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Weaponizable Police UAV Now Operational In Texas
crackspackle writes "The Montgomery County Sheriff's Office in suburban Houston, Texas is preparing to launch operations with a newly received Shadowhawk MK-III unmanned aerial vehicle, paid for by grant money received by the Department of Homeland Security. The MK-III is a product marketed for both military and law enforcement applications. Michael Buscher, chief executive officer of manufacturer Vanguard Defense Industries, said this is the first local law enforcement agency to buy one of his units. 'The aircraft has the capability to have a number of different systems on board. Mostly, for law enforcement, we focus on what we call less lethal systems,' he said, including Tazers that can send a jolt to a criminal on the ground or a gun that fires bean bags known as a 'stun baton.' 'You have a stun baton where you can actually engage somebody at altitude with the aircraft. A stun baton would essentially disable a suspect,' he said. The MK-III also has more lethal options available, capable of carrying either a 40mm or 37mm grenade launcher or 12 gauge shotgun with laser designator."
Land of the free, home of the brave.
This reminds me of robocop. PUT DOWN YOUR WEAPON. YOU HAVE TEN SECONDS TO COMPLY. The smaller the minds the bigger the government.
You have a state that doesn't seem to mind executing people that might be innocent and where there's little concern for courts convicting innocent people in general.
Yeah, those are the people that I'd want to be operating armed drones over my house. Thankfully, I live way away from, Texas, but this ought to scare the crap out of anybody who lives there. Precisely what happens when this thing hits somebody that isn't the intended target? Or how about collateral damage? I don't think that police forces typically arm themselves with grenade launchers in the US>
What the fuck, America?! You now have flying devices that could shoot criminals right in the genitals with bean bags? What the fuck, America?!
BigBrothers budget is set to fall.
Fair is fair; you can build one yourself:
http://diydrones.com/
A blog I run for the wealth
We get a "watchbird", flown by those two well-built policemen on the press conference... Yay!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masters_of_Science_Fiction
The MK-III also has more lethal options available, capable of carrying either a 40mm or 37mm grenade launcher or 12 gauge shotgun with laser designator."
What the hell does law enforcement need a 37mm/40mm grenade launcher attached to a remote-controlled UAV for? Whatever, moving on.
Between the political disarray of congress, the chain of administrations that spend exorbitant amounts of money on things the people don't really need, the majority of police officers who are little more than petty thugs/tools, TSA groping children in airports and performing unwarranted, "random" searches on the street, media hype/sensationalism which constantly keeps the dumb majority of the public distracted, the incredibly skewed distribution of wealth, and an overall government with a cracked model of democracy that has it's hands in way too many cookie jars, I can't say I want to live in this country any longer. It's turning into a police state, and people should not have to fear the peace keepers, law makers, or individuals which hold powerful, public offices.
All in all, everything happening now is a perfect recipe for chaos, and I doubt anybody will realize it until it's too late.
P.S. I like the police. They keep the peace, and living in a large city, I am grateful for that. But the majority of police officers do not deserve the title - they are frequently loose cannons, act only on instinct or emotion, pick/choose what laws they enforce when they want to enforce them, and frequently ignore laws / people's rights just to further their own agenda, career, or case. I'm friends with a few cops (detectives, actually), and some of them are good guys who I can personally say have never violated anybody's rights, but, unfortunately, they are few and far between. I'd be fairly surprised if the "good cops" make up more than 20% of the force at any given precinct across the country.
P.S.S. "Chaos. Good news."
vos nescitis quicquam, nec cogitatis quia expedit nobis ut unus moriatur homo pro populo et non tota gens pereat.
Copseyes! Obscure reference?
Mostly random stuff.
The previous story was an NPR piece on US economics, now this? This isn't News for Nerds, this is some regular news site. I don't come here for this.
Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
This is going to be great for Texas. Their law enforcement productivity has been down lately because the court system has been a bottleneck in processing the whole tips->executions pipeline, but this tool has the potential to bypass almost all of that. They should be able to go from anonymous tip to taking out a crack house with a grenade in mere minutes.
Lacking <sarcasm> tags,
Really is amazing to watch just how far and wide the military/state is invading citizens lives.
I know there is a happy medium between no security and full blown police state, but I'm sure we passed that line and we're accelerating towards the latter. I also know that _every_ great nation has fallen. Maybe they don't totally die, get conquered, etc, but they certainly become shadows of their former selves. Are we on the slide down now? Are we past our prime? Can we recover? I understand that anything is possible, but does it look likely or even plausible given our political climate in the US? What would it take to make things "right" again (yes, I know there are multiple views of what this means)?
