More on fascist crowd control: "Italian dictator Benito Mussolini was so deeply troubled by the chaos of people walking around central Rome that he enacted strict rules governing pedestrians," writes Project for Public Spaces' Jay Walljasper in a column I mentioned yesterday. "Everyone on... Via del Corso was commanded to walk in one direction on the east side of the street, and the opposite direction on the west side... Romans living under the bootheel of Mussolini's fascist regime refused to accept this infringement of their right to walk the way they want to walk... So why has no one in Winnipeg... torn out the sidewalk blockades at Portage and Main, one of the most celebrated intersections in Canadian history? Why don't folks in Seattle... revolt against the police department's longstanding policy of issuing jaywalking tickets to innocent souls simply crossing the street?"

If you visit Empire North's website, you'd get the impression crowds in public spaces are rebelling--violently--at such restrictions. "As the urban battlefield grows more complex and intense, new ways of managing and controlling crowds are needed," the page reads.

Its solution?

The ID-Sniper, a trademarked rifle described thusly:

It is used to implant a GPS-microchip in the body of a human being, using a high powered sniper rifle as the long distance injector. The microchip will enter the body and stay there, causing no internal damage, and only a very small amount of physical pain to the target. It will feel like a mosquito-bite lasting a fraction of a second. At the same time a digital camcorder with a zoom-lense fitted within the scope will take a high-resolution picture of the target. This picture will be stored on a memory card for later image-analysis.

OK, it's not real. Copenhagen-based artist Jakob Boeskov created the site and the product, which was so convincing it was featured at China's first police weapons fair.