Thread: Conflict follows device that drives away teen loiterers

Conflict follows device that drives away teen loiterers


NEW YORK (AP) -- A wall-mounted gadget designed to drive away loiterers with a shrill, piercing noise audible only to teens and young adults is infuriating civil liberties groups and tormenting young people after being introduced into the United States.



The Mosquito, which targets loiterers, projects a shrill noise audible only to teens and young adults.

Almost 1,000 units of the device, called the Mosquito, have been sold in the United States and Canada after the product debuted last year, according to Daniel Santell, the North America importer of the device sold under the company name Kids Be Gone.

The high-frequency sound has been likened to fingernails dragged across a chalkboard or a pesky mosquito buzzing in your ear. It can be heard by most people in their teens and early 20s who still have sensitive hair cells in their inner ears. Whether you can hear the noise depends on how much your hearing has deteriorated: How loud you blast your iPod, for example, could affect your ability to detect it.

"It's horrible, loud and irritating," said Eddie Holder, 15, who sprinted from his apartment for school one morning covering one ear with his hand to block out the noise. The device was installed outside the building to drive away loiterers. "I have to hurry out of the building because it's so annoying. It's this screeching sound that you have to get away from or it will drive you crazy."

The device has roiled civil liberties groups in countries where it's in use, including England, Australia and Scotland. England's government-appointed Children's Commission proposed a ban. That group describes it as a weapon that infringes on the basic rights of young people and claims that it could have unknown long-term health effects.

The $1,500 device has also been challenged in some American cities and towns that have proposed installing it, with some criticizing the tactic as needlessly cruel.

Santell said the noise can be heard by animals and babies but is bothersome only to children older than 12 and becomes unbearable after several minutes, making it a perfect teen-repellent. The same sound is used as a cell phone ring tone by deaf adults and is a popular download on the Internet.

The town of Great Barrington, Massachusetts, banned the device last year after a movie theater owner installed one.

"There was an outcry, and people didn't like the idea of torturing kids' ears like that," said Ronald Dlugosz, a town official. "People here don't tolerate that kind of stuff."

Milford, Connecticut, faced similar resistance when the city announced plans to install the Mosquito in a park. It increased police patrols instead.

Elsewhere, there have been few or no complaints. A mall in Maryland announced plans to introduce the buzz to disperse skateboarders, and officials and police said they haven't had any outcry. A school district in Columbia, South Carolina, recently installed one on the grille of a school vehicle and another in a parking lot where students gather after high school games, with no complaints.

"We'd have crowds gather in parking lots, and there'd be the usual trash talk, then you'd have fights," said Rick McGee, the school district's emergency services manager. "Now, there's no confrontation at all; they just get aggravated and leave within a few minutes."

Santell, the device's marketer, said most of the company's inquiries are from major corporations and government agencies looking for a way to protect private property. Overseas, complaints arose when the device was projected into public spaces, like sidewalks.

Santell said it does not violate any noise ordinances but added that the company will soon be selling the same product with a higher "power," or decibel output, that will be sold only to government agencies.

Carmen Ramirez, superintendent of the New York apartment building where Eddie Holder lives, described it as "a miracle."

"We used to have young men here all of the time, bothering people in the building and doing illegal things," said Ramirez, 50. "As soon as we put it up, they were gone, and they haven't been back. If they return, we'll just put up more."

A spokesman for the American Civil Liberties Union said the organization does not have a position on the issue. But James Alan Fox, a criminologist at Boston's Northeastern University, said that putting crowd-monitoring devices in the hands of private businesses and citizens is "dangerous."

"There is a significant problem with giving people a tool like this and empowering the public to take over the tasks of law enforcement," Fox said. "It can certainly be used in a way that's inappropriate, and without a doubt, it will be."

Nobody at Holder's apartment building could say where the loitering kids had gone after the Mosquito was installed.

"I just deal with it, but I can't be around here for too long," Holder said. "If I am going to stand around somewhere, it won't be here."

http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/04/23/teen ... pstoryview

There is a significant problem with giving people a tool like this and empowering the public to take over the tasks of law enforcement," Fox said. "It can certainly be used in a way that's inappropriate, and without a doubt, it will be."






Pffft.....according to the ACLU we should not even have the right to keep strangers out of our own living rooms so who cares what they think.

There is a similar device used for riot control which affects all ages. I think it should be installed on the border fence and automatically activated when it detects illegal immigrants and/or vehicles in case border agents aren't in the area to respond.
Ear plugs aren't effective against it.


Focused Sound 'Laser' for Crowd Control


ATC's MRAD (Medium Range Acoustic Device) at a demo for military, law enforcement and government technology experts at Edwards Air Force Base. The devices are capable of broadcasting sound at intelligible high volumes for up to 600 meters.



An LRAD 500 device atop a Humvee, on patrol outside the hurricane-damaged Superdome in New Orleans.

Day to Day, September 21, 2005 · Crowd control is a constant challenge to law enforcement -- how to stop potential troublemakers without endangering those who are simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. Rubber bullets can kill, tear gas drifts with the wind.

Several police departments across America are planning to try a new device that uses focused sound, turned way up. These so-called non-lethal acoustic devices are already in use by U.S. forces in Iraq -- and some are already in place in areas hit by Hurricane Katrina.

These devices are more than just fancy speakers. California-based HPV Technologies recently demonstrated a "magnetic acoustic device" or MAD that can broadcast a targeted beam of sound for a more than mile. At close range, the sound from these devices can be terrifying and painful.

The same devices can also be used as public address systems, projecting instructions or warnings at lower settings -- and at higher settings, forcing crowds to disperse. The sonic devices could prove less deadly than so-called "non-lethal" weapons such as Tazers and pepper spray guns that have actually caused some fatalities.





That's not to say that sonic weapons can't do harm. Earlier this year in Jerusalem, the Israeli Army used a device nicknamed "The Scream" to scatter protest groups. The Scream sends out noise at frequencies that affect the inner ear, creating dizziness and nausea. The device can also cause hearing damage.



http://www.npr.org/templates/story/stor ... Id=4857417

I think this country is going way over board in "Controlling" it population. If you treat your citizens good, low taxes and decent jobs . There isn't a need for such money wasting toys . Good lwa enforcement also helps , not these modern storm troopers we have . Plus send the Taco stands back to Mexico and Puff , 90% of problem solved

Carmen Ramirez, superintendent of the New York apartment building where Eddie Holder lives, described it as "a miracle."

"We used to have young men here all of the time, bothering people in the building and doing illegal things," said Ramirez, 50. "As soon as we put it up, they were gone, and they haven't been back. If they return, we'll just put up more."

So it's a problem when teens congregate somewhere, but it's ok to have mob of illegal alien day laborers congregating in public places? I feel safer with the teens!

This is the same technology being utilized by cruise lines to defend their liners from pirates and terrorists. They've been using it for quite awhile.....just not advertising it.





TRAVEL BLOG
11.9.05
Fighting Pirates With a ‘Nonlethal Acoustic Weapon’


You no doubt heard about the cruise ship that fought off a pirate attack Saturday. Today’s San Diego Union-Tribune has an interesting story about the “nonlethal acoustic weaponâ€

Thanks for posting that azwreath.....very interesting.

A French (?) vessel was recently captured by pirates.

Originally Posted by MyAmerica

Thanks for posting that azwreath.....very interesting.

A French (?) vessel was recently captured by pirates.

You're welcome. After I had re-read this thread I recalled seeing something on, I believe, the Travel Channel about this a long while back and realized it was the same technology a ship had used to fend off some pirates.

The ship's officer who went to activate the device was shot, in fact, although not seriously wounded.