Am I just rambling and making no sense after just waking up on a Saturday?
Mostly, for law enforcement, we focus on what we call less lethal systems,' he said
As a military pilot, I loled.
The drive to College Station was alway wrought with speed traps and cops dumber than Barny Fife. Now we have RoboCop. Living in Texas is aaaawesome.
Having to work for a living is the root of all evil.
as "c h a s i n g - p e r p s".
How the HELL do you NOT Godwin this kind of crap?
The story isn't the drone. The story should be that the Montgomery County Sheriff's Office in Conroe, TX just paid $300,000 for a R/C helicopter from a company that just happens to be in Conroe, TX, with a business website has only been in operating for a year.
Police giving $300,000 to new local company for a toy? Why do I feel like this was a scam, that someone in the police force just made $250,000+?
my karma will be here long after I'm gone
I wonder how secure they are, it would be pretty bad if some of them got hacked by malicious people.
Great idea! First you fly around a clay pigeon with a sheriff's logo on it to train the bad guys, and when it gets shot down and you don't have the funds for a new one, you put regular officers back in.
I wouldn't want one of these things on my squad.
"Weaponizable" just means that you can add a weapon, not that the vehicle has one. Police departments already have plenty of "weaponizable" things, you can add rocket launchers to patrol cars or give a nuclear bomb to a patrol officer. (Yes, that's right, a patrol officer can destroy an entire city! You heard it here first!)
FWIW, the police department has described uses that don't use weapons (various recon/patrol functions), while the CEO of the business pumped the weaponization capabilities. Could a future police department have a fleet of armed UAVs? Absolutely. But that hasn't happened yet.
How is this any different for privacy concerns than flying around a manned helicopter ... that many, many police departments do currently?
Only 2 1/2 months till Obama is inaugurated..........I can't wait!
"The average reporter we talk to is 27 years old......They literally know nothing." - Ben Rhodes
A remote controlled aircraft armed with a shotgun fired by someone sitting comfortably in a chair. I think we heard of a similar program there some years ago that intended to "bring hunting to the disabled". Now they just changed the prey...
Damn_registrars has no butt-hole. Damn_registrars has no use for a butt-hole.
This is not designed for regular policing, and would have little if any use in day to day operations. Helicopters are used for large sporting events to coordinate resources on the ground with the aerial view giving a big picture. But TFA does not even try to use this justification. The words used are 'hunting criminals', and ` SWAT team officers are facing an active shooter`
I've never been to the states so I do not know how frequent these events are, but imagine not frequent enough to justify this type of acquisition.
So where could a tool like this become useful?
The first major deployment of aircraft for population control was the Indian subcontinent. Around 1915-1922ish, aircraft were deployed and used to quell urban unrest. With relatively few servicemen able to command vast areas. The subcontinent included India, Pakistan and Bangladesh.
More recently, the UAV has been used to spy-on and assassinate potential adversaries in the middle east, covering vast areas and again utilizing minimal personnel. Assassination seems to be preferred over capture and rendition as captives eventually talk.
Is the US expecting large-scale social unrest?
If the answer is yes, it seems the government have chosen their defense strategy. If not, well, once police forces acquire a tool they tend to use them, and don't like to give them back. Both scenarios are worrying.
As an outsider looking in, I see the US as going through a metamorphosis similar to that of Germany in the 1920s. The TSA could be compared to the early days of the Sturmabteilung (SA, or stormtroopers.) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sturmabteilung
I hope I am wrong.
"engage somebody at altitude" with a hand to hand weapon? Does this UAV transform into a humanoid? Or maybe they plan on stunning skydivers (who then can't pull their ripcords).
Oh man I'm getting Blue Thunder vibes.
That film was prophetic (except nowadays we get uavs instead).
The Police have shown such restraint lately where the rights of the people are concerned, I don't see any reason not to give them Military weapons to engage civilians with...
The best thing to keep the crowd down is divide and conquer and of course good surveillance and a quick response force. But surveillance is of greatest importance. It is required for the divide and conquer strategy and it is important for the quick response force. So to achieve the required basics for a totalitarian system you need such stuff.
On the other hand. Democracy works best with out suppression and a homogeneous economic situation for the people, meaning the poor and the rich are not that far apart.
