Posted on 08/19/2004 5:33:55 PM PDT by wagglebee
NEW YORK - Forget the megaphones. Police will have a much more high-tech — and louder — option to make themselves heard over the din of Manhattan traffic and noisy protesters outside the Republican National Convention.
It's called the Long Range Acoustic Device, developed for the military and capable of blasting warnings, orders or anything else at an ear-splitting 150 decibels.
Authorities on Thursday unveiled a mini-arsenal of devices and counterterrorism equipment they're getting ready for the convention, which opens a week from Monday.
The sound machines are being tested at an airfield in a remote section of Brooklyn along with other devices such as hand-held radiation detectors — for a possible "dirty bomb" — and mechanical barriers strong enough to stop a moving vehicle in its tracks.
At the Brooklyn training site on Thursday, police practiced disarming a truck bomb at a checkpoint. Scores of officers also made mock arrests of police academy cadets who posed as protesters.
Chanting "no justice, no peace," the cadets surrounded a bus full of "delegates" before officers in riot gear raced in, slapped on plastic "flex cuffs" and led them away to vans.
The demonstration was intended to show how the nation's largest police department hopes "to put a comprehensive security net over Madison Square Garden and the rest of the city," said Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly.
"I think you'll see we're prepared."
The department recently bought two of the 45-pound acoustic sound machines for $35,000 apiece, and plans to mount them on Humvees posted outside Madison Square Garden. It would mark the first time the instrument — which can beam sounds for 300 yards or more — has been used by a civilian force.
"We believe we'd be able to use them in a number of scenarios," said Paul Browne, the police department's chief spokesman.
Two possible uses cited by Browne: directing crowds to safety following a terrorist attack or other calamity, and reminding protesters where they're allowed to march and rally.
The military, which has used the machines in Iraq bills them as a "non-lethal weapon" designed to disperse hostile crowds or ward off potential foreign combatants by delivering prerecorded warnings in several languages and, if needed, an earsplitting screeching noise. But police insist the latter feature won't be used at the convention.
"It's only to communicate in large crowds," Inspector Thomas Graham of the department's crowd control unit said Thursday.
Graham said police had tried out the device in Times Square, and found it delivered clear, even sound over four blocks. Decibel readers will be used to keep the volume at a safe level, he added.
Still, Bill Dobbs of United for Peace and Justice, which has planned a massive anti-war demonstration on the eve of the convention, called the sound system "a potential Big Brother nightmare."
Police "are trying to use technology and machinery to control every aspect of life on the street, rather than relax a little and let a part of democratic society unfold," he said.
Mobile metal barriers — a variation of those installed outside government buildings, courthouses and embassies — will form a series of checkpoints around the arena. Once a bus, truck or car is secured between two barriers, it will be screened for bombs or other contraband by cameras that provide real-time video images from underneath.
The department also will deploy a new fleet of motor scooters to cut through gridlock should trouble arise. Hand-held radiation detection devices will help officers patrolling the streets and subways to guard against a "dirty bomb."
Given that 120 dB is the threshold of immediate hearing damage, 150 dB is 30 dBs, or 1000 times, above the threshold for immediate hearing damage. The police are intending to injure people - make a note of this. Unless they have 30 dB sidelobe suppression, they will injure others than their targets, too. Ho hum. Another day in paradise.
And in the "unintended consequences" department, is this new toy going to drown out speakers inside the convention itself? Or be picked up during the meager television coverage? 150 dB is a LOT of dB - even my ex could only generate 142 dB even in her most towering rages.
Hey, that's not her picture! That one has two good eyes and a nose.
I'm just amazed that there is a "remote" part of Brooklyn!
There wasn't the last time I was there. Maybe its a new development or something like a theme park.
it's all good. they're all deaf from the 60's Who concerts.
I would like to go to NYC and confront some of the protesters.
My dad gave me a good tip when it comes to "mob violence". Back in the '60s in Pittsburgh there was talk that there would be violence instigated in Pittsburgh at the time of basketball playoffs in the city-about the time when "cities were burning". He told me what you do is take a piece of steel pipe-18" or 24" long, and wrap it in newspaper. That way you can go hit someone with "newspaper" and do a little damage. Pretty neat huh?
I remember reading a thread a few years ago about a man in England who was charged with "carrying an offensive weapon" for having a newspaper with IIRC £5 worth of £0.10 coins (the old ones) rolled up in it. The judge threw out the charge (carrying a newspaper and some money) but the person had in fact intended to use it if necessary in much the manner the cop had suspected.
Let's say, for discussion sake, that the 150 dB spec is at 1 meter (approx 3 feet).
Everytime the distance is doubled from the source, the sound level drops 6dB.
For example, at 6 feet, SPL = 144 dB. Doubling the distance again to 12 feet, SPL = 138 dB. Double again to 24 feet, SPL = 132 dB.
And so forth. Still, 150 dB source is one loud mamma jamma...
Didn't Ayn Rand describe something like this in "Atlas Shrugged?" Weird.
WOW! I want one! Better yet, make it two for stereo.
Googled LRAD and found the spec sheet here...
http://www.atcsd.com/pdf/LRAD.pdf
As a side note, there have been folks who have played with infrasonics, (think
Sub-subwoofers). There was rumored to be a burgler alarm that made use of one of the effects of high power acoustic waves in the 10 Hz. range, loss of bowel control.
Poor deaf hippies-they wouldn't be able to hear themselves whine...
The protestors might be, but how about people located in restaurants and apartments behind them? NYC isn't exactly sparse in population.
Government agents with millions of dollars of anti-personel toys: "mini-arsenal." Private citizen with three guns: "arsenal."
WHAT?
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