CROWD CONTROL TECHNOLOGIES - Omega Research Foundation

weapons. Appendix 6 catalogues some cases where disabling chemicals were used to incapacitate a
target prior to executing, wounding or beating the victim in a manner where a whole community was
punished indiscriminately by blanket gassing.
Targets have included hospitals where victims have no means of escaping the build up of toxic gas.
Such practices were for example common in the late 1980s, in the Occupied Territories. 273 However,
as detailed in Appendix 6, far too often disabling chemicals are used to expel civilians from safe
sanctuary to enable their beating, wounding or extra-judicial execution. Anyone trapped or injured will
be vulnerable. 274 (Also, see case examples in Section 8)
5.2 Kinetic Weapons.
Systematic misuse of truncheons has almost become a metaphor of the archetypal repressive
police state. 275 Modern kinetic energy weapons have also been systematically abused, particularly in
Northern Ireland, the Occupied Territories and South Africa in a wide range of ways including: i)
doctoring of projectiles to enhance lethality; 276 ii) breaching of guidelines on:- use only as a last resort
277 , firing below the minimum distance 278 , firing at areas of the body that should not be targeted (ie
head, face, neck or chest) 279 shot out of moving vehicles 280 ; iii) used as street punishment for example
during zone clearing operations, 281 iv) intimidation, 282 v) denial of the right to peaceful protest 283 , vi)
used in a sectarian or racist manner, 284 and vii) used as disproportionate and excessive force. 285
(Figure 9 illustrates an the misuse of Kinetic Energy weapons against protestors in Seattle)
Even when these weapons are used in a criminal way, for example when children are targeted
leading to fears of street execution, the weapons leave no ballistic trail that could be used in an enquiry
to trace the officers responsible. 286 A failure by the authorities to prosecute officers who use excessive
force or who breach the guidelines has led to a culture of impunity, a disregard for the rules of law and
made the use of these weapons ordinary instead of extra-ordinary. This is especially true in Northern
Ireland 287 and Israel. 288 However whilst failing to prosecute the officers, governments have
acknowledged the misuse of the weapons by offering financial compensation to victims and families,
often on condition of secret payment and the cessation of any criminal charges being laid. 289 Such
)cheque book litigation( has ensured that the full examination and public disclosure of the misuse of
these weapons has been avoided by the authorities.
5.3 Electro-shock weapon manufacturers and proponents cite the non-lethal characteristics of such
weapons as reasons to deploy them instead of lethal force or other types of crowd control weapons
such as blunt trauma batons. These characteristics include the claims that stun weapons are: nonlethal,
do not cause blunt trauma injuries and leave no long-term physical effects. However, these
characteristics are exactly those that have led human rights organisations and medical personnel
helping to rehabilitate victims of torture to suggest that stun weapons have inherent characteristics that
facilitate abuse, ill-treatment and torture. What makes the abusability factors with stun weapons so
high is not just their apparent degree of unreliability, technical variability or very narrow safety range of
the technology, but also the practical difficulty of finding evidence which proves they have been used to
facilitate human rights violations.
Due to her experience with victims who have been tortured with electro-shock weapons, the
Director of the London-based, Medical Foundation for the Treatment and Rehabilitation of Torture
Victims has described electro-shock batons as )the modern universal tool of the Torturer(. 290 The
Executive Director of Amnesty International USA has highlighted the contradiction between the law
enforcement use of stun weapons and their widespread use worldwide as instruments of torture and illtreatment.
291 The potential for abuse has been also highlighted by other health professionals working
in law enforcement and correctional services. 292
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