Free Republic

<p>Stopping an adversary in his boots with a nonlethal ray gun is no longer just a sci-fi pipe dream, according to a local defense contract official.</p> <p>Nonlethal directed-energy scientists have tested a weapon that does just that, only on a slightly larger scale than a handgun, said Wade W. Smith, deputy of Raytheon Missile Systems' Directed Energy Weapons division.</p>

Newly arriving Marines in Iraq will bring with them a new non-lethal device -- a powerful megaphone the size of a satellite dish that can deliver recorded warnings in Arabic and, on command, emit a piercing tone, according to a report in the LA Times. Proponents of the new device say the sound is so excruciating to humans that its use will disperse crowds, clear buildings and repel intruders. American Technology advertises ts new product as "designed to determine intent, change behavior and support various rules of engagement." The super-megaphone can operate at 145 decibels at 300 yards, according to...

SEATTLE -- The police here have had their share of high-profile violent or deadly run-ins with protesters, mentally ill suspects and other lawbreakers. But in 2003, for the first time in 15 years, no one here was shot and killed by the police. Miami, a city with a long history of police shootings and ensuing civil unrest, had no police shootings last year, fatal or otherwise, for the first time in 14 years. In Phoenix, where over the last several years such shootings reached a level that far outpaced the rates of much larger cities, deadly police shootings fell sharply...