could be coming to the united states soon joshua holland is the senior writer and editor with alter net he joins me now joshua welcome back hi tom thanks for having me what's your initial response to these stories coming out of the u.k. blinding lasers. yeah blinding lasers i've had a flash bang go off a few feet away from me and it left me shaking for hours these these less lethal weapons are frightening they're also you know i think it's dangerous that we think of them as non-lethal we had an incident in the occupied territories just recently where someone was hit directly in the face with a tear gas projectile and passed away just like tasers every year number of people die from taser usage these weapons are not non-lethal they are leslie they're less likely to kill you but they're pretty terrifying what's the back story here joshua when did this whole militarization just just to clarify first of all police are supposed to be members of the community who serve and protect the community that's a very different thing from what armies are supposed to be which is as anybody who's been th