Raytheon, one of the major American contractors for defense equipments has launched a new directed-energy weapon in Arizona. While the company says the new “heat-beam” weapon is only a prototype, the new invention has already resulted in heated arguments between the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California and the Los Angeles County Sheriff Department.
The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department wants to install a lower version of the weapon in their jail, by the next month for employing it to tackle the aggression of the convicts.
The ACLU in their letter to the Los Angeles County Sheriff Leroy D. Baca,cited the development and use of the rude weapon which emits a small ball like “unbearable heat ray” - contrary to the Eighth Amendment’s protection against “cruel and unusual punishment.”
In answer to this allegation ,Commander Bob Osborne of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department has cited the new heat-emitting weapon ,a very mild form of defense as compared to the current array of batons, Tasers, pepper spray, tear gas or firing rubber bullets being used.
According to him, this directed-energy invention is not at all harmful or lethal as it passes through only 1/64th of an inch of the skin causing very little pain and no injury. Once the rays are stopped, there are no lasting effects one can recognize or feel due to the heat passes by. The bandwidth is also too short ,being a mere 85 feet as compared to the 800 feet for the Active Denial System used for crowd control.
“There are people who distrust anything government does and think police are vicious and want to hurt people,” said Osborne, adding that he has himself been through heat beam experience which feels nothing more than opening a hot oven. “We don’t want to hurt people. This is much more humane than the alternatives.” The device is only a control measure and does not intend to give rise to any losses, financial or physical.
Osborne, who has for over 2 years, handled the technology department for the county sheriff says “Law enforcement doesn’t have research and development. We look to other organizations, like the military, for improvements to solve the problems we have.”
However, the ACLU stills questions it’s use in their letter to the County Sheriff, giving instances of few mishaps caused by to the use of this directed energy weapon in the military, leading to serious burn injuries.
Massachusetts, Bristol County’s law-and-order Sheriff Thomas Hodgson, gave a very straight forward reaction to the use of the new equipment stating that he’s “open to the new technology” as long as it’s not too expensive. As a note, $750,000, have to be paid for purchasing the device.It seems Hodgson doesn’t wants to take chance and is waiting to see how things work for Los Angeles County first, as his County is too small for such experiments.
Spokesmen from Raytheon are expecting to discover new markets for their device once the LA County proves to be a success.
