Automating protest suppression

Coming To A Protest Near 

You... A Drone That Blasts 

Pepper Spray

(Desert Wolf)

Zero Hedge,

19 June, 2014

Submitted by Mike Krieger of Liberty Blitzkrieg blog,

What’s a crony status quo to do when it is ultimately confronted with an unruly mob of plebs frustrated with the fact median wages haven’t increased in forty five years, while the 0.01% has stolen everything in sight with the help of the Federal Reserve and corrupt Washington D.C. politicians?

Well, naturally you’d launch the South African made Skunk Riot Control Copter, fully equipped with a suite of high-definition and thermal imagine cameras, strobe lights, speakers and a pepper spray firing paint ball gun which can fire 80 shots per second!

We learn from The Verge that:

Crowds of protesters could soon come under attack from riot control drones outfitted with paintball guns, strobe lights, and speakers. The Skunk Riot Control Copter, built by South African company Desert Wolf, has a suite of cameras and four paintball guns strapped to its chassis to help its operators monitor and control unruly crowds. The guns can fire ammunition from four different hoppers, meaning the drone operators can shoot protesters with dye markers, solid plastic pellets, or small capsules of pepper spray.

 

The first batch of drones will reportedly be deployed to mines in South Africa later this month, where lengthy strikes at some of the country’s biggest facilities have resulted in violence. Mine owners hope that the drones will be able to control and subdue their workers by blasting them with flashing lights, blaring messages of control, and shooting them from the sky. Kieser says he hopes its success in the country will lead to more orders for the gun-toting drone.

Oh you silly little miners want higher wages? You may want to think twice about going on strike, unless you want a couple pepper spray pellets to the dome.

Sky News adds that:

The drone has a payload capacity of around 40kg; it can carry up to 4,000 projectiles and fires up to 80 shots each second.

 

The eight-rotor aircraft also has high-definition and thermal imaging cameras.

 

It needs two people to control it; one to maneuver the aircraft, and one to control the array of tools and weapons on board.

 

Complete with a ground control station, it will cost around 500,000 South African Rand (£27,400).

 

A spokesman for Desert Wolf said more orders were in the pipeline from customers around the world.

 

These include security companies, police units and businesses.

Only two people needed to control it. Just imagine how many protesting slaves you can blast at one time. So efficient! Unfortunately, for pepper spray happy cops like John Pike, who received a $38,000 settlement for pepper spraying seated, peaceful protesters at the University of California Davis, the easy money may be gone. Yes, this guy:

My only question at this point is; can drones collect pensions?