RE: IP: Fwd: Evaluation of Vehicle Stopping Prototype ("Kill Switch")

> [Note from Matthew Gaylor: Several years ago on this list I mentioned
> that EMP devices will soon be used to stop car chases.  Several of my
> subscribers wrote in and said I must be crazy, that I lived in a 
> science fiction fantasy.  Oh well, the future is now.]

These ideas have been around for more than a few years. In the past year
or so I've seen two systems on Discovery Channel. One was a flat strip
that was unrolled across the road and generated some ESD when the car
crossed it. The other one was a cockamamie toy rocket car that would be
deployed by the pursuing car and run under the pursued. They say it
shows promise.

These things are fine. It would probably require small effort to devise
effective CM. The project solicitation is pretty nasty however: they
very casually talk about high energy RF. I would say pointing that crap
at anyone would come under "reckless endangerment". 

I miss the days of mechanical ignition points and carbureters!

BTW - Did you see the bullshit that happened up in Vallejo? Cops sent a
dog into a culvert after a suspect. The suspect shot and killed the dog.
The police had a full-fledged funeral, casket and all for the fucking
dog. Flowers all over he place, mourners. Now they're buying goddamned
kevlar vests for their dogs. Fuckheads. Who's the citizen? The human or
the dog?

As for the suspect he's charged with something for killing the dog.
Simple destruction of property, which would be a charge befitting the
act, is probably not enough to avenge beloved Bowser's death. Because
it's a cop-dog-on-duty the penalty is probably more than restitution and
some community service. Jail time for defending yourself against an
attack dog?

I think maybe our society is suffering from a form of mass insanity
induced by the fucking television programming. LE seem to think they're
John Wayne or Steven Segal. They actually believe the brain-dead, binary
morality of pop fiction. Us vs Them, Good-guys vs. Bad-guys, Human vs.
Non-human. The lack of perspective is mind-blowing.

Mike

>BTW - Did you see the bullshit that happened up in Vallejo? Cops sent a
>dog into a culvert after a suspect. The suspect shot and killed the dog.
>The police had a full-fledged funeral, casket and all for the fucking
>dog. Flowers all over he place, mourners. Now they're buying goddamned
>kevlar vests for their dogs. Fuckheads. Who's the citizen? The human or
>the dog?

It costs money to train an attack dog- kevlar sounds like a good way to
protect the states investment.

>As for the suspect he's charged with something for killing the dog.

Definitely manslaughter, probably 2nd or even 1st degree murder.  In (I
believe) every state the union the penalty for shooting a police dog is the
same as shooting an on duty police officer.  Police dogs are effectively
classified as deputies.

>Simple destruction of property, which would be a charge befitting the
>act, is probably not enough to avenge beloved Bowser's death. Because
>it's a cop-dog-on-duty the penalty is probably more than restitution and
>some community service. Jail time for defending yourself against an
>attack dog?

I'm not sure the issue is as simple as you paint it.  You say defending
yourself from an attack dog- however attack dog implies your life was in
danger (if it was it would be comfortably within your rights to shoot the
dog as self defense) inherent in it being a police dog is that it is well
trained and won't kill you (this is in general- I don't know the specifics
of the case and so don't have perfect info on what was going on when he
shot the dog).  Their is also the issue of resisting arrest (I don't know
exactly how he got in that culvert, but I suspect he wasn't enjoying the
scenery) and shooting at the police.  We have to consider shooting at the
dog in the same category as shooting at the police for the same reason
shooting at their car would be in the same category as shooting at the
police.  Regardless we know have a total of 3 crimes that seem to me add up
to jail time regardless of whatever he was originally being chased for.
1. Resisting arrest
2. Shooting at the police
3. Killing the dog (whatever crime you want to classify this as)


___________________________________________________________________________
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-Kevin "The Cubbie" Elliott <mailto:k-elliott@wiu.edu>