Modern arms in the war against behavior deviant from the system

A. Introduction

By chance I learned about a study accessible to the STOA (Scientific
And Technological Options Assessment) committee of the European Parliament.
The title of this paper which contains 120 pages and was distributed to the
committee members in July 2000 is: "Prison Technology - An appraisal of
technologies of political control" (Az. PE 289.666/Fin.St./EN)

The study is concerned with means and options of supervising above all
prisoners or convicted people under probation who are allowed to move
freely, and of breaking possible physical resistance, e. g. in the case
of an attack of the imprisoned person against the staff.

However, reading the report makes clear that prisons and convicted
People serve as areas of experiment for those modern techniques which will
later be used especially by the police and "institutions of public safety" to supervise the population and to suppress unwanted resistance (e. g.
"wild strikes", demonstrations, uprisings).

In the following I will give a survey of the technical means dealt with
By the study, before I end with an outlook.

B. Electronical supervising technology

In this sector there is a distinction between three main technologies:
1. Electronic Monitoring (EM)
2. Video Supervision (VS; german: "Videoüberwachung" = VÜ)
3. Biometrical Identification (BI)

1. Electronic Monitoring (EM)

EM refers to the supervision of individuals by electronical parts
Attached to the body (e. g. a box of the size of a cigarette box tied to a wrist or an ankle). There are active EM systems: here the device sends out a permanent signal to a control room. If the supervised person leaves a certain radius which has been priorily ascribed to her or him, an alarm is released.
The passive system, mainly used for "electronical house arrest", implies
That the person is called at home and must then enter a number in the phone
For confirmation. This number is shown on the display of the device which
Has been attached to the body. This way it is ensured that it is indeed the
person in question who is at home, entering the number. (That number,
by the way, is created by a computer programme in the chip of the electronical chains.) In both cases the destruction of the tie or the box itself causes a defect which results in an alarm signal.

What is today "only" designed for (former) prisoners and used in some
countries like Germany, the U. S., or Great Britain, can just as well
be applied to "normal citizens". For example in order to supervise
politically undesired people and their places of residence and action. And this is not an Orwellian idea. In 2000 and 2001, German security institutions decided to stop certain anti-fascist and anti-capitalist comrades from travelling to demonstrations in other countries. In order to control their not-travelling, they had to register regularly at the local police station. It will only be consistent if they have to wear an EM device in the future.

2. Video Supervision (VS)

Probably all of us have met cameras in public places, in banks, subway
stations and at other places. In Great Britain sales in the VS industry
add up to 150 million pounds per year; in GB alone 300 000 cameras
supervise "public places"!

Modern cameras can identify the name on a cigarette box over a distance
Of up to 100 metres. By skilful combination with computer software,
Control rooms with cameras can identify faces in crowds, compare car
Registration plates with data bases, and so on. So that the citizens, once they leave their apartments, are subject to a total and comprehensive control by the state or safety institutions.

This is also not an apocalyptic irrational horror scenario, but
Everyday life, e. g. in the city centre of London and in some cities in the U. S.

3. Biometrical Identification (BI)

BI is based on the fact that certain traits in each person are unique,
so that he or she is individually identifiable among the 6 billion
inhabitants of this earth. Examples include fingerprints (known since the 19th century) and newer methods of controls of the iris or the retina (both are as unique as a fingerprint), or DNA analyses and geometrical data of the body or body parts.

In the U.S.A. it has been ordered that there must be forced controls in
all national prisons. In these controls the geometrical data of the hands
of all prisoners, visitors (relatives, friends, lawyers), staff, suppliers
etc., i.e. of each person entering the prisons, are taken, recorded and added to a central data base. Institutions in Germany think about adding
biometrical data to identity cards. This is a threshold to a system enabling complete control.

C. Neutralization Technologies (NT)

The term is a euphemism for killing somebody, or making him or her unable to fight, i. e. to "neutralize" the person.

Today we will only deal with non-lethal technical tools, i. e. tools not
killing people.

The pioneers in this section are the U. S., especially the military. Many of the following devices have been developped for being used in wars, and
are now slowly entering the spheres of both state and private security
institutions and prisons.

