Federal officers in Portland may have been permanently blinded by lasers

[HCM]

I know someone who bought a made in China, green laser on Amazon, for his USPSA PCC, that he said was “way brighter and cost less than $100.” 5 PF dollars that it is illegally strong.

As far as I know all the Russian Perst IR laser aimers are imported in violation of FDA standards.

[Totem Polar]

While the lasers are rightfully getting a lot of attention in this thread, I am also concerned that the "U.S. Marshals Service also reported communications jamming." I assume the USMS uses decent encrypted radios that were designed to allow communications in the presence of jamming. I know the Project 25 (P25) standard is easily jammed, so I expected the USMS would not use a radio compliant to that standard.

It wouldn’t surprise me even one little bit to learn that there are criminal elements stateside that have significant electronic counter-measure chops. It would surprise me a little to find them being made available in support of the Portland unrest, and change the color of my perception of the situation, if so.

[HCM]

LEOs deployed to riot situations may need to start doing baseline scans. We started doing this about 5 years ago for the engineers that most often worked with lasers.

Could you elaborate on this ?

PM me for an official email address if necessary.

[Zincwarrior]

That's bullshit. Tag em and charge them with felony battery.

[HCM]

What would the law say about someone intentionally lasing you as an individual citizen?

Nothing specific. Many states make lasing Police and other first responders a crime.

If targeting the eyes you could make the argument it is ADW / serious bodily injury, or if circumstances permit that you thought it was a weaposn sighting laser.

[trailrunner]

Antifa likes to refer to the laser guys as "light mages". Kind of like a fantasy cartoon role.
How hard is it to pick out and snatch someone with a handheld, visible spectrum laser?

I imagine their TTPs are to hide back in the crowd and illuminate the cops while being three rows deep. If the cops start moving towards them, they just slip the laser in their pocket and blend in to the crowd. If the cops get too close they just drop it and kick it away.

Are the IR non-visible as dangerous to the eyes? Cause I'm sure they will switch to those if they aren't already employing them.

Depends on the wavelength. However, they tend to be more expensive (general statement), and they are harder to employ because you can't see where you are pointing them.

And where do they get the gear to jam Fed quality comms? That shit has to be pricey. And hard to move around on the sly.

I don't know much about RF equipment, but some jammers can be made pretty cheaply. I would hope that the feds use frequency hopping or some other modern technique, but I'm outside my knowledge base now.

[HCM]

While the lasers are rightfully getting a lot of attention in this thread, I am also concerned that the "U.S. Marshals Service also reported communications jamming." I assume the USMS uses decent encrypted radios that were designed to allow communications in the presence of jamming. I know the Project 25 (P25) standard is easily jammed, so I expected the USMS would not use a radio compliant to that standard.

Encryptions is designed to prevent the contents of transmissions being intercepted. I don't believe it addresses jamming like some military radios do by hopping frequencies etc.

[GJM]

Nothing specific. Many states make lasing Police and other first responders a crime.

If targeting the eyes you could make the argument it is ADW / serious bodily injury, or if circumstances permit that you thought it was a weaposn sighting laser.

I will show this as reason 48 on my list of why you shouldn’t be out in urban areas at night.

[rcbusmc24]

Encryptions is designed to prevent the contents of transmissions being intercepted. I don't believe it addresses jamming like some military radios do by hopping frequencies etc.

This..... sometimes simple still works, fill enough channels/ bandwidth with noise and it don't matter how much you freqhop either....lines still busy. In the Mil setting this will get the jammer killed as I can target it and his surrounding grid square, Pretty sure they still won't let me call a Reg TOT on "protesters" here in the states yet though....

[trailrunner]

Could you elaborate on this ?

PM me for an official email address if necessary.

An image of taken of your eye, say at the beginning of your career or before you deploy. At this point, your eyes are presumably undamaged, or at least any damage was already there. Then another image is taken a) after a known event (e.g., you got flashed hard) or b) after spending three weeks in Portland where you might've been lased briefly a couple of times. The before and after images are compared to detect damage.

I worked in a lab, so nobody was intentionally trying to hurt us, but we were exposed enough that there could have been damage from repeated smaller incidents. If we had no reportable incidents, then we were supposed to get checked periodically, say every 6 or 12 months (I forget the exact frequency).