Aussie Police Consider Using Automated Spy Drones

beaverdownunder writes "Police in the Australian state of Victoria have confirmed that they are investigating employing unmanned drones in the war against crime, following the lead of law enforcement agencies in the United States, set to begin using drones as of tomorrow. This revelation has alarmed Australian civil libertarians, who fear that in a country with no constitutionally-protected civil rights, people could be surveilled for political reasons."

Comments

what they really meant

[wealthychef]

Australian civil libertarians know that in a country with no constitutionally-protected civil rights, people will be surveilled for political reasons.

Fixed that for you.

Re:what they really meant

[ixuzus]

Only in Australia there is constitutional case law saying that political free speech is implied by the constitution. There are three or four High court decisions I know of on the matter but probably the best known is Australian Capital Television Pty Ltd v Commonwealth. As the High Court interprets it, so shall it be. Granted, it isn't nearly as broad as elsewhere but it is there.

civil rights don't matt

[Anonymous Coward]

in a country with no constitutionally-protected civil rights

Well, we have them here in the USA, but they make near to no difference whatsoever. We've built a government so big, with so much momentum and attracting so many power-hungry ppls, that it ignores civil rights when they are "inconvenient". Or it passes so many laws in so many ill-defined ways that everyone is guilty of violating them. Then if they don't like something or some group, it's just down to finding *which* laws they are breaking - because everyone is breaking some.

Civil rights only count to the extent that the citizenry defends them, and here, people generally do not. Whether they are written in a several hundred year old document, that doesn't matter. Ppl similarly do not defend against intrusive practices of big corporations. It's the same root cause: keep the people happy with bread and ci... err, Hollywood movies and Facebook, and they won't care about their rights.

Boomerangs. It's Australia.

[xxxJonBoyxxx]

>>I wonder how easy it will be to shoot those out of the sky, shotgun? or rifle?

They'll use boomerangs. Everyone in Australia is trained to use these from the age of two.

Disclaimer: My cultural intelligence is mostly the result of action cartoons from the 1980s.

Re:Another story on the subject

[OzPeter]

A better link about the US story (*)
 
  Drones with an eye on the public cleared to fly
 
(*) Why the fuck can't I edit my own posts? If you can track my karma, then you should be able to let me edit what I wrote. Sure it could be misused by trolls .. but on the whole it would make things easier by not having to reply to my own posts like this.

Different than police helicopters with observers?

[perpenso]

From a *legal* point of view how is this different than helicopters with observers and video cameras?

I get the creepiness angle, you are far more likely to be "seen" when an expensive helicopter/crew is replaced with some number of drones. I just don't get the *new* legal issue. The police have been using that birds eye view for quite some time.

Global movement to totalitarianism

[7-Vodka]

Why won't you people wake up and realize that there is a GLOBAL movement towards totalitarianism?

Why do you keep turning the other way?

Australia, Britain, USA and many other countries are following the exact Standard Operating Procedure for taking a Free society and transforming it into a Totalitarian state.

Stop looking the other way. Start caring.