Seems like peaceful protest is no longer an option. They just forced people to go for the second option.
Honestly, we avoided a massive tragedy at that moment. People described that it sounded like a car or airplane was coming at them at full speed, so they instinctively ran away from the roads. People further away didn't see or hear anything, they just saw a crowd running in panic and so they ran as well. I was maybe 50-100m away from where it happened, and all we heard was noise, yells, and then people running, so the people around me also started running, but we all stopped after maybe 5s.
A lot of people think that our overlord wanted to cause a stampede which would lead to thousands of injuries and just chaos in order to discredit the protests. Or maybe they wanted to launch the cannon after the 15 mins of silence were over, which would cause mass confusion since nobody would have any idea what was going on, but triggered it early. In any case, the psychopath used an illegal weapon to attack people literally standing still and being quiet.
How would you fight that tech?
I bet guns would work
Surely it's not as simple as ear plugs.
It’s why I’m asking. People should know how to combat this.
Fortunately once people are aware of such tricks, they won't be effective anymore
@europe would earplugs work for this?
Sound is moving air and carries energy. With the right frequency and intensity it could definitely physically fuck you up even if your ears are covered.
Wikipedia:
Studies have found that exposure to high intensity ultrasound at frequencies from 700 kHz to 3.6 MHz can cause lung and intestinal damage in mice
Nope. It's a sonic weapon, not loud speaker.
LRADs are loudspeakers. Loudspeakers which can output in the order of 160db at 1m. Anything can be a weapon when you make it powerful enough.
@europe might have to read more about this but I thought sonic weapons were also able to destroy your eardrums right
Americans, take notes. The US government will use these tactics to disrupt protest, no doubt about it.
Some police forces have used sound cannons against protesters, for example during the 2009 G20 Pittsburgh summit,[7] the 2014 Ferguson unrest,[8] and the 2016 Dakota Access Pipeline protest in North Dakota,[9] among others.
No, they'll just shoot us or take us to a black site. They're not that clever.
These systems are developed in the US too. Look up LRAD
Agents provocateur are much easier and less obvious. If it ain't broke, don't fix it.
Crazy shit. Expect this nonsense to hit US rallies as well.
There's also this alternate view from the top:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GotCNOgMN80
And let's be honest: Whoever uses a weapon like that in a crowd like that is playing with lifes. That can led to a crowd panic, which will kill people.
That may have been the point: cause stampede, people die, ban protests, "LRAD? What's that?"
Comment and upvote boys, not reddit, no meta, not shitter, not legacy media will report on this. This is why we exist
A thread about this is literally pinned on r/europe.
Edit: Also on front page of r/popular with >66k upvotes.
I got links to videos on Twitter (although I didn't use that shit so maybe they are deleted by now), saw multiple post on Reddit and the video here is hosted on f***ing Youtube.
Yes, a lot of those are shit in general and should be avoided. But somehow it seems they are still not shitty enough if you have to invent bullshit about how they all refuse to report on this.
Yes brave oppositional soul. But when it starts being taken down on the others we will stand tall.
It's still not entirely clear to me: did the government really use these weapons? I don't recognize enough from the photos. :( And don't understand myself in such weapons either. What I would like to add to the conversation, however, is that Novak Djokovic and several other prominent athletes FINALLY support the protests.
It's not really the type of weapon that you can just buy off the shelf (for such a scale).
So what did the government do, planes/jets? Says sound cannon, what is that? And furthermore, WTF! A peacefull protest, what were they trying to achieve? How sad do you have to be to order this action, let alone to actually do this as an employee??
LRAD. Wouldn't surprise me if they were field testing the gear for the yanks or whoever. Would also explain why they did it in the middle of a "moment of silence".
LRAD isn't some super fancy tech. Don't let them use this to spread anti-western bullshit and divide the movement. This is what Putin and his cronies want.
How LRAD works: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y7UZHEHhdek
And how to counter it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CXKTBQBugIA
I know what it is, and they got it from the US, not from Russia. Not every asshole in the world is Putin's subordinate.
I'm not saying they got it from Russia either, I'm saying that the Serbian govt. can make LRADs themselves. And they (Russia and their supporters) will try to use incidents like this as propaganda to divide the people by spreading an anti-western sentiment (eg. "testing gear for the yanks or whoever"). It's standard procedure for the Russians and their allies. Disinformation is their biggest stick right now.
Also, I'm not finding anything about Serbia acquiring LRAD systems from Europe, the US or Russia. Just conjecture from a handful of smaller websites. Because again, Serbia can just make their own. They're not complicated or expensive to make.
