Well, it looks like we called it three years ago.

During the G20 protests, we saw the first use against civilians of the LRAD sound weapons.

Apparently this is “change we can believe in.”

Now, politics aside, I am slightly frustrated at the outrage over this issue, not because I think using weaponized sound is a good thing, but more because I see multiple ways in which to disrupt/defuse such tactics.

Compared to getting shot with rubber bullets, responding to sonic cannons seems like child’s play.

To begin with, a simple way to deal with the use of sonic cannons without making a physical response would be to buy earplugs and cover your ears with tight fitting, sound dampening headphones, further drowning out the sound to an at least bearable volume. Also, learn to communicate using sign language, which allows you and fellow protesters to be essentially “deaf” throughout the process but still able to communicate freely.

However, if you really want to get things cooking, show up in a truck with your own sound system. Get someone who is equipped with earplugs and headphones wired with a wireless mic and get them close enough to the sonic cannon to be able to get a good sample of the sound emanating from it. Have the wireless mic wired into a laptop, and have your laptop invert the soundwave, and play it back at the loudest volume possible, directly back at the sonic cannon. As the sonic cannon seems to be a repeating sound, like a car alarm, you don’t even need a very long sample, nor a long time to invert the sample. As long as you can sync the inverted sound with the origin sound, the inverted sound wave will cancel out the origin soundwave, defusing the sonic cannon entirely.

The question in that situation is, though, are they able to cite you for breaking noise ordinances? Perhaps they could, but it is likely you would be able to fight such a charge in court since they, in turn, were breaking noise ordinances themselves.

Remember kids, a hack-a-day keeps the fascist technology at bay.