Posted on 06/23/2012 4:04:05 PM PDT by James C. Bennett
After perfecting them overseas in military situations, it was only a matter of time before the government and law enforcement would start using aerial drones for monitoring US citizens back home. And that time is now, as partygoers in Miami recently discovered.
Back in January of 2011 Miami's police force acknowledged that they'd be the first in the country to employ camera-equipped drones to keep tabs on the city. So while its appearance isn't a complete surprise, this clip from YouTube user 'miamiearl' showing one of the drones monitoring partygoers at a recent Memorial Day weekend celebration, is still a little unsettling.
Of course, police departments all over the country have used camera-equipped helicopters to watch over their jurisdictions for years now. But these remote drones are able to fly a lot closer to the ground, which has citizens worried that the privacy they've enjoyed for years, or at least the feeling of privacy, is in jeopardy.
And it's not like this drone seen in Miami is just going to be a one-off occurrence. New FAA rules have given clearance for more drones to fill civilian skies over the coming years. So in the future, during your Fourth of July celebrations, you should probably get used to the idea of the skies being filled with drones, not just fireworks. [YouTube via Dave Winer via Dprogram.net via Prison Planet]
Shoot about two or three of them suckers down and they will decide it aint worth the cost.
I agree with the Judge. Whoever brings these drones down, is an American hero.
Vasiline on a mop works. Sometimes the low tech solution is better.
In Chicago there are two areas where redlight cameras are regularly attacked with the result that the radar is pointed up at the sky or down at the ground. The first are the poor areas of the city on the west and south sides. You’d expect this.
But, on the northwest side, near O’Hare Airport, is a community largely made up of white government workers - police and fire, etc. It is here that the cameras are also beaten such that the radar portion points up at the sky or down at the ground. Now, ask yourself, “What do these areas have in common?”
The excuse I hear the most - It’s for our safety.
My boy was at a Rascal Flatts concert in Bristow, Virginia last night. He and the ex- or active-duty military folks he was with said they saw a drone overhead. Naturally!—a group of patriotic country-music fans are dangerous to the administration. Gotta keep an eye on military folks, I guess. Wouldn’t want them to get in the way of The Agenda.
Krauthammer :
“I’m going to go hard left on you here, I’m going ACLU. I don’t want regulations, I don’t want restrictions, I want a ban on this. Drones are instruments of war. The Founders had a great aversion to any instruments of war, the use of the military inside even the United States. It didn’t like standing armies, it has all kinds of statutes of using the army in the country.
A drone is a high-tech version of an old army and a musket. It ought to be used in Somalia to hunt bad guys but not in America. I don’t want to see it hovering over anybody’s home. Yes, you can say we have satellites, we’ve got Google Street View and London has a camera on every street corner but that’s not an excuse to cave in on everything else and accept a society where you’re always under — being watched by the government. This is not what we want.
I would say that you ban it under all circumstances and I would predict, I’m not encouraging, but I an predicting that the first guy who uses a Second Amendment weapon to bring a drone down that’s been hovering over his house is going to be a folk hero in this country.”
The fact is this drone was taking pictures of people in a public place. No Constitutional rights were violated, nor was any law broken.
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