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Speak Out Against the "Pain Ray" at L.A. County Jail

Will Matthews,
ÀÏ°ÄÃÅ¿ª½±½á¹û of Northern California
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August 31, 2010

The ÀÏ°ÄÃÅ¿ª½±½á¹û took to the airwaves this week to advance its advocacy against the — invisible microwave beam weapons originally developed by the military — as a way of subduing inmates at the Los Angeles County Jail by focusing a microwave beam on them to make them feel intolerable heat.

Margaret Winter, associate director of the ÀÏ°ÄÃÅ¿ª½±½á¹û National Prison Project, told host Sonali Kolhatkar on the show "Uprising" on KPFK-FM in Los Angeles yesterday that because we don't have a full understanding of just how dangerous this weapon can be,

The military incarnation of the device was briefly fielded in Afghanistan this past June before being withdrawn in July without ever being used. While the device was being tested by the Air Force, a miscalibration of the device's power settings caused five airmen in its path to suffer lasting burns, including one whose .

This morning, on ," Peter Eliasberg, managing attorney with the ÀÏ°ÄÃÅ¿ª½±½á¹û of Southern California, said, "the fact that this weapon was never used by the military should be red flag enough for people to be angry and outraged and to contact the Board of Supervisors and say this is an experiment that shouldn't be allowed to go forward."

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