However, in modern western societies, we decided that it is not a problem that the poorer get poorer and that there are more poor people every day, so democracy is no longer working. In a democracy the rich could not get away with so much money. This has nothing to do with jealousy. I do not need my own yacht or villa. Actually I am quite comfortable. The problem is that there are so many people who are not "quite comfortable". They suffer. And they are angry. Right now they are not organized and they are not able to fight for themselves. As this might chance, the state (as in the control structure) has to ensure the safety of those who are "quite comfortable" or above.
In a state (as in the organization of the people for common interests) would obviously address the issue and get the money from the rich for all those necessities of life. Healthcare, pensions, streets, schools, universities, unemployment insurance/guaranteed minimal income, and safety (as in safety for all) etc. BTW a good guaranteed minimal reduces violence and increases safety.
I'm not a gun expert by far, but... is high accuracy really applicable to a shotgun?
Please note the tacit assumption that any targets this thing takes on are already criminal, which used to mean "person convicted of a crime". Here, not even allegedly so. And by that assumption any targets easily become acceptable targets.
I for one welcome our new airborne judge overlords.
Target practice.
giggity
I bet the hackers are going to love to play around with this. Just imagine if the C&C frequency can be hacked...
I hope this thing, and any like them, gets shot out of the sky and destroyed by citizens who still care about the constitution.
It will be only a short time before drug lords and other baddies start getting anti aircraft missiles to take out the UAV's.
Do we really want the police encouraging the criminals to upgrade weaponry?
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
Is "less lethal" like "partially dead"?
A laser sighted shotgun? Think about that for a minute.
If they want to go that route, I'll find a way to shoot the bitch down and laugh. Montgomery County UAV vs. RPG!
About 3 years ago, a local Houston TV news reporter got wind of an unannounced, by invitation only, test by the Houston PD of a drone they intended to purchase for 'traffic enforcement' purposes. Given their penchant for long (usually at rush hour), cinematically lush chases, several with fatalities, the suggestion of a less obvious method of surveiling the latest mobile boyfriend run amok might have had merit. But the public were convinced by the sinister angle of the reportage that it was a bad idea then. Conroe may be a suburb of Houston someday, (it's 60 miles north) but it is another country mentally. Different set of good ol' boys, and now they can, for as long as it takes for Houston PD to demand and procure theirs, gloat about their toys being badder. I've been in their traffic camera monitor room, and wonder if they'll be using the same guys (think 5-day LAN party attendee) to keep track of the drone. But, also, think of a place where you are absolutely allowed to carry while mowing your lawn. This thing may end up being a six-figure clay pigeon.
The police are just another gang, albeit better equipped, frankly that thing looks like a joke to me especially considering it will be a Texas cop flying it.
Dry Weight: 35lbs (16 kg)
Overall Length: 96 in (243.9 cm)
Height: 29.8 in (75.7 cm)
Width: 17 in (43.2 cm)
Rotor Span: 76.5 in (194.3 cm)
Usable Load: 22 lbs (10 kg)
Cruising Speed: 35 mph (56.3 kph)
Max Speed: 70 mph (112.6 kph)
Max Range: 35 miles (56 km)
Fuel Endurance: Turbine 45 min/Piston 3.5 hrs.
What a joke.
"If any question why we died, Tell them because our fathers lied."
I must point out that we'd never bypass the justice system unless the video from the drone showed with a high degree of probability that the suspect appeared to be mentally retarded.
How much melanin does it take to make someone retarded?
Lacking <sarcasm> tags,
I think the application of UAVs during wartime was questionable, and I find it to be absolutely incredible that we are using them on our own people now. We've killed a lot of people who were innocent by accident, and I think the detachment between a UAV operator and the actual person they see in their monitor enables these kinds of casualties. It's different when a soldier (or cop) is face to face with a criminal and can assess the situation in person.
The application of UAVs with infrared cameras to find grow houses for drugs is the kind of use that is perfectly acceptable. Remotely tazing, bean-bagging, and shooting people is not.
We really need to pass a law that permanently bans any kind of semi-lethal or lethal force being applied by UAVs against civilians. Especially with the controversy about the actual damage inflicted by a tazer.
Not to worry when the come to get me I will just hide in my bunker with all my guns ..... oh wait ....
