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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Read moreDemonstrators 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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Read moreA 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 -
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Read moreA police officer stands guard with a gun as protesters aim laser pointers at him outside the Mong Kok Police Station on September 6, 2019, in Hong Kong, China. #
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Read moreDemonstrators use laser pointers during a protest against the government in Santiago on November 15, 2019. #
Claudio Reyes / AFP / Getty -
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Read morePeople 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. #
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Read moreDemonstrators point lasers at riot-police officers during a protest in Santiago, Chile, on November 15, 2019. #
Marcelo Hernandez / Getty -
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Read moreLasers light up riot-police officers on November 15, 2019, in Santiago. #
Marcelo Hernandez / Getty -
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Read moreDemonstrators use laser pointers during a protest against the government in Santiago on November 15, 2019. #
Claudio Reyes / AFP / Getty -
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Read moreAnti-government demonstrators shine laser pointers at police during a protest in Santiago on November 14, 2019. #
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Read moreProtesters aim lasers at the face of a man who was confronting them in Hong Kong, on August 31, 2019. #
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Read moreProtesters 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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Read moreProtesters 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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Read moreIraqi demonstrators use lasers during ongoing anti-government protests in Baghdad, Iraq, on November 6, 2019. #
Thaier Al-Sudani / Reuters -
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Read moreDemonstrators and riot-police vehicles are seen amid laser beams during a protest against Chile's government in Santiago on November 12, 2019. #
Ivan Alvarado / Reuters -
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Read moreA policeman stands guard in Mong Kok Police Station as protesters point lasers at him from the Prince Edward MTR station in Hong Kong on September 6, 2019. #
Philip Fong / AFP / Getty -
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Read moreDemonstrators use green laser lights during a protest in Santiago on November 15, 2019. #
Marcelo Hernandez / Getty -
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Read moreProtesters shine laser pointers during a demonstration at the Yuen Long MTR station on August 21, 2019, in Hong Kong. #
Billy H. C. Kwok / Getty -
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Read moreA 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. #
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Read moreAnti-government demonstrators point lasers at riot police during a protest in Santiago on November 15, 2019. #
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Read moreLaser lights shine from behind a demonstrator during a protest in Santiago on November 18, 2019. #
Pablo Sanhueza / Reuters -
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Read morePro-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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