For the past decade, as inexpensive laser pointers have become more available, protesters around the world have added them to their tool kits. They are used to distract or obstruct riot police and their cameras and drones, as a colorful way to celebrate and show solidarity in groups, or as a method of communication. Recently, in Hong Kong, police officers have arrested people for the possession of laser pointers, classifying the devices as offensive weapons that could injure someone’s eyes—which has prompted even more protests. Gathered here, images from unrest in Chile, Hong Kong, and Iraq over the past few months, where demonstrators are using lasers as tools of defiance.
The Lasers of Discontent
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Demonstrators point green laser lights at riot-police officers during a protest against policies of Sebastián Piñera and long-standing inequality on November 15, 2019, in Santiago, Chile. #
Marcelo Hernandez / Getty -
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A protester holds a Chilean flag near a riot-police officer and vehicle amid laser beams during a protest against Chile's government in Santiago on November 12, 2019. #
Ivan Alvarado / Reuters -
People point lasers at a hovering helicopter during a rally to mark the fifth anniversary of the Umbrella Movement, in the Admiralty area of Hong Kong on September 28, 2019. #
Philip Fong / AFP / Getty -
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Protesters use laser pointers during a rally to demonstrate against the arrests of people caught in possession of laser pointers, which police classified as offensive weapons because of their ability to harm people's eyes, in Hong Kong on August 7, 2019. #
Kin Cheung / AP -
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Protesters shine laser pointers on the Hong Kong Space Museum during a rally to demonstrate against the arrests of people caught in possession of laser pointers on August 7, 2019. #
Kin Cheung / AP -
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A pro-democracy protester points a high-powered laser pointer at other protesters who had gathered on Lion Rock from a human-chain and lantern rally held on Victoria Peak on September 13, 2019, in Hong Kong. #
Chris McGrath / Getty -
Pro-democracy protesters gathered at a rally in Hong Kong point laser beams at the Hong Kong Space Museum after a student leader was arrested for possession of a laser pointer on August 7, 2019. #
Billy H. C. Kwok / Getty -
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