Undetectable Steganography? Yep, there's an app fo
Ever notice how when you read about this bullshit, it is paid for from Federal funds ? The answer, of course, is simple - local citizens tend to object if too much money is wasted on bullshit toys, the Feds don't really care, the cops like their gadgets and SWAT teams, and the vendors, and their lobbyists, are tickled pink. This practice started in 1968 with the Omnibus Crime Bill; 43 years of the experiment of massive Federal subsidies of local police shows that it is totally value-subtracting and should be stopped.
The time is very near when we shall have to dust this one off and use it for its original purpose: to check the physical power of the government.
Yes, a couple guys with hunting rifles are not going to seriously challenge a military with tanks and jets. But there are millions and millions of those guys, and they all know how to shoot well enough to bring down even SEAL Team 6. Also, tanks and jets are pretty useful when you want to completely, indiscriminately flatten someone else's cities, but they're not so terribly useful when you try to use them against your own; the guys with the guns are mixed in with non-combatants and the collateral damage of dropping napalm on Hackensack would be unacceptably high.
This future is coming to an America near you if the 1% don't wake the hell up right now and chart a radically better course.
Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.
Making the world unsafer than the criminals.
I know very few victims of crime I however know lots of victims of police.
Watch you fucking tv do you see more criminals beating people or police.
And we know they are asking to remove and not play them you know they have had some success at that.
They are ashamed of themselves.
Wake up America.
Perhaps effort should be concentrated elsewhere. In adopting such devices in law enforcement, important moral firewalls (would) have been breached. Therefore the moral guilt of those who have been documented to have used weapons of mass destruction in the recent past (Hitler, Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot, Saddam Hussein, etc.) should cling to those responsible for giving the orders to use. Use whatever media channels available to change public opinion that any government that uses military weapons on its own civilians FORFEITS ANY AND ALL LEGITIMACY. Those who disagree with the preceding should be watched carefully and by whatever means necessary disqualified from jury service. Yes, I am talking about changing people's opinion so profoundly that even VOIR DIRE cannot ferret them out. As long as specific parties an/or court cases are not identified, no charges of jury tampering can be pressed.
By a Raspberry Pi controlled smart missile or gun. Truthfully why do people get so upset when there are tons and lots of fun ways to counter such a horrible thing. I would think the real worry would be something like a civilian arms race. Like the kind of stuff happening in Mexico. That's why I think they are stupid for doing that. Sooner or later the cartels will make something just as diabolical, or even worse. By then they will probably have high speed rail running under the Texas Mexico border.
my clay pidgeon target practice might come in handy, if i see any weaponized UAVs flying around over my house i am going to shoot them down and hide them
Get yourself a small amateur rocket build, stick a live feed video camera in the nose, and an operator who can control the guidance on it in flight and . . .
Voila, your problem is solved. No need for explosives at all. The kinetic impact will do the job nicely.
Or be fun and fight fire with fire, run a decent sized RC plane up there to intercept it.
I am a Canadian, and as an outsider to your country, and being so small a country ourselves, we watch mostly American TV, and see a lot of American news. But really since 9/11 in George W's presidency to even now with Obama in power the USA has gone from a beacon of freedom in the world to sliding closer and closer to a fascist state. I'm surprised more people aren't out protesting with Occupy Wall street, or just protesting things like the TSA searching trucks in TN, trains and ferry passengers, and now with the help of Homeland security these Texas cops are violating your freedoms with drones in the air?! There should be riots in the streets over this B.S. but instead the people say Meh! and carry on. Well I can almost hear the jackboots and sirens approaching from here. Here's a quote to give some thought to. "Beware the leader who bangs the drums of war in order to whip the citizenry into a patriotic fervor, for patriotism is indeed a double-edged sword. It both emboldens the blood, just as it narrows the mind...And when the drums of war have reached a fever pitch and blood boils with hate and the mind has closed, the leader will have no need in seizing the rights of the citizenry. Rather, the citizenry, infused with fear and blinded with patriotism, will offer up all of their rights unto the leader, and gladly so. How do I know? For this is what I have done. And I am Caesar" - William Shakespeare
Timing of deployment seems remarkable.
This is really fucking great news.
From TFA it appears that this thing is just a retrofitted maybe slightly scaled up 50lb RC Helicopter.
It probably has less than stellar range and endurance, and is much less stable than a quad/hex/octo rotor design.
$300,000 is so obviously a total ripoff, but I'm guessing "Homeland Security grant" budget is a massive one.
They could have done this for less than $5,000 with any one of the existing quad or hex rotor systems in the market, and their accompanying electronics modules.
