Serbia had the LRAD systems on hand, after buying them in 2022, most likely from Genasys, but possibly from HyperSpike.

https://genasys.com/lrad-products/

It's a legal gray area in Serbia where the use against civilians isn't explicitly forbidden, so they're playing fast and loose and moving fast to crush opposition. It's better than troops just gunning people down, but for a modern, supposedly civilized country it's horrible to see.

The people in power are the type of people that use their power in these ways. The US shouldn't be supplying them. We're not the world police, we don't need to enforce global norms, and we shouldn't be selling hyperoffensive mass crowd control technology. They should be limited to Temu LRAD, or their LRAD at home; we shouldn't be providing them S-Tier dystopian authoritarian kits for DIY oppression.

The people that profited off of this are a special kind of evil. We shouldn't be outfitting dictators, gangsters, or warlords.

But, greed is good. The dollar is king. This is what happens when incentives and principles don't align.

It's the most important time in human history to protest/fight unchecked power because it's likely the last era of humanity that we are going to be able to.

We are getting to the point where the technology that fuels oppression, including extremely pervasive surveillance, privatized intelligence services with no oversight, scalable AI agents that do as they are told, and crowd "maiming" or other forceful dispersal techniques are growing past the ability to resist them.

Wars historically happened under conditions where people died but the planet was largely left in tact, but we now have 3 countries with the ability to erase entire cities or make the world functionally uninhabitable by humans, which absolutely changes the calculus of war. If you do not have nukes your sovereignty is questionable.

Likewise if the tools to put down crowds, find saboteurs, and weed out dissent is perfected, meaningful dissent can only be expressed through withdrawal and there is no final check on abuses of power where any, instead of some, of the "checkers" of power are left in tact. Anti-dissent technology has the potential for a nuclear moment that fundamentally changes the calculus of protest and I think AI is very much potentially that.

Close friend who was on the spot described it as car or plane running towards you, you don't only hear it, you also feel vibrations in the body creating panic and fear.

All demonstrations of LRAD I heard on youtube were with high pitched sound, not a "whoosh" as witnesses experienced last night in Belgrade. Can these devices play any kind of sound?

What is described by victims, and what can be heard on some recordings from last nights, sounds more like Vortex Cannon:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GJpChS-_RJg

Even without knowing the background of those protests: It is heartbreaking to see a crowd of peaceful people (seemingly during a moment of silence) being attacked by their own country and fleeing in panic and pain.

Another video, from a different angle:

https://www.reddit.com/r/serbia/comments/1jchks6/novi_snimci...

Please take into account that this occurred during the fifteen-minute silence observed by the protesters in memory of the fifteen victims of the accident, which the protesters blame on the government corruption and which was the very reason for the start of the protests.

I've seen some theories that it was actually an ADS (basically a low-power microwave beam, immensely painful but tuned to be just under the threshold to actually cause visible burns), since there haven't been any reported cases of permanent deafness yet.

The student organizers in the crowd did an incredible job clearing people out of there before the police could escalate further and cause more mob-crowding panic deaths.

It really isn't smart to do this kind of thing.

Once an organization actually attacks you, it's very easy to decide that any legitimacy they view themselves as having is irrelevant and to come back next Monday with mortars and machine guns.

These LRADs have always been planned to be used against mass protests, from day one.

I wonder how the engineers and scientists who contributed to that less-lethal weapon feel about it.

LRADs have been used against protesters in Australia, New Zealand, the United States, France, and Germany.

Is there any counter measure for this?

Hardcore hearing protection?

Noise cancelling headphones?

Handheld sound insulation "shield"?

in case anyone’s curious about the context of the protest, I wrote a brief summary for an outside perspective about a month ago https://markoanastasov.com/signals/serbia-student-revolution...

The protesters described the noise it was like something huge was flying past over them, looking at the reaction it must’ve been terrifying

Serbia is one of the Russian-controlled Governments, along with Hungary and Georgia; these are the countries where we expect to see such attacks made to suppress protest.

(USA is not controlled, any more than say China is controlled, but is an authoritarian regime (so no real elections), so there's a shared world view, and here also I would expect to see much the same.)

Are there any reputable sources confirming this? So far I've only seen random accounts on social media making the claim. The police, defence ministry and emergency hospital all deny the claim.

Jeez. Getting your comment flagged for asking for a source. I'm out.

That's some impressive range, 200 meters.

And it seems as effective in the back as in the front.

I bet this video will 10x the orders for these devices.

I don’t think governments should have access to the “make the protestors immediately go away” button that they can just hit whenever they want.

I would never expect Tech Ingredients' video "DEFEATING LRAD" to become relevant on European soil.

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

From what im reading elsehwhere, it was ADS. Active Denial System. Microwaving people from a distance. Source: Serbian protestors on youtube.

From the videos and the description, it looks like it basically makes you think there’s a vehicle approaching and everyone runs away to not get run over.

But would this actually work repeatedly or could you actively override the panic effect if you become aware that it’s just an illusion?

One can easily protect themselves [0]!

[0]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CXKTBQBugIA

Earlier: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43377133

Is anyone knowledgeable what would be the best way to block the sound waves?

a) Earplugs? b) destructive interference?

Dupe: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43377133

What happened to just shouting at each other? That would have been more civilized.

Better that than Maidan.

We had them used on lockdown protesters in Australia in 2022.

Welcome to the Totalitarian State Club, Serbia.

https://xcancel.com/nexta_tv/status/1901244199220982213