Belgrade authorities have used sound weapons on the crowd of protesters. The video description has some educational links.
There are lots of videos around.
Belgrade authorities have used sound weapons on the crowd of protesters. The video description has some educational links.
There are lots of videos around.
You severely, and I mean severely overestimate the ingenuity of the current state security’s apparatus. And the word on the street was it’s Genasys gear, ordered after the 2020 protests. The press caught wind of it in 2022 when they tried to change the law to allow it’s use. Ironically, at the time of purchase, the head cop was Vulin, who personally is a huge russophile, but hey, busyness is busyness, I guess.
Exactly. I’m not a huge fan of rumors and this is the only thing I can find directly linking Genasys and Serbia - at all. Which references Direktno.rs as their source, but I can’t that info anywhere on their site. The article you linked doesn’t even mention them directly.
Just a protip: If someone is finger pointing (at Genasys or anyone) without actual proof (documentation, pictures, etc.) just ignore it, it’s probably bullshit. Stay focused on the on the prize and taking down YOUR corrupt officials, don’t let anyone divide the group.
Edit: Yup, this rumor was started by Russian disinformation bots here and here. With their “source” being a screenshot from another, unverifiable social media post.
The direktno.rs info would probably be this article. And, sadly, considering the current protest is, initially, precisely over the refusal to release what should be publicly available documents, word on the street is about as good as we’re gonna get.
And, as a sidenote, don’t assume what you imagine “the group” to be is what “the group” actually is. There is a reason why, for the first time in over a decade, Serbian protesters don’t wave EU flags anymore.
Yeah, I know about the blockade on documents. This was an issue even in 2015 when I was there. I’m one of the people who trained Serbian journalists how to gather and leak data ;)
That N1 article reads like a speculative opinion piece. But Serbian isn’t my first language and I’m not up-to-date on all of the nuances of EU-Serbia relations so I can’t really comment there. I’ll just say Serbia need to do what’s best for Serbia.
PS - I don’t know if you caught my edit in my previous post. I found the source of that Genasys rumor, it’s disinformation ;)
Edit: Forgot to mention, I’m looking into that Direktno.rs article now and seeing what I can verify. Which is tough with the document blockade as you mentioned.
Edit 2: Not finding anything linking Jugoimport & Romax directly to Genasys. Literally everything I find is linking back to the same article you linked, which sadly doesn’t contain anything concrete. I’ve found a few pictures and videos of vehicles that have dishes on top them (the Porsche pics made me laugh.) But nothing confirming they’re Genasys or even actual LRADs and their shape/profile don’t match any of the Genasys systems.
If I’m reading it right, the VK post is from 20 minutes ago, the direktno article is from 2022. Tthe article is the source, not the other way around. The FB link says “content unavailable”.
In the meantime, someone dug up a report (2024 , page 20) of a “suspected LRAD” being used by the Gendarmerie (ie. the guys on the field yesterday) against migrants up near the Hungarian border, but their source (November 2023, page 8), just says “gun-like sonic device”.
The N1 article is a report on the statement of ret. gen. Ponoš, it’s his opinion. And, frankly, that seems to be the prevailing opinion. Guess we’ll see if Flinten-Uschi says anything about yesterday beyond being very deeply concerned as usual.
BTW, a DOS-era minister of the interior just went on Nova S TV and called it “Genasys brand, imported by Jugoimport, I believe in 2022, I believe through Israel, though American in make”. I get the feeling more stuff is gonna float up in the next few days.
Sorry, I should have clarified. The VK post is from 22 hours ago and not directly related the incident yesterday. But the TEXT from that was used to amplify other posts attributing the system used last night to Genasys, across all of social media. Such as the Facebook post I linked, but that’s been rightfully taken down (hence the confusion probably). This is a common tactic with Chinese and Russian bot campaigns, the same exact text being used with maybe a 2-3 words changed around. They just pivoted an already running LRAD disinfo campaign into one suited for what happened yesterday. Again, a common tactic with them.
And Genasys doesn’t make any “gun-like” systems that I’m aware of. They’re usually vertical panels like this, this and this. Or the horn speaker thing that can be carried by individual people, but this isn’t going to have the range we saw last night. The horizontal satellite dish looking ones and the ones on towers also aren’t super directional and are used more for public addresses, so not the kind that are used for crowd control/making people sick.
I’ll look into the Israel connection in a bit too. That’s probably a good lede.