Or they could just buy Predator drones or wait until the military upgrades from them and take them over for free, it's not like they can't afford to spend some pocket change on the war on drugs/terror/bogeymen.
"What the hell does law enforcement need a 37mm/40mm grenade launcher attached to a remote-controlled UAV for? "
They don't. And this summary is pure manipulation.
Think of all the police forces that use Bell Jet Rangers and have for years. They CAN carry Hellfire missiles mini-guns, and goodness knows what else. The thing is that they don't.
First the the BIG LIE that is part of this summary. The company is working on things like stun batons and tazers. Go to the company website sometime and look at this thing. It is the size of a large model helicopter. BTW Small UAV == a model aircraft. And on the website they only talk about Sensors... Are they going to put weapons on it. I doubt it because they would be of next to no use. Will it carry sensors? Yes. If they do not put weapons on it it is not weaponized.
Everyone here is taking a worst case view of this. I wish that we could have a bit of a better view of this. A small UAV like this could be very valuable is search and rescue or any number of uses such as fire fighting. I live in Florida and we often hear about people getting dragged out by rip currents. A small drone like this that could be launched quickly could be really useful. We also have forest fires one of these to scout would also be very useful.
But Slashdot has learned... Fear Sells.
See my blog http://ilovecookes.blogspot.com/ for light hearted technical information.
I think it's a nice touch of putting "Keep back 100 ft" in small print. Don't say they didn't warn you!
"I never liked the ocean, it ought to be paved over."
We sure are happy to stomp on it on a regular basis. As a resident of several years now, I am shocked, but not at all surprised.
the us troops should be brought back from Iraq and Afghanistan and sent to the borders, especially Mexico to fight drug war
Obviously all you idiots commenting don't live in a state that borders Mexico. It's bad down here. And if you're feeling sorry for the illiegals, they're worse than the weapons Texas has bought. They leave behind women, children and men when they don't keep up and let them die in the desert, not to mention raping while the women are at their mercy with no where to go. I know. My husband is a volunteer border patrol agent. They find dead or near dead people quite often. These drones are in place to protect our citizens and help control the OUT OF CONTROL drug wars going on in Mexico coming across on our borders.
Seriously? A weaponized UAV, for the police? Are they insane? Not my problem, for now, since I don't go to Texas .. Ever. It's a dangerous place where the population is drunk and armed and the cops practice more lawlessness than otherwise. Also it's a state that still murders people (Death "penalty".)
Nothing good can or will come of this, for a fact.
As TFA points out, the FAA isn't all that sure it wants these beasties flying around in US airspace being controlled by people who are focused on chasing something on the ground and not watching what they're doing in that airspace. An FAA rep says that most local orgs flying these things don't have FAA approval, which ought to raise some red flags within a community that's supposed to be all about law enforcement. Even if there's a good consciencious pilot at the controls, it's not easy to keep track of the surrounding airspace AND as TFA also points out, these things go rouge on an all-too-frequent basis. Since arguments about "police state" aren't going to stop these bozos from buying/flying these things, perhaps the best offense is to go at them through the FAA. Maybe it won't stop the buying, but it can stop the flying.
Well, this definitely puts a new spin on those "Speed Limit Enforced by Aircraft" signs...
When normal law-abiding Americans have to deal with drones, then they will have some insight on why sending them to foreign countries may be viewed as cowardly and hate-worthy.
The thought of hanging myself at my student loan organization doesn't bug me as much when I think it might make a differ
That's really all it takes any more.
"If any question why we died, Tell them because our fathers lied."
Does that mean criminals can shoot at it without being charged with out asulting an officer. Perhaps destruction of public property? Seems almost reasonable.
this is madness.
Where are we going? And why am I sitting in a handbasket?
Police were intended to keep the peace and provide security for their citizens. In Japan and England police need special certification to carry guns, let alone fire them. They're a pretty friendly bunch, and very approachable from what I understand. At what point did we decide that they needed to wage war against our citizens? This is sort of like escalating the TSA from running the metal detectors at airports to searching trucks on the highway - when have you outgrown your intended purpose?
I understand the need to escalate things to the SWAT team, but beyond that, perhaps we should consider mobilizing the state's National Guard? There's a reason why we have a separation of State Police and State Army. Modern drug wars are getting too big for the local police and perhaps we should assign that task to the national guard? There needs to be some sort of separation in power between the two, or perhaps we should just merge them.
moox. for a new generation.
