Adam Leggat spend more than two decades in the British Army , much of it as an ship’s officer in the Royal Irish Regiment . His specialty : conducting counterterrorism and crowd - management operations .
So when Leggat tells you that , if you ever ascertain yourself in the middle of a debauch , to avoid the business end of a fully operational water cannon … well , it ’s best you believe him .
" We have people in Northern Ireland who riot regularly . Several times every summer , " Leggat , an expert with The Densus Group , a Texas - based endangerment management company , says from Northern Ireland . " We ’ve got some quite experienced rioters . And they detest it . They ab - so - lute - lyhateit . They will take stolen cars straight into it . They have attempted to throw off plank with nails in front of it so it will puncture the tires . They have shot at it . They hate it . They want it to go away . It is a very , very in force tool . "
water system cannons have been in the news recently after a clash Sunday between constabulary and protesters in Cannon Ball , North Dakota . The contestant are try out to staunch the windup of the Dakota Access Pipeline , amore than 1,100 - mile ( 1,770 - kilometer ) gross oil line that runs from North Dakota to Illinois . Some regard the pipeline an environmental fortune . Others see it as threaten sacred Native American lands , specifically those of the Standing Rock Sioux tribe .
Area jurisprudence enforcement converged on Cannon Ball on Sunday and employ a makeshift pee cannon . It was basically a fire - hosiery snout perched atop a15 - ton armored personnel office common carrier owned by the Stutsman County Sheriff ’s Office — against the dissenter .
It was a awful scrimmage , complete with rock thrown , tear gasreleased and rubber bullets fired . Several people were injured . The water — video testify it being spray at and over the demonstrator — did n’t help oneself on a23 - degree F(minus 5 - degree C ) dark .
It could have been worse , though . It could have been a tangible pee cannon .
disclose Out the Big Guns
In several other musca volitans around the human race , authorities on a regular basis use water system cannons to quench riots . True water cannon are more than gamey - powered hoses be given from a attack truck or swipe to a hydrant .
Water cannon often are armoured , too , to repel extra - serious crowds . The eminent - end one are equipped with two cannons atop the vehicle and have video photographic camera on the cannons that not only aid in direct the weapons — it ’s a better vantage point from on top — but put down the whole showdown , too .
The shank are manned by extremely check police officer inside the fomite , who watch picture monitors and keep in line the cannon via a control stick .
" you’re able to place it specifically at people within the crew who are being violent without affect everyone in the bunch , like something like natural gas . you could literally find fault out who to target , " Leggat say . " The H2O carom is probably THE most effective less - lethal weapon that I ’ve ever worked alongside anywhere in the humankind . "
Less - lethal ?
" Some people use the terminus nonlethal . That ’s a very common condition in the U.S. We , as a company , do n’t practice it , " he state . " There ’s no such thing as nonlethal military unit . you could have an accident with any of those weapons . "
The Power of piddle
The power of the cannon ’s stream is variable . One pee carom , built in Germany , shoots a stream of urine at up to 18 liter per secondly , enough to easily bowl over a soul , writes Robert Booth at the Guardian . The power dissent , too , with how far away the target is or how direct the hit is .
At close range , though , a water cannon is extremely accurate and can be extremely dangerous , asthis protester in Istanbul recover out .
It can be even more life-threatening than that . AGerman serviceman was dim by a bam from a water cannon in 2010 . After drop 10 month in a coma , a 69 - year - old South Korean military personnel give-up the ghost before this year as the effect of a water carom blast , prompting a supplication to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rightsto investigate .
London constabulary bought three water carom in 2015 , but Theresa May , then the country ’s Home Secretary , block their rollout , saying that the cannons had the potency for wound , transport the wrong subject matter and would " change theface of British policing . "
" The risks with H2O cannons are lower than with most less - lethal weapon , " Leggat says . " But that does n’t mean there is no risk . "
Still , many places — Northern Ireland , India , Germany , Turkey , South Korea , France , Denmark , the Netherlands and Belgium among them — stay on to apply them to disperse a crew before violence erupts . The scourge of their use often is an good deterrent in itself . " I have seen violent crowds disperse literally because the piss cannons have driven up , " Leggat articulate .
Nobody wants to be on the incorrect end when the water is released .
