Professor sues city over use of siren aimed at protesters
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Karen L. Piper was trying to avoid a threatened tear gas salvo as police and protesters jockeyed on the streets of Lawrenceville during the G-20 Summit two years ago, when a piercing sound went right through her body.
It came from a Long Range Acoustic Device, or LRAD, mounted on an armored truck. She felt sudden nausea, a headache and fluid flowing from one ear. Her hearing, she said Wednesday, has never been the same.
"I have trouble distinguishing sounds," she said. "I have high-frequency hearing loss that's consistent with the LRAD sound."
On Wednesday, she sued in U.S. District Court after she and the American Civil Liberties Union approached the city about barring or restricting future LRAD use. The complaint said that the city violated Ms. Piper's rights to free speech and assembly by using the LRAD. It also said the city was negligent by using "continuous, high-pitched sound ... rather than short, intermittent blasts for a few seconds at a time that would have minimized the risk of bodily harm."
"What happened to Karen was foreseeable," said Witold Walczak, ACLU's Pennsylvania legal director. "This is a device that was designed for military applications, where the city consciously decides to use this against protesters."
The LRAD is used primarily on the high seas against pirates or in places like airport runways to chase away birds.
Ms. Piper, 46, of Columbia, Mo., said she wasn't even protesting.
A University of Missouri English professor, she was a visiting scholar at Carnegie Mellon University when the summit came. Since she was working on a book about global finance, she decided to film some anti-globalization protesters, she said.
She stayed behind police lines. When police warned her that they were going to use gas, she did as she was told and left.
"As I was going away, I got hit by this LRAD which was coming right for me," she said.
The LRAD can exceed 150 decibels, which is nearly double the sound level that can cause hearing damage. The city and Allegheny County bought four of them for $101,000, covered by federal funds. Police said they never got it near peak volume.
"We're reviewing the complaint," said city Solicitor Daniel Regan.
Ms. Piper said she approached the city when she noticed her hearing loss and asked them not to use the LRAD again.
"There really was not much interest [from the city] in talking with us," said Mr. Walczak.
First Published September 22, 2011 12:00 am