It's Texas, right? I'm predicting some holes appear in that new toy fairly rapidly. It's nothing but a flying traffic sign, after all.
Title says it all. The people over there are getting more and more crazy by the day. Attitudes are just becoming sub-human.
We all hear time and time again that America is about as fucked-up/religious/millitant as a third-world middle eastern country, and articles like this clearly show that the USA is about halfway down the slippery slope already.
Land of the Free?
Land of Liberty and Human Rights?
Not a Christian Nation?
Yeah right.
Get the picture, pal?
Sure fix it for everyone when my reply still stands after "sgt" decided to delete it. This isnt political. Its something that is already LAW under a large number of immigration acts passed threw congress. You have to LEGALLY be in allowed to migrate into the US from anywhere we have borders. It considered an open border too. So why are these people continuously trying to JUMP IT?? Duh suhsuuhuduh geee lemme think.... lemme take a second and get back to you....uhhhh....
These people dont seem to get the picture, SO, the DHS is making it more clear for them. Its wreckless, irresponsible, and criminal on behalf of illegals. Point blank.
http://boingboing.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/20111029_NOCERA-IMG-slide-V4QD-articleLarge.jpg
http://boingboing.net/2011/10/29/top-us-foreclosure-law-firm-threw-halloween-party-where-staff-dressed-as-homeless-foreclosed-upon-americans.html
this is madness.
THIS! IS! TEXAS!
*kicks Presto into bottomless shaft*
This is how I know your reply was to a COP:
COPS are thieves too, and they're testing the waters on how much they can get away with before shooting the lesser thieves.
ROBOCOP script variant enough said
Nowhere in TFA does it say it's a Mk-III variant and Vanguard's own article says that it's a Mk-II. The difference? The Mark-II isn't weaponisable - at least not out of the box.
TFA seems to misquote Vanguard CEO, Michael Buscher, as he's talking about weaponisation options for Mk-III and IV (military) variants.
If I lived in Texas, my backyard SAM site would be under construction immediately.
I don't see anything on the website, spec sheets or product info on this unit that says the command & control link is covered by encryption. Are we to assume that it's encrypted??? Security through obscurity, perhaps?
Hmmm.
You may recall that the military UAV's were not protected? The article mentions that insurgents only got the unencrypted video feeds, BUT it also says that the "real time control systems" would be affected by the delay caused by encryption.
It would truly suck if one of these puppies got hit with a strong signal telling the port ailerons to go "full down" and the starboard aileron to go "full up", while the elevators get told to go "full down".
Nor would it be all that hard, I imagine? Can anyone explain whether it would be difficult? No need to get into the technicals, just whether or not it's possible with equipment off the shelf?
[End Of Line]
AKA the law drafted in the late 1930s in the aftermath of the Great Depression, separating investment and deposit holding banks.
Plan My Week for iPhone
Avoid Texas.
I can't wait until one of the knucklehead police operators accidentally flies this thing into a tree or power lines or something.
Then they get to explain to the media why their $300,000 toy just became a $5 pile of twisted metal.
The cops won't even have to get out of their cars - they'll call in an airstrike on speeders, then call the dept of public works to clean up the wreckage and fill in the new pothole.
Seriously, where did you think all this pilotless drone technology was going to eventually end up, anyway?
"First they blew up the Taliban, and I did not care. Then they blew up Al-Queda, and I did not care. Then they blew up unlawful combatants, and I did not care. Then they blew up some American who who hated our freedoms but was not in America, and I started to wonder where this was headed...
Then Texas bought these pilotless drones; and it was too late. . ."
Texas - It's Like A Whole 'Nother Planet!
Ask Me About... The 80's!
'Non-leathal' weapons are very much lethal when aimed at the head, which is exactly the angle and aerial drone is going to be shooting at you from.
http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2011/10/marine-veteran-whose-skull-was-fractured-in-oakland-protests-was-peacefully-standing-when-attacked-by-police.html
Soon this technology will be in every state. Also it's just a matter of time before they're used for the assination of US citizens...mark my words.
Is it a felony shoot these drones down? I mean nobody is on board. And one could argue that if they weren't there to begin with, then nobody on the ground need be hurt by shooting one down. But then again, would it be a felony if nobody touched it and it crashed into a household of innocents. Who would be accountable then? And could we possibly assume THAT would be a felony conviction?
Just pondering the legalities of what could/would go wrong.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nLVFZHiCdw8
The new right fascists are bilingual. They speak English and Bullshit.