You would think that being in Pittsburgh was torture enough.
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I’ve been to Pittsburgh. Great city. Lovely. Super nice people. The state parks are free. Lots of trees. Nice rolling hills. I would not mind going back at all.
Perhaps you are thinking of the old steel industry collapse days. I heard it used to be pretty sad. Seems fine now.
Ummm,
I wonder about the loyalty oath the cops are supposed to sign.
TO PROTECT AND SERVE??
WHOM?
McCullough. Ever been to Pittsburgh? I thought not. I will give you a little bit of Pittsburghese if you ever do come here. Go up to everyone and say, “Hi, I’m a jagoff!” They’ll say, “Why yes, yes you are.” Jagoff.
They have had on standby at town halls for our “representatives” and for the Sand Castle Days program at the beach. They present an interesting target, when sitting unattended on residential streets.
—
Please Help Stop Global Whining
#3. Yes, your police make it seem like a lovely place to visit. I withdraw my slur….sir.
PA native here: Pittsburgh is beautiful, and fun. Best city in Pennsylvania. And for the size, it’s got a lot of tech thanks to Carnegie Mellon University.
Shouldn’t that title read “Acoustic” rather than “Acousting”?
[Yep, thanks – ed.]
McCullough stated, “You would think that being in Pittsburgh was torture enough.”
Obviously you overlook why the President chose the city. It is EASILY one of the most under rated cities in the US. I think you are WAY off base on your snark comments.
the Tiki
Is the fact that it’s frickin’ loud in the video what makes it an acoustic weapon? Is the point to make people deaf?
I guess the camera person could not swing the camera around so we could see what the cops were so hot and bothered about. Probably someone giving them the finger. For the police its all about inappropriate and overwhelming force.
The US Police State is a fact. Martial law next!
I am constantly sad that this crap happens and that it isn’t front page news that our tax dollars are being used to stifle freedom of expression.
According to the police even if you just happen to be in the area of the protest, if you don’t leave, they will pummel your ass anyways. What BS….the cops can suck it!! I love that in the video you see everyone with video camera’s ready to film everything. Thank god we have that now. Everyone can see this bs around the world within minutes of it happening. Why do the cops feel they can just bully the public? This country needs a revolution badly and I feel it coming soon.
1 Ron Larson
“The state parks are free.”
That really jumped out at me. I recall being in Chicago and I went to one of the beaches and there is this teenage at the gate (gate?) and she said it’s 8 bucks per person to get in. WHAT? I couldn’t believe a public beach was so expensive! A very odd thing about the US was learned that day.
Auditory or aural assault— a new category of litigation that lawyers will adore.
Ruin or degrade my client’s hearing & I will sue for many hundreds of thousands of dollars—millions even–and win.
“Bring it on.”
How would you like to be made deaf by those assholes? It is assault with bodily harm.
Protect and Serve = Spending your money to come up with more ways to assault you.
Police = The thin blue line protecting the powerful from the people.
Just following orders, mam.
Kids trying to make the local news. Gape them with a baton!
i hear by declare the police to be a unlawful group of fascist idiots. save your self whilst you still have chance.
absurdly and ill legal to use weapons against a piece full public.
Still that’s never stopped them, and realy why giving idiots power.
Pittsburgh is a dirty, crime-ridden city that’s never been able to escape its fate as the steel industry slowly faded. Get out and see the rest of the country and you’ll find much less livable when you return.
Alfie don’t you find your love of authority to be a bit ironic since you so despise statism?
The police are heroes, protecting and serving the public, keeping them safe from these loons.
Once again Alfred1 shows his amazing abilities. He knows that the people they were warning in the video were loons even though they aren’t in the video and there is no context given as to why the police were telling them to disperse. Amazing…
I’m no fan of the typical anarchist who protests these meetings but after hearing what came out that speaker I think I’m ready to protest WITH those hippies.
This is chilling stuff folks. Call me naive but it doesn’t sound like the America I know or the America I want. The tone of the police made me think of 1989 Tianamen Square. WTF?
And you know they aren’t how?
The tone of the police is because it was a computer generated message.