You severely, and I mean severely overestimate the ingenuity of the current state security's apparatus. And the word on the street was it's Genasys gear, ordered after the 2020 protests. The press caught wind of it in 2022 when they tried to change the law to allow it's use. Ironically, at the time of purchase, the head cop was Vulin, who personally is a huge russophile, but hey, busyness is busyness, I guess.
word on the street was it’s Genasys gear
Exactly. I'm not a huge fan of rumors and this is the only thing I can find directly linking Genasys and Serbia - at all. Which references Direktno.rs as their source, but I can't that info anywhere on their site. The article you linked doesn't even mention them directly.
Just a protip: If someone is finger pointing (at Genasys or anyone) without actual proof (documentation, pictures, etc.) just ignore it, it's probably bullshit. Stay focused on the on the prize and taking down YOUR corrupt officials, don't let anyone divide the group.
Edit: Yup, this rumor was started by Russian disinformation bots here and here. With their "source" being a screenshot from another, unverifiable social media post.
The direktno.rs info would probably be this article. And, sadly, considering the current protest is, initially, precisely over the refusal to release what should be publicly available documents, word on the street is about as good as we're gonna get.
And, as a sidenote, don't assume what you imagine "the group" to be is what "the group" actually is. There is a reason why, for the first time in over a decade, Serbian protesters don't wave EU flags anymore.
Yeah, I know about the blockade on documents. This was an issue even in 2015 when I was there. I'm one of the people who trained Serbian journalists how to gather and leak data ;)
That N1 article reads like a speculative opinion piece. But Serbian isn't my first language and I'm not up-to-date on all of the nuances of EU-Serbia relations so I can't really comment there. I'll just say Serbia need to do what's best for Serbia.
PS - I don't know if you caught my edit in my previous post. I found the source of that Genasys rumor, it's disinformation ;)
Edit: Forgot to mention, I'm looking into that Direktno.rs article now and seeing what I can verify. Which is tough with the document blockade as you mentioned.
Edit 2: Not finding anything linking Jugoimport & Romax directly to Genasys. Literally everything I find is linking back to the same article you linked, which sadly doesn't contain anything concrete. I've found a few pictures and videos of vehicles that have dishes on top them (the Porsche pics made me laugh.) But nothing confirming they're Genasys or even actual LRADs and their shape/profile don't match any of the Genasys systems.
If I'm reading it right, the VK post is from 20 minutes ago, the direktno article is from 2022. Tthe article is the source, not the other way around. The FB link says "content unavailable".
In the meantime, someone dug up a report (2024 , page 20) of a "suspected LRAD" being used by the Gendarmerie (ie. the guys on the field yesterday) against migrants up near the Hungarian border, but their source (November 2023, page 8), just says "gun-like sonic device".
The N1 article is a report on the statement of ret. gen. Ponoš, it's his opinion. And, frankly, that seems to be the prevailing opinion. Guess we'll see if Flinten-Uschi says anything about yesterday beyond being very deeply concerned as usual.
BTW, a DOS-era minister of the interior just went on Nova S TV and called it "Genasys brand, imported by Jugoimport, I believe in 2022, I believe through Israel, though American in make". I get the feeling more stuff is gonna float up in the next few days.
Sorry, I should have clarified. The VK post is from 22 hours ago and not directly related the incident yesterday. But the TEXT from that was used to amplify other posts attributing the system used last night to Genasys, across all of social media. Such as the Facebook post I linked, but that's been rightfully taken down (hence the confusion probably). This is a common tactic with Chinese and Russian bot campaigns, the same exact text being used with maybe a 2-3 words changed around. They just pivoted an already running LRAD disinfo campaign into one suited for what happened yesterday. Again, a common tactic with them.
And Genasys doesn't make any "gun-like" systems that I'm aware of. They're usually vertical panels like this, this and this. Or the horn speaker thing that can be carried by individual people, but this isn't going to have the range we saw last night. The horizontal satellite dish looking ones and the ones on towers also aren't super directional and are used more for public addresses, so not the kind that are used for crowd control/making people sick.
I'll look into the Israel connection in a bit too. That's probably a good lede.
What the actual fuck.
What kind of bastards! They were protesting with silence!
Wild.
News and information from Europe 🇪🇺
(Current banner: La Mancha, Spain. Feel free to post submissions for banner images.)
(This list may get expanded when necessary.)
We will use some leeway to decide whether to remove a comment.
If need be, there are also bans: 3 days for lighter offenses, 14 days for bigger offenses, and permanent bans for people who don't show any willingness to participate productively. If we think the ban reason is obvious, we may not specifically write to you.
If you want to protest a removal or ban, feel free to write privately to the mods: @federalreverse@feddit.org, @poVoq@slrpnk.net, or @anzo@programming.dev.
