Posted on 08/04/2012 9:53:13 AM PDT by upchuck
First, our government used them on suspected terrorists half-way around the globe. Then, they used them on American citizens half-way around the globe. Now, they’re using them on Americans right here on U.S. soil, and a North Dakota judge sees no reason to be alarmed. Just last year, for the first time in America, a predator drone was used to assist police in the arrest of farmer Rodney Brossart and his family in the small town of Lakota, North Dakota.
Lakota is a 1-square-mile town of about 780 people and not big enough to contain Mr. Brossart’s 3,000-acre farm of corn and soybeans. A neighbor’s six cows wandered onto his property, and Brossart refused to return them based on an interpretation of an “open range law” until the neighbor paid him for the feed which the cows consumed.
When police first showed up on the scene, they tasered and arrested Mr. Brossart after he refused to surrender the cows. His wife was also arrested for supposedly “misleading” the police as to where the “illegal weapons” were. Police arrived again the following day and were chased away by Brossart’s armed, adult children.
That’s when police reciprocated with a warrant, a SWAT team, a bomb squad and an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle, courtesy of Homeland Security. The spy drone was able to give the County Sheriff aerial footage of the property on his laptop and tell if any of the residents were armed. After a total of 16 hours of standoff, the SWAT team raided the house and arrested Brossart’s sons on “terrorizing” and other charges.
A SWAT team, a bomb squad, a drone and a tasering. All this over six cows? Apparently, there’s more to the story than just some meandering bovines, but the SWAT team chief didn’t let on: “I can’t really get into what the dispute was over,” Macki said. “What I can tell you is the SWAT team wasn’t there over a property dispute. The SWAT team was called out to render assistance in reference to armed subjects. … And using the unmanned aerial vehicle seemed appropriate in this instance.” Further, he stated that they only needed the drone to make sure that the residents were unarmed and that they didn’t leave the property.
However, Brossart’s attorney Bruce Quick didn’t buy it. He requested that the charges be dropped because he said that the use of the drone was in violation of the 4th amendment. He also cited “outrageous governmental conduct, unlawful surveillance, illegal seizures and searches, unconstitutional application of North Dakota law, vindictive prosecution, and other statutory and constitutional injury” as justification for wanting the charges dropped. The North Dakota judge refused Quick’s request just a few days ago, but instead stated that “there was no improper use of an unmanned aerial vehicle” and that it “appears to have had no bearing on these charges being contested here.”
Thankfully, the leftist Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) has put the pieces together for us. The reason for all the drama is that Brossart is a known “sovereign citizen.” He’s a “right wing extremist” who owns guns. A potential “domestic terrorist.” The County Sheriff had this to say to the SPLC: “It’s not common for people to brandish weapons against law enforcement, and to have them all be family members is unique. [It tells me] they’re up to something, they’re planning something, they have some different beliefs…. We’re meeting with a team of experts to find out the best possible way to resolve this.” Yeah, experts from the Department of Homeland Security, who tell law enforcement that everybody’s a domestic terrorist.
This case is ongoing, and the outcome remains to be seen, but for now, this judge has upheld the use of a predator drone in the arrest of an American citizen on our homeland. Considering the popularity of drones these days with law enforcement especially, this court case may set a dangerous precedent. What’s the next drone case going to be about? Maybe next time they will have killed someone with a drone because that person was a known gun owner. But what if they killed the wrong person? What if they killed bystanders as well? I think they call that “collateral damage.”
Our own government is in serious need of surveillance. After all, who is checking on them to make sure they’re not terrorists? Who’s watching the watchmen?
How 1984 Orwellian, huh? =.=
Hmmm... so he was holding the cows as security until the neighbor paid for the feed the cows had eaten. Sounds reasonable enough.
If he’d taken the neighbor to small claims court instead of chasing the first responders away with rifles, this would have been resolved.
Why was the government so eager to intervene with so much muscle in a spat between what were probably two jerky neighbors who disliked each other?
And for all you who supported the Patriot Act back in the day ...THIS is the result. It isn’t about Terrorism any more than RICO is about the mob.
A quick search tells me that a cow is worth anywhere from between $2000-$5000. That's $12,000-$30,000. I have a strong hunch you wouldn't be questioning the methods if your neighbor had $30,000 that belonged to you.
