I don’t know if you remember it, but a couple of months ago while Denver was preparing for the upcoming Democratic National Convention, there was a scandal of sorts over what weapons would be used for crowd management during the convention.

The city was given $50 million for security during the DNC, and a large portion — nearly half — of that was expected to be used for police equipment.  Most people would expect that to include mostly things such as temporary fencing and barricades, but rumor had it that quite a bit of money would be going to more exotic equipment.

Some of the weapons that were rumored to be on Denver’s shopping list for the DNC were things like “goo” guns — guns that shoot out a rubbery material to immobilize people — sonic weapons that use damaging sound waves to control a crowd, and guns that use microwaves to cause pain.  While a guy in the video below is quoted as saying that only people who are intending to cause trouble would care, I beg to differ — these methods of crowd control are classifiable as cruel and unusual, in my opinion.

Luckily, the rumors turned out the be false.  The ACLU sued Denver and won, forcing the city to reveal the weapons to be used during the DNC.  In this case, the truth turned out to be much less harmful than the rumors!

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