I know that every once in a while, someone will shine a laser at aircraft or helicopters, occasionally resulting in temporary blindness for the pilots.
Have higher-powered ones been used in more serious crimes yet? Has anybody been permanently blinded by one? Have they been used to set things on fire from a distance? Do escaping criminals ever use them to blind pursuers in a high-speed chase?
If medical malpractice counts as a serious crime, then yes, lasers have been involved. Some people have been permanently injured by lasers used in eye surgery, as Google searches for “lasik malpractice” and the like show.
I have read that ZEUS and similar weapons have been deployed in the middle east, but I don’t know if any collateral damage to humans have been reported. I do not think humans have been targeted directly as if the directed energy beam were a bullet.
I understand you’re looking for cases of permanent injury or damage, but temporarily blinding a pilot at low altitude over a densely populated area has the very real potential for a LOT of permanent injury, and is a very serious crime. Right now we’re averaging eleven incidents per day in the US, mostly on airliners and air ambulance helicopters. This guy just got 14 years in federal prison for lasing two helicopters. He is, admittedly, a special case, but the fines are normally in the six-digit range and the prison sentences are measured in years. The FBI and many state and local law enforcement agencies are really cracking down because it’s become such a large problem.
With all of that said, I don’t have knowledge of any pilots or other crew who have sustained permanent injury from a lasing incident. Some of the single-pilot helicopters and airplanes have declared emergencies, but thus far all of the affected aircraft have been able to make safe landings.
The U.K. evidently equipped a laser system to blind pilots, during the Falklands War, according to a recently declassified letter from Defence Secretary Michael Heseltine. For 3 pounds, 30, you can go read the letter. According to the Secretary, it was never used in action, which makes you wonder why they even bothered carrying the thing. Related web article on laser weapons.
News story about an Indiana teen who shined a laser pointer off a mirror into his eye, causing permanent vision degradation.
2013 Swedish review article on laser pointers and eye damage. Scroll to page 15 of the document (page 21 of the .pdf) for the case history data.
Yes, lasers have been used to permanently injure some one. I can post pictures of the scars if you want.
Lesson- Never, NEVER piss off Cal Meacham.
A simple ‘red dot’ laser pointer (and a cat) has cause what appears to be a scar on a human foot but time will tell if it is permanent.
Does this count?
Oh, heck, I’d never do anything. But I have been at meetings where people seriously discussed the possibility of laser blinding. I find the idea incredibly objectionable, but it’s sobering to think that not everybody does.
I’ve also heard stories about people being blinded – accidentally – by lasers. But I don’t know details. It’s easy to believe that this could happen.
As for harming someone with a laser, that’s also easy to believe – lasers have been able to put out potentially damaging shots for decades now (one lab where I worked had cinder block walls pockmarked with the output of Q-switched mode-locked Nd:YAG lasers. They’ve used lasers in surgery for a very long time. A long time ago, I saw film of CO2 laser output slicing through raw meat.
I remember reading an article snipped from an Ophthalmology magazine that had been taped to the door of one of the labs at GSFC. It described the eye damage that someone suffered by catching the specular reflection of a laser beam. The patient said that he heard (and felt!) a “pop” and then he noticed that he had problems seeming out of that eye. At the end of the article, someone had written “The laser in this lab is 40x as powerful as the one in the article - wear your goggles!”
There is a reason for the traditional laser lab warning:
Do not look into laser with remaining eye 
However, really damaging lasers are not particularly portable, and are exceptionally delicate. They are also pretty hard to aim with any great accuracy sufficient to cause damage. This is why military lasers have not caught on - you cannot always get and keep enough energy on target to damage it. You might be able to use a high powered handheld laser to dissuade a police car from chasing you at night (if there was someone else to do the aiming/pointing), but a bright strobe/flash would probably be just as effective and easier to obtain and power. And probably not as many of those serious consequences as mentioned upthread.
I do know during the riots on the UK a few years back some people used laser pointers on police helicopters, and were eventually arrested. Laser use has also been common during rioting in Belfast, resulting in eye damage to police officers. On the other hand, apparently UK police forces have considered using a laser based “dazzler” system that projects a 10 ft wall of light to disorient rioters. This device is intended to not actually cause damage, but it probably treads a fine line.
http://www.cnn.com/US/9705/14/russia.laser/index.html?_s=PM:US
It was never proven that it was a laser, but how else do two people on the same helicopter suffer simultaneous retinal burns?
Also, a large number of soldiers in Iraq suffered accidental laser injuries:
I recall an article from the news in thw 80’s; a bunch of guys were trying to buy an infrared laser, presumably infrared, “strong enough to make a horse break stride”. The people they were contacting reported them to the FBI.
The idea was to hit a horse on the flank, causing pain which would make it break stride and be disqualified, to fix horse races.
Not a crime, except as far as culpability for an accident, but here’s one I’ve heard about: Los Alamos Lab Laser Eye Accident [Warning: 100-page-.pdf file.] Unsafe work practices at a lab resulted in serious eye damage.