It would be cool if the cops TURNED around and arrested those in the G20..
To all you liberal authority haters here, be thankful this isn’t the middle east, China, North Korea or numerous other countries with far less freedoms then in the US. There, protesters would be shot, run over by a tank or beat to death. I guess you all don’t think the police should maintain any sort of order. The people that protest this G20 summits are nuts and without police control, it would quickly spiral out of control. But the typical douche response of many here doesn’t surprise me at all.
September 11, 2009 (San Diego) – “Long-range acoustic devices [LRADs] for crowd control can be extremely dangerous. These are used in Iraq to control insurgents. They can cause serious and lasting harm to humans…We want to know WHY our Sheriff Dept has this weapon,” Sal Magallanez of San Diego-based Liberty One Radio said in an e-mail sent to East County Magazine, prompting a joint investigation.
The device was stationed by San Diego County Sheriff deputies at a recent town hall forum hosted by Congresswoman Susan Davis (D-San Diego) in Spring Valley and at a subsequent town hall with Congressman Darrell Issa (R-San Diego). The Davis Rally drew an estimated 1,300-1,500 people, including vocal conservative and liberal protest groups.
A public records search conducted by East County Magazine has confirmed that the device is an LRAD 500-x manufactured by San Diego-based American Technology Corporation (ATC). Capable of use as an effective loudspeaker, the LRAD also has the ability to emit a deafening tone aimed at incapacitating and dispersing a crowd without use of lethal force.
“It’s very concerning,” Kevin Keenan, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union, said. “ It is fine for the Sheriff’s Department to have new less-than-lethal weapons, but for their interactions with individuals these still-dangerous weapons need to be used only as substitutes for firearms. They can’t be used as just another tool on the tool belt. As we’ve seen with tasers and pepper spray, these types of weapons are being used to subdue people even though they pose the risk of serious physical harm.”
He added, “Even more concerning is having these weapons for public order policing. I can imagine no situation, or am not aware of any situation that’s ever happened in San Diego County or is likely to happen that would justify using these weapons for public order policing to control a crowd. The main effect of having those weapons at public events is to chill people and chill free speech and free association.”
Cruise ship Captain Michael Groves successfully repelled pirates off the Somali coast using non-lethal weapons including an LRAD. Groves has since filed suit against Carnival Cruise Line, claiming he suffered permanent hearing loss as a result, the BBC has reported. Navy News describes the LRAD as “louder than a jet engine” and helpfully explains that it overwhelms its targets with “sound so loud they hear it inside their heads.”
East County Magazine contacted Lieutenant Anthony Ray at the Lemon Grove sheriff substation. “I was the incident commander,” said Ray, who confirmed that the device was an LRAD but was not sure of the model. “It’s a really loud speaker,” he said, adding that the device is used to assure that announcements can be heard over the din of a crowd. “We’ll often use a helicopter, but this is something portable,” he explained. The device has also been present at a sand-castle building competition in Imperial Beach and could be deployed at any large event locally, since the Sheriff’s office is sometimes subcontracted by other cities within San Diego County to provide security.
The device was deployed by our APPOINTED San Diego County Sheriff Bill Gore. You MUST remember his name, right?
For critics of Bill Gore, this news comes as no surprise. Gore has a history of heavy handed actions toward American citizens. In 1992 he was the FBI’s agent in charge of the highly criticized Ruby Ridge incident; issuing “shoot on sight” orders to his snipers and other FBI SWAT Team operators. This resulted in the homicide of the families mother, who was holding her baby in her arms at the time the FBI snipers bullet stuck and killed her. The family’s son and family dog were also killed. Gore later plead the fifth at the Senate subcommittee hearing, which heavily criticized the FBI for this incident. The FBI later fired and disciplined numerous members of Gore’s FBI assault team, but as the senior agent in charge of the assault, Gore came out apparently unscathed.
@gquaglia
Most of the real crazies at these events are undercover police that are there to incite the crowds or, if that doesn’t work, to give the uniformed police an excuse to put down an otherwise peaceful protest by causing an incident. We wouldn’t want to give the news networks the idea that peaceful and respectful citizens can have a difference of opinion with government leaders.