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Airline Security – EMD Safety Bracelet
By Dave Demerjian~WIRED
This is the worst air travel security idea I’ve heard of in a long time.
A Canadian company called Lamperd Less Lethal is promoting the EMD Safety Bracelet. It’s equipped with electro muscular disruption technology, which effectively short-circuits the central nervous system. Zap someone and they’ll be completely immobile for several minutes.
The technology isn’t new — cops and security guards have been using it for years in tasers. What’s new is the marketing approach. Lamperd is hawking the EMD bracelet as the ideal tool for fighting terrorists intent on taking over an airplane.
And they’re doing so with a blatantly exploitive promotional video.
You can watch the five minute video, which has gotten more than 33,000 hits at YouTube, but I’ll spare you the trouble by recapping its most egregious claims.
- The video starts with unnecessary footage of 9/11, mugshots of terrorists and a deep-voiced, somber narrator explaining that current airport security equipment doesn’t work. Why? Because it’s operated by TSA employees who make minimum wage — and you know what that means.
- The narrator goes on to say that the next line of defense, armed Federal Air Marshals, also is no good because their aim is so bad that they’ll blow a hole in the fuselage before they actually hit a hijacker.
- That leaves no choice but to equip pilots and cabin crew with EMD safety bracelets, which passengers would have to put on before boarding. When threatened by a highjacker, a flight attendant would transmit an EMD pulse at the terrorist, reducing him to a trembling mass of Jello. The terrorist gets tied up, the plane lands safely and the world is a better place. Beyond preying on people’s fears and insulting our intelligence, Lamperd is selling a product that’s a horrible idea in the first place. Do you really want those bracelets on your flight? If hijackers get their hands the transmitter, they’ll zap anyone standing in their way. Who’s to say that in the chaos of an emergency a crew member will have time to identify the threat, activate the correct bracelet and fire the EMD pulse before the terrorist has control of the plane?
