microwave emitter whose very high frequency (33GHz, IIRC - home µwave ovens are 2.45GHz) limits its energy deposition to a thin tissue layer. It's very effective, but big and cumbersome because of the high power requirements. At these frequencies, components are tiny. If one needed less than ten Watts, this could be a box the size of a desktop PC, maybe a shoebox.

I'm fairly sure this could be (is being?) scaled down to something resembling the pain box used on Paul Atreides in Dune. An efficient "enhanced interrogation" technology is just too tempting for too many in power.

(edit: omitted word)

> It is designed to heat up the first ~0.5mm of your skin.

Oh, is that all?

> US officials had also considered deploying the system during moments of domestic unrest, including at the end of President Donald Trump’s first term when protests erupted over the murder of George Floyd, according to a former US official familiar with those discussions.

This is for "the border" (because you know we should be able to torture people there), but really this will imperial boomerang back to US citizens in the blink of an eye.

And that's exactly the problem. We (and users) have known for decades that you can kill someone with a rubber bullet. And they have been used to intentionally kill on many different occasions.

...and one need only watch videos of "trained officers" hosing people with pepper spray to envision how that will turn out.

There's no way I'd trust this in the hands of anyone, especially those operating in the service of the current administration. They say they want to use it to "protect the border" but there are reports that they'd used it domestically already.

Considering the non-tolerance of public protest and the "promise" of non-lethality, I could imagine this becoming a regular tool in population control if things don't change.

> If you have a shitty operator, risk of over exposure increases.

Good thing border control isn't full of rejects and nonhackers from the military and real law enforcement \s

> If you have a shitty operator

Well, we are talking about US border patrol folks. Trust me, they are the nicest guys around /s.

There is a broken window fallacy somewhere around there, but I cannot find it right now.

I, for one, welcome the methods of our robot overlods

The “border” extends 100 miles in-land from the actual border and encompasses 2/3 of the US population. DHS needs to be dismantled stat.

I saw something recently about stun cuffs or something like that. Basically an electric torture device, being commissioned for US prisons. It might have even been a chair. This stuff has to stop.

At the border?

The Gaza Testing Ground comes to the USA. Large scale protest and revolt will continue to become a less attractive option for frustrated Americans.

Easily repelled with knit wire though

It only goes a half mile out at max range, it's not that far. So basically whatever is immediately in front of the truck.

I write them constantly. I've tried calling, emailing, faxing, snail mail. I've only ever received a handful of generic form letter responses.

The lobby is louder.

If it is writing and organizing to have the same rights as cops to shoot them without consequence, then yes. Otherwise it is of no use. Why do people accept being second class citizens where one group has the right to murder them without consequence?

This administration only accepts adulation, not criticism.

If that worked, we wouldn’t have been in this situation in the first place.

It's not magic, this will make burn marks before it can kill someone.

They are torture implements, sold to enthusiastic torturers, by people morally depraved enough to be in that business.