From: Michael Motyka <mmotyka@lsil.com>
Date: Tue, 20 Oct 1998 03:46:37 +0800
To: cypherpunks@cyberpass.net
Subject: RE: IP: Fwd: Evaluation of Vehicle Stopping Prototype ("Kill Switch")
Message-ID: <362B8D7F.888@lsil.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain



> [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