Five main technologies shall be shortly introduced:

1. Laser Technology

Torch-like lamps have been developped for the US- Air Force. Instead of
normal light, they send out pulsating short-wave laser light (650 mm -
red laser; 532 mm - green laser); thus putting the victims to a state of
complete disorientation. The U. S. "tested" these devices several years ago
during their operations in Somalia under UN leadership.

These weapons can be used in daylight and from a distance of up to 50m
against individuals or crowds.

2. Electrical shock devices

Developped in the 60s, devices with a voltage of up to 300 000 V have
been introduced e. g. by the police offices of L. A. from 1980 onwards.
Today they are five times as frequent as pepper spray or CS gas.

The physical results of the electrical shocks: complete loss of control
over the muscles, spontaneous urinating and shitting, enormous pain,
sometimes even casualties, for the electrical shocks can cause malfunction of the heart.

Batons with a voltage of 160 000 V (when hitting a body) can be bought for
$69,95.

Another one of the electrical shockers is called "sticky shocker", a
projectile which attaches to the clothing and sends out waves of 50 000 V.

Let us quote the head of the board of directors of STUNTECH, a company
located in the U. S.: "Electricity talks to all people in the same language. No translations are necessary. Everyone is afraid of electricity, and this is a good thing."

Besides, hundreds of so-called "stun belts" have been, and still are,
sold to prisons in the U. S. They are belts containing an electrical shock
device activated wirelessly. They send out electrical shock waves of 50000V
for 8 seconds. In Louisiana HIV-infected prisoners regarded as "dangerous"
have to wear these belts throughout the time of their imprisonment.

3. "Capture Nets"

With a shooting device similar to a gun a capsule can be fired up to a
distance of 30 metres which then spreads out to a KEVELAR net, rendering the victim unable to move, especially if an electrical shocking device is
integrated. This tool was originally designed to be used on animals!

4. Chemical weapons

Best known and mostly spread are CS & CN gas (tear gas) and pepper spray.
Almost all states in the world keep these substances and regularly use
them.
The physical results are irritations of the eyes, breathing problems
occasionally causing death, disorientation and pain in the face and the
respiratory organs.

A German Minister of the Interior said at the end of the year 2001 when
pepper spray was introduced to the police forces in his federal state that
now the weapons were being "ecologized". Thus he wanted to play down
the disastrous effects that pepper spray may cause.

5. Future Technologies

The "Non-Leathal-Weapons-Programme" of the U.S. Ministry of Defence plans to get the following weapons ready for use within the next 5 to 10 years:
- "Sticky Foam", a substance sprayed out by means of a pistol (resembling
the children's toy of a water pistol with a water tank) and hardening
immediately. A person hit by it is rendered unable to move;
- weapons of sound; sound of a very low frequency (16 Hertz) and strong
intensity leads to nausea, vomiting, and disorientation; furthermore,
- electro-magnetic weapons; the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in
Tennessee(U.S.A.) has been ordered to develop a weapon to make victims fall
unconscious or at least disorientated by means of electro-magnetic fields.

D. Outlook

Reading the article up to this point may have made you feel uneasy; at
Some points you may have shaken your head, thinking "All that can't be
true". Well, all of these devices are dealt with in detail in the
above-mentioned report and are - with the exception of future technologies mentioned under C. 5 - being used world-wide day after day. We are dealing with technically well-armed governments and security institutions that are prepared to do anything; they will carry on developping devices for better supervision and "neutralization"! And even if those technologies are said to be used in prisons, everyday life proves that most of the devices are found anywhere.
That means people who believe it is only a question of controlling
criminals are mistaken.

In view of a globalizing resistance against inhuman capitalism we have to
state that there is a globalization of the military and paramilitary
apparatuses of the governments aiming at maintaining the status quo.
Individual human rights don't count for these governments (compare the
"treatment" of the afghanic prisoners of war in Guantanamo / Cuba or the
regular reports by amnesty international on torture and murder). We should
draw our conclusions from that.

Against torture and oppression!
Against exploitation and oppression!
For freedom and human dignity!

Thomas Meyer-Falk, c/o JVA- Z. 3117, Schönbornstrafle
32, D-76646 Bruchsal, Germany