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New non-lethal law enforcement solution

Mar 25, 2015

This post is also available in: עברית (Hebrew)

In this day and age of globalization and greater mass access (mostly thanks to the internet and to social media), mass demonstrations have become more commonplace. Unrest on a massive scale, especially stormy protests, tend to deteriorate towards violence and clashes with law enforcement officers, damage to property and even grand larceny. The ease in which you can organize focused, effective demonstration, makes for complex challenges police forces in democratic nations must face. On the one hand, there is the need to allow protest and peaceful demonstration as part of the right of assembly and free speech. On the other hand, residents must be allowed to live in peace, safe from violence and damages.

Numerous companies are busy rising to the challenge of allowing both. Throughout the world, not only in third world nations, impoverished groups tend to riot and rebel, in the US and in Europe too, and this is getting worse as economies slide. Nowadays, law enforcement solutions tend to range from clubs and shields, through horses, teargas, water cannons and rubber bullets, to live fire. The more extreme the means police forces resort to, the greater the resulting damage. This means higher and more severe direct costs, disruption of business activity, personnel costs, the operational costs of the means deployed, as well as legal and medical fees. In addition, lower morale takes its toll, along with injuries and fatalities on either side, complete with horrific images which sometimes prove incite further escalation.

According to a recent survey by Markets & Markets, the global market for effective demonstration dispersal equipment and means is valued at nearly $4 billion. It is expected to grow to over five billion dollars by 2020. This means robust annual growth at a rate of 5%.

An Israeli-developed product called SKUNK provides a creative solution to this issue. This solution amounts to a pungent liquid, made of simple, edible substances. It features both a terrible smell and a tendency to stick to one’s skin for days, regardless how much soap and water those affected may try to apply. The police sprays the SKUNK over the protesters using a water cannon. This causes no significant injury. It can even be drunk, however ill-advised it would be to consume, even if you are very thirsty. This solution ultimately causes the demonstrators to disperse forthwith.

A demonstrator who gets sprayed with SKUNK, would smell up his or her car and house, as well as those who come into contact with them for a few days. This seems quite a guarantee they would not be rioting any time soon after their exposure.

SKUNK is produced in Israel. It is not flammable, it is not toxic, nor does it pose any risk to the respiratory track. It evaporates quickly, it is washable and removable, and even environmentally friendly. Nevertheless, as its primary feature is its pungent odor, you cannot avoid it or resist it, not even with a cloth or rag over your mouth. No, a gas mask won’t help either.

SKUNK is simple and effective, there is a real concern police forces might be tempted to use it all too often, thereby hindering legal demonstrations and assemblies. This is a matter for law enforcement commanders to decide. Nevertheless, any police chief would be all too happy to have this as part of their arsenal, in order to better meet any possible violent demonstration.