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user-inactivated  ·  3759 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Deployment of sonic weapons, tear grenades, and rubber bullets against a nonviolent crowd

Specifically it's called an LRAD. It doesn't incapacitate anyone farther than maybe nausea and permanent hearing damage. I believe the first use against protestors was 2009 in Philadelphia.

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_Range_Acoustic_Device

Hearing protection is probably effective.

    Carl Gruenler, a former vice president of military and government operations for American Technology Corporation said that being within 100 metres (330 ft) of the LRAD is extremely painful, and that it was designed for use in short bursts at 300 metres (980 ft), to give targeted people a headache. He said that "you definitely don't want to be" within 100 m; and, that the device will cause permanent auditory damage.