Will Toys-R-Us Carry Spy Drones?

First time accepted submitter TomOfAmalfi writes "People are concerned about government use of domestic surveillance drones, but how is that different than what happens when people make their own drones, or buy them at a toy store? These units don't have the endurance or performance of the 'professional' models, but they can be useful and will get better. I can hear the police now when they realize the protesters are tracking them with toys."

Comments

Not to worry.

[melikamp]

Only a terrorist would spy on police with a toy UAV. And thanks to the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2012, any such terrorist can be detained by the military indefinitely and without trial, even if a US citizen arrested on US soil. That should teach them, right?

Rhetorical or Not?

[Bob9113]

People are concerned about government use of domestic surveillance drones, but how is that different than what happens when people make their own drones, or buy them at a toy store?

I can't tell if your question is rhetorical or not, because it doesn't work as a rhetorical (the simple, obvious answer is false). So here goes the straight-man answer:

1. Private citizens are not (generally) using taxpayer money to do so.

2. Private citizens do not (generally) have the authority to incarcerate other people.

3. Private citizens are supposed to monitor civil servants even when there is no reasonable suspicion or probable cause.

4. Private citizens are not (generally) supposed to engage in surveillance of other private citizens under any conditions.

5. Civil servants are not supposed to engage in surveillance of private citizens without reasonable suspicion or probable cause.

6. Civil servants are not supposed to buy or build things unless it is the public will that they do so (this can be an implicit will interpreted by civil leaders such as chiefs of police).

7. Private citizens are not supposed to be inhibited in buying or building things unless the thing in question has been specifically regulated through the legislative process or other due deliberative process authorized by the people.

Hope that helps.