Posted on 05/17/2012 3:43:34 AM PDT by Kaslin
Earlier this week, the federal government announced that the Air Force might be dispatching drones to a backyard near you. The stated purpose of these spies in the sky is to assist local police to find missing persons or kidnap victims, or to chase bad guys.
If the drone operator sees you doing anything of interest (Is your fertilizer for the roses or to fuel a bomb? Is that Sudafed for your cold or your meth habit? Are you smoking in front of your kids?), the feds say they may take a picture of you and keep it. The feds predict that they will dispatch or authorize about 30,000 of these unmanned aerial vehicles across America in the next 10 years. Meanwhile, more than 300 local and state police departments are awaiting federal permission to use the drones they already have purchased -- usually with federal stimulus funds.
The government is out of control.
If the police use a drone without a warrant to see who or what is in your backyard or your bedroom, or if while looking for a missing child the drone takes a picture of you in your backyard or bedroom and the government keeps the picture, its use is unnatural and unconstitutional.
I say "unnatural" because we all have a natural right to privacy; it is a fundamental right that is inherent in our humanity. All of us have times of the day and moments in our behavior when we expect that no one -- least of all the government -- will be watching. When the government watches us during those times, it violates our natural right to privacy. It also violates our constitutional right to privacy. The Supreme Court has held consistently that numerous clauses in the Bill of Rights keep the government at bay without a warrant.
Even when we don't have an expectation of privacy, we do have a right to be left alone. But merely watching us in public isn't enough for the police, as many street corner cameras are equipped with listening devices and tiny megaphones. We can expect that these devices will soon bark commands: "Put down that BlackBerry." "Look to your right before crossing." "Don't kiss her; a car is coming." Actually, Big Brother is coming, and he's not smiling.
Big Brother is watching from the skies, as well as the streets. This started when the Department of Defense decided to offer help to police -- and they are prepared to accept. Never mind that the military may not lawfully operate within our borders, except in the case of rebellion, and then only when publicly authorized by the president. Never mind that the military may not lawfully be used for law enforcement, except in the case of disaster, and then only when publicly authorized by the president. And never mind that this use of drones by the Air Force was not the result of legislation debated and enacted by Congress, but was done under the authority of the president alone.
Add to all this the use of drones to kill people. President Obama has argued that he can use drones to kill Americans overseas, whose deaths he believes will keep us all safer, without any constitutional due process whatsoever. His attorney general has argued that the president's careful consideration of each target and the narrow use of deadly drones are an adequate substitute for due process. Of course, no court has ever ruled that way. The president's national security adviser has argued that the use of drones is humane since they are "surgical" and only kill their targets. Of course, that's not true, but it misses the point. Without a declaration of war, the president can't lawfully kill anyone, no matter how humane his killing.
How long will it be before the Air Force and the police adopt the unconstitutional arguments of the president's wrongheaded advisers and use the drones not only to spy but also to kill Americans in America?
The whole reason we have a Bill of Rights is to assure that tyranny does not happen here, to guarantee that the government to which we have supposedly consented will leave us alone. Do you think the government accepts that? Would you feel safe with a drone in your backyard? Would you feel like you were in America?
Ready. Set. PULL!
I have no problem if drones are used to find a missing child or adult, but I have a big problem if they are used to spy on people for using fertilizer in their garden, or what they do in their bedroom
Won't work, these things fly too high (invisible). We're not longer a free people.
Anybody have a plan?
Thousands of metallic balloons? I dont know, but if it comes down to it, some smart Freeper will find a way to take them out.
We're no longer a free people.
Anybody have a plan?
. . . . Check out article.
The problem is, and the Judge rightly points it out, these “policies” are sprung from the mind of the President, and not coming from Congress, where they should.
Here is the fundamental problem for all who vote and take it too lightly. If the President can order the military to spy on child molesters, kidnappers and other criminals, where is the line drawn? Can he later add to the list other undesirables, scofflaws and malcontents? Do these people realize, when they vote as if it’s American Idol, how much power over THEMSELVES they give him?
Congress is the problem here. It is abdication of their duty. We need to elect a Congress that is responsible and a true guardian of our liberties.
I’m afraid for us. I was an Oathtaker, and now I am an Oathkeeper of the US Constitution. Lately, however, I’ve been studying the words of the anti-Federalists and their fear of the power of the Presidency, I’m seeing, was well justified. For that matter, they also were fearful of a too powerful Congress. I’m not saying the Constituion is flawed, but too much power is in the hands of flawed men.
In your BEDROOM? How can one of these things see into a bedroom?
Already have helocopters flying over at regular intervals. Have sat on front porch and watched planes being refueled in mid-air just above tree lines....And then there was the night that an air”plane” without any sound shone a bright light into the house waking us all up. It too traveled just above the tree lines. If they want to know what we’re doing at my house chances are they already have the information.
By jamming the entire GPS band, which is fairly easy, you will force the bird to return to home, since the bird won’t know it’s location. And it doesn’t require very much RF energy to jam GPS, since the GPS signal is coming from a satellite.
We not only have drones... we have had them in our area for quite a while. Remember the Sniper killings in Maryland/D.C./Virginia? That is when I spotted our first drone. Since then, we see them on occasion. I once saw several together... somewhat like a squadron (three total). I assumed (and falsely so) that it was due to our neighborhood being so close to D.C. I should have known better....
Little hot to garden in....Infact I may want to stop running around in my back yard with just undies on (or at least wave at them....Grandma used to say: “If they haven’t seen it before the won’t know what it is, If they have it’s nothing new.”
Ever see a high-resolution oblique angle photograph?
Some of the "micro-drones" that researchers are working on are more like large insects than aircraft. Some are like your kid's mini radio-controlled helicopters. You could easily sidle-up to an upper floor window and peer in. I should say that when 'targeting' a specific US citizen or residence we are probably still looking at law enforcement having to get a warrant. But even that could slip over time.
Now this is from my Dad — Helicopters regularly flew low over their neighborhood going to the heliport on the roof of a close by hotel. Supposedly one of his heighbors was arrested for aiming his shovel at the helicopter as it flew over.
“In your BEDROOM? How can one of these things see into a bedroom?”
IR is a good possibility unless you’ve got good insulation.
About a week to ten days before someone in the world gets the Shhhhhhit bombed out of them we can hear cargo planes flying from midnight till dawn. Any one in the neighborhood COULD make it public knowledge and alert the world. (Crane navel depot is near. Had a friend write a message on one delivered to Sedam)
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