It states the war is not against noise, this was against a musical genre. Using sound bombs is a paradox to silence the people who make the noise.
It relates to the idea that sonic control is a priveledge and a way of silencing minorities. With techniques such as music players, smartphones and noise cancelling headphones. These are ways of cloaking their environments to not hear the suffering of others in their view. This definitely relates back to the Ultra Red – How to Hear in Common text that speaks on listening as a group and how important that is. When using this technology how can one truly listen?
The writer speaks on the video that was shown of the police entering the favelas and taking down the party. They use specific techniques in first-person shooter games and Hollywood action films to create a sense of playfulness and skewered opinion towards the police being correct in the video. To suggest that the police are in the right when engaging with the public attending these parties. That the police are the heroes and the people attending are criminals.
The police use stun grenades which go up to 180 decibels, as I wrote in my audio paper last term this is incredibly harmful! Anything above 90db is seriously bad for hearing damage. The idea that these tools are non-lethal in my opinion is ridiculous. This also shows the ocularcentrism of our society that thinks sound bombs are non-lethal.
The sonic presence of black people in Brazil and in this specific context is considered violence and the police demand silence from their parties and their voices. This is also something the Ultra-red text touches on by saying that silence = death. In this very context, the police are killing the people maybe not literally but metaphorically they are taking away their voice. They have to remain silent or be beaten and killed.
This text demonstrates that it is easier for a sound bomb to reclaim space than for a black person to do the same.