After the younger adult Brossart children drew weapons on law enforcement they should all just thank whatever god they believe in that the SWAT team didn't justifiably go in guns blazing. These people are obviously not only kooks, but dangerous ones at that.
It can orbit from 5 miles away and kill you from there. You will not see it in the air.
guess they didn’t need to use it at the border, since that has already been sealed up
Terrorism is the act of committing a random act of violence, that will intimidate and terrorize the public at large.
The imprecision of this charge alone lets you know the local authorities have their heads firmly implanted.
If that range law is on the books, the officers don't have a leg to stand on.
As for using the drone, don't escalate the incident to the point you have armed resistance in the first place, and you won't have to abuse your citizens as a result.
I happen to think this guy was a bit of a yahoo, but you don't attack people for being a bit strange. I would have given the cattle back, but if this guy was operating under some sort of range law that was still in effect, he's right and they are wrong.
This guy may win on the issue of the cattle. And if he does, the officials in that police department are going to come off looking like complete idiot bastards.
Charge the guy with a crime. Give him a summons. Handle the issue in court. Those cattle weren't humans. Their return wasn't required in 24 hours. This did not have to be handled this way.
Citizens and officers were subjected to a life threatening situation, when they didn't need to be. An unmanned aircraft was also used when it didn't need to be.
These damned small police department heads that turn their jurisdiction into a somewhat of a fiefdom, contribute to an image of laws enforcement totally out of control.
Don't these idiots think at all before they escalate these situations way beyond what is called for?
Actually, it was the neighbor who didn’t keep his cattle on his own property who should have gone to court to get his cattle back. In court the issue of reimbursement of feed could be addressed at the same time.
I suppose you could say the guy wanting reimbursement should have returned the cattle and gone to court. “Possession is nine-tenths of the law.” If you give up your cards, you don’t win the pot.
It would be interesting to know just how much the person arrested wanted for feeding those cattle. It may have been an embarrassingly small amount.
That’s not a real plane. Or that’s a very old photo. There’s no such thing as border protection under Obama. /s
Yeah, I know, where is the fun in that, right?
If the cows were on his property due to the lack of control on the part of the actual owner, the actual owner needs to go through the process of getting them back.
.
I was just thinking “this is EXACTLY how Andy Griffith would have handled it”.
I mean, Barney Fife.
So there you have it. There are two types of sheriffs, and this place has the wrong kind.
And these kinds of articles are news because they’re about the wrong kind doing the job wrongly.
And there are two types of landwoners, and this place had two of the same wrong kind (Barney Fifes).
Wouldn’t you OFFER payment for grass consumed x2 right after your apology upon first seeing the owner open his front door? Probably a history of incompetence.
Well, not yet, anyway.
i’m not claiming its fulfilled like this, but also people are too ready to assume Revelation Chapter 13 requires star wars type futuristic technology ultimately to fulfill for such passages as this:
“. . he maketh fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men”
or
“who is able to make war with him”
when in fact this could be flying over our houses this very minute, and how could any of us defend against it,
It sounds to me that when the cows wandered onto this man’s farm, it became a civil matter, not a criminal one. The police should have told the owner of the cows to get a lawyer, and filed the report. The farmer should have said “sue me, unless you want to agree to a reasonable settlement “. The police escalated this unnecessarily,unless there are some other facts not being stated. How did this go from being about cows to illegal weapons? Why didn’t the farmer return the cows immediately? Need more data.
So what is the difference between a drone and a helicopter? If we allow a helicopter to fly over a citizen’s property and report back the information that they see .... how is a drone any different?
The fight over the 4th was lost a long time ago when citizens allowed LEO to conduct surveillance of their property without a warrant.
This is not about the Patriot Act. All that act did was take the SAME laws that have been used to fight organized crime for over 40 years, and allowed them to be used on terrorists. There are safe guards, and congressional monitoring.
The Raptor is truly death from the sky. I have watched men fly the Predator when it was first used over Serbia. The people of the screen never saw it watching. I have watched the armed Predator and later the Raptor kill people. I never saw one person get away from a hell fire missile.
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