Report: Feds considered using ‘heat ray’ on DC protesters

Active denial system

I’m not sure why this requires a “whistleblower” nor why it surprises people. I’ve been around when plans are made for these events. Nothing is off the table. Lots of ideas are spit-balled and dismissed. Better to bring an idea up and have it shot down than to have never considered an available option.

Thus we have people surprised and aghast that non-lethal crowd control devices would be used against a violent crowd.

A military whistleblower says federal officials sought some unusual crowd control devices — including one that’s been called a “heat ray” — to deal with protesters outside the White House on the June day that law enforcement forcibly cleared Lafayette Square.

In written responses to questions from a House committee, National Guard Maj. Adam DeMarco said the Defense Department’s lead military police officer for the National Capital Region sent an email asking if the D.C. National Guard possessed a long-range acoustic device — used to transmit loud noises — or an “Active Denial System,” the so-called heat ray.

DeMarco said he responded that the Guard was not in possession of either device. National Public Radio and The Washington Post first reported DeMarco’s testimony.

The AP article says;

Use of either the acoustic device or the Active Denial System would have been a significant escalation of crowd control for the Guard members, particularly since the defense officials ordered that the Guard troops not be armed when they went into D.C.

Not sure how the acoustic device (which is essentially a very powerful and directed megaphone) or the active denial system would be “significant escalation.” This was the crowd that injured 50 cops you’ll recall. In a letter to Congress, Interior Secretary Bernhardt wrote that that the crowd had authorities in a “state of siege.”

“The incidents are numerous and include USPP [US Park Police] officers having their police cars vandalized; being subject to bombardment by lighted flares; Molotov cocktails, rocks, bricks, bottles and other projectiles; and physical assault so violent that to date over 50 area law enforcement officers have been injured to some degree,” Bernhardt wrote, adding that one officer required emergency surgery.

It would seem to me that using non-lethal devices to disperse the crowd would be a significant deescalation.

Thanks to Jeff LPH 3 for the tip on the story.

Source; Military Times

Category: "Your Tax Dollars At Work", ANTIFA, BLM, Crime, Guest Link, National Guard