this post was submitted on 16 Mar 2025
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Belgrade authorities have used sound weapons on the crowd of protesters. The video description has some educational links.

There are lots of videos around.

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[–] Roundeyegweilo@lemm.ee 4 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

Well it's good to see that Serbia hasn't changed much since Arkan left.

Edit: /s

[–] Noizth@lemmy.blahaj.zone 29 points 2 months ago

Seems like peaceful protest is no longer an option. They just forced people to go for the second option.

[–] all4theTomatoes@lemm.ee 55 points 2 months ago (3 children)

Americans, take notes. The US government will use these tactics to disrupt protest, no doubt about it.

[–] Sylvartas@lemmy.dbzer0.com 17 points 2 months ago

Some police forces have used sound cannons against protesters, for example during the 2009 G20 Pittsburgh summit,[7] the 2014 Ferguson unrest,[8] and the 2016 Dakota Access Pipeline protest in North Dakota,[9] among others.

[–] prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone 7 points 2 months ago

Agents provocateur are much easier and less obvious. If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

[–] dergewerkschafter@feddit.org 6 points 2 months ago (1 children)

It's still not entirely clear to me: did the government really use these weapons? I don't recognize enough from the photos. :( And don't understand myself in such weapons either. What I would like to add to the conversation, however, is that Novak Djokovic and several other prominent athletes FINALLY support the protests.

[–] Evil_Shrubbery@lemm.ee 4 points 2 months ago

It's not really the type of weapon that you can just buy off the shelf (for such a scale).

[–] pinheadednightmare@lemm.ee 23 points 2 months ago

Crazy shit. Expect this nonsense to hit US rallies as well.

[–] AccountMaker@slrpnk.net 165 points 2 months ago (4 children)

Honestly, we avoided a massive tragedy at that moment. People described that it sounded like a car or airplane was coming at them at full speed, so they instinctively ran away from the roads. People further away didn't see or hear anything, they just saw a crowd running in panic and so they ran as well. I was maybe 50-100m away from where it happened, and all we heard was noise, yells, and then people running, so the people around me also started running, but we all stopped after maybe 5s.

A lot of people think that our overlord wanted to cause a stampede which would lead to thousands of injuries and just chaos in order to discredit the protests. Or maybe they wanted to launch the cannon after the 15 mins of silence were over, which would cause mass confusion since nobody would have any idea what was going on, but triggered it early. In any case, the psychopath used an illegal weapon to attack people literally standing still and being quiet.

[–] Prandom_returns@lemm.ee 5 points 2 months ago

Pne of the most sliky, pathetic strategies.

  • use the sound cannon
  • stampede
  • many people injured
  • protest are now illegal bc safety
[–] Peter_Arbeitslos@feddit.org 2 points 2 months ago

Hoch die internationale SolidaritΓ€t from Germany! (Raise high international solidarity/Cheers to international solidarity.)

[–] thisphuckinguy@lemmy.world 14 points 2 months ago (3 children)

How would you fight that tech?

[–] Iloveluigi@feddit.org 14 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)
[–] Knock_Knock_Lemmy_In@lemmy.world 9 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Surely it's not as simple as ear plugs.

[–] thisphuckinguy@lemmy.world 13 points 2 months ago (1 children)

It’s why I’m asking. People should know how to combat this.

[–] TheLadyAugust@lemmy.world 5 points 2 months ago

My understanding of this is that it is caused partly by bone conduction. It might be possible that closing your ears by pressing frimly on your "tragus" or on the "mastoid process" could reduce the associated effects. The mastoid process is where the jaw meets the ear.

[–] Mubelotix@jlai.lu 27 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Fortunately once people are aware of such tricks, they won't be effective anymore

[–] Jonas@mastodon.nl 2 points 2 months ago (3 children)
[–] Sylvartas@lemmy.dbzer0.com 17 points 2 months ago

Sound is moving air and carries energy. With the right frequency and intensity it could definitely physically fuck you up even if your ears are covered.

Wikipedia:

Studies have found that exposure to high intensity ultrasound at frequencies from 700 kHz to 3.6 MHz can cause lung and intestinal damage in mice

[–] MyScreenName@lemmy.zip -1 points 2 months ago (3 children)

Nope. It's a sonic weapon, not loud speaker.

[–] barsoap@lemm.ee 8 points 2 months ago (1 children)

LRADs are loudspeakers. Loudspeakers which can output in the order of 160db at 1m. Anything can be a weapon when you make it powerful enough.

[–] MyScreenName@lemmy.zip 5 points 2 months ago

Technically, yes. A bullet is just a fast moving object.

I was refering to sheer power of the thing. Guy asked if earplugs would help. LARD gets a tree swinging. It's not "just a speaker" at that point.

[–] Jonas@mastodon.nl 4 points 2 months ago

@europe might have to read more about this but I thought sonic weapons were also able to destroy your eardrums right

[–] brot@feddit.org 41 points 2 months ago (1 children)

There's also this alternate view from the top:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GotCNOgMN80

And let's be honest: Whoever uses a weapon like that in a crowd like that is playing with lifes. That can led to a crowd panic, which will kill people.

[–] Aqarius@lemmy.world 25 points 2 months ago

That may have been the point: cause stampede, people die, ban protests, "LRAD? What's that?"

[–] nf999@lemm.ee 30 points 2 months ago (1 children)

So what did the government do, planes/jets? Says sound cannon, what is that? And furthermore, WTF! A peacefull protest, what were they trying to achieve? How sad do you have to be to order this action, let alone to actually do this as an employee??

[–] Aqarius@lemmy.world 23 points 2 months ago (2 children)

LRAD. Wouldn't surprise me if they were field testing the gear for the yanks or whoever. Would also explain why they did it in the middle of a "moment of silence".

[–] dukatos@lemm.ee 3 points 2 months ago

The government hates that silence because it reminds them they killed 15 people on the train station in Novi Sad.

Protests started when they attacked students giving the respects to victims.

[–] peaches@lemm.ee 13 points 2 months ago

What kind of bastards! They were protesting with silence!

[–] Cocopanda@futurology.today 8 points 2 months ago
[–] kingofras@lemmy.world 59 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Comment and upvote boys, not reddit, no meta, not shitter, not legacy media will report on this. This is why we exist

[–] antonim@lemmy.dbzer0.com 14 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

A thread about this is literally pinned on r/europe.

Edit: Also on front page of r/popular with >66k upvotes.

[–] Ooops@feddit.org 4 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I got links to videos on Twitter (although I didn't use that shit so maybe they are deleted by now), saw multiple post on Reddit and the video here is hosted on f***ing Youtube.

Yes, a lot of those are shit in general and should be avoided. But somehow it seems they are still not shitty enough if you have to invent bullshit about how they all refuse to report on this.

[–] kingofras@lemmy.world 2 points 2 months ago

Yes brave oppositional soul. But when it starts being taken down on the others we will stand tall.