1.1 Introduction
Riot shields are protection devices deployed by police and in military organizations. Most riot shields are designed to protect the men from thrown projectiles and hand held weapons during riots. Some shields are designed to resist bullets from low velocity handguns and shotguns. Riots are today a part of every civilized society. Disagreement for government decisions, religious intolerance, events, hateful content etc are some of the many reasons that can easily spark riots. To handle a riot police, army must be able to pacify/disperse the crowd without harming them. This is the major problem with riot control situations, rioters do not listen to any announcements and need to be handled with force which leads to injuries or even deaths of rioters as well as police.
As a prelude to other parts of this study, this chapter will discuss the background upon which this study was initiated, the statement of problems that led to this study, the Aim and Objectives of the study. Others are Significance of the study, Scope of work, Limitations of the Study and Definition of technical terms.
1.2 Background of Study
The terminology arguably first arises in the Keystone Cops short "A Hash House Fraud" in 1915. In France, for example, several revolts were fueled by poor handling by the military. The National Gendarmerie created specialized "mobile" gendarmerie forces several times during the 19th century in times of trouble but these units were disbanded soon after the end of the troubles they had been tasked to handle and there was no permanent organization in place until it was finally decided in 1921 to create "Mobile Gendarmerie platoons" within the Departmental Gendarmerie. These platoons, either horse mounted or on foot were composed of 40 gendarmes each (60 in the Paris Region). In 1926, the platoons formed the "Garde Républicaine mobile" (mobile republican guard or GRM), which became a distinct branch of the Gendarmerie in 1927, the platoons becoming part of companies and legions. By 1940, the GRM was a force 21,000 strong, composed of 14 Légions, 54 company groups and 167 companies (Gainot, 2005).
The first squad trained in modern techniques of riot control in Asia was formed in 1925 in colonial Shanghai as a response to the mismanaged riot of the May Thirtieth Movement. New policing methods, including combat pistol shooting, hand to hand combat skills, and knife fight training, were pioneered by British Assistant Commissioner William E. Fairbairn and officer Eric Anthony Sykes of the Shanghai Municipal Police as a response to a staggering rise in armed crime in the 1920s - Shanghai had become one of the world's most dangerous cities due to a breakdown in law and order in the country and the growth of organised crime and the opium trade.
Maintaining order during demonstrations and quenching riots has always been a challenge for governments and administrations. Until early in the 20th century, no dedicated force really existed in most countries and the traditional response when the regular police force proved inadequate was to call upon the army, often with disastrous results: either fraternization or use of excessive violence (Wikipedia, 2021).
Therefore, in Nigeria where the research was carried out, the activities that was conducted is to fabricate the Anti Riot Shield with Pepper Spray and Blinding.
1.3 Statement of Problems
Investigation reveals the problems of the research which entails that, riot people violently throw stones and set buses on fire. To control such situations police and armed force is appointed. Pepper spray is sometimes difficult for policemen to execute, it can’t be thrown from long distance or it becomes difficult to go between the aggressive crowd throwing stones, to overcome such problem this Anti- Riot Drone will help armed forces to control riot crowd.
1.4 Aim and Objectives of Study
The aim of the study is to design and fabricate the Anti Riot Shield with Pepper Spray and Blinding. In achieving this aim, the following specific objectives were laid out as follows:
- To design an anti riot shield with pepper spray and blinding carrier
- To construct a pepper spray dispensable shield with a remote controller
1.5 Significance of Study
This study will be of immense benefit to academic students and other researchers who intend to know more on this study and can also be used by non-researchers to build more on their research work. This study contributes to knowledge and could serve as a guide for other study.
1.6 Scope of Study
The scope of the research is focused on the design and fabrication of an anti riot shield with pepper spray and blinding.
1.7 Limitations of the Study
During the course of this study, many things militated against its completion, some of which are:
- Time Constraint: The time frame given to accomplish this project was very short due to school academic calendar and it was carried out under pressure which made the researcher not to implement some necessary features.
- Research material: availability of research material is a major setback to the scope of the study.
- Frequent power failure: This made the researcher append more money on fuel to ensure sustainable power.
- Financial Constraint: Insufficient fund tends to impede the efficiency of the researcher in sourcing for the relevant materials, literature or information and in the process of data collection.
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