Sound of the police: how US law enforcement uses noise as a weapon

Potentially harmful military-grade weapons such as flashbangs are being utilized with accelerating regularity at US protests

In Silver Spring, Maryland, fireworks can still be heard months after they first began and well past the Fourth of July holiday. When it comes to the theory of cops being involved, I wouldn't put it past them," says Ira, who participates in protests and activism there. Ira, who prefers to use only a first name because of fear of police reprisal, is referring to a theory that became especially popular on Twitter which posited police were supplying or abetting the recent onslaught of fireworks in major cities in an effort to exhaust and agitate protesters during the peak of the response to George Floyd's murder.

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