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Ferguson No-Fly Zone Revealed As Anti-Media Tactic
The AP (here, carried by the San Francisco Chronicle) reports that recorded conversations reveal flight restrictions requested in August by the police force of Ferguson, MO, and agreed to by Federal aviation safety officials, were specifically intended to limit the access of journalists to the area, rather than purely in response to safety concerns. One FAA manager in Kansas City was recorded saying police "did not care if you ran commercial traffic through this TFR (temporary flight restriction) all day long. They didn't want media in there."
"There is really ... no option for a [Temporary Flight Restriction] that says, you know, 'OK, everybody but the media is OK,'" he said. The managers then worked out wording they felt would keep news helicopters out of the controlled zone but not impede other air traffic.
The conversations contradict claims by the St. Louis County Police Department, which responded to demonstrations following the shooting death of 18-year-old Michael Brown, that the restriction was solely for safety and had nothing to do with preventing media from witnessing the violence or the police response.
Police said at the time, and again as recently as late Friday to the AP, that they requested the flight restriction in response to shots fired at a police helicopter.
But police officials confirmed there was no damage to their helicopter and were unable to provide an incident report on the shooting. On the tapes, an FAA manager described the helicopter shooting as unconfirmed "rumors."
This is illegal.
Time for some charges.
And there are probably at least a dozen. They should all do at least 20 years. They are the worst evil garbage imaginable.
What relevance does this story have with respect to nerd news? The answer: none. Where were your other Ferguson stories??
Timothy, this is not your personal blog. Post this on your own soapbox.
This is outrageous political trolling and you should be ashamed and fired.
Somebody should go to jail over this.
It won't happen, though.
a,e,i,o,u and sometimes w and y (at be if of up cwm by)
This is why we need to give power back to the states!
Oh, wait, that didn't work.
Give it to the feds!
Honestly? They were pretty shit too.
Hail the king!
Ehh, he really made a mess of things last time.
Power to the corporations!
No, wait, that was a complete disaster.
We could try giving it to the people again, but let's face it: they're as selfish and shortsighted as the rest.
Okay, I'm open for suggestions at this point. Horses, maybe?
How can I believe you when you tell me what I don't want to hear?
Totes H,o,t,t, cyber babe
The feds sure seem to be leaking a lot of things in the run up to the elections on Tuesday.
Ferguson.
George Zimmerman going to a fed grand jury, where a witness has suddenly "remembered" something:
Following Zimmerman's acquittal on a murder charge, Taaffe has reversed his position and now says that he believes Zimmerman was motivated by race the night he followed then shot Trayvon in 2012.
Taaffe cites a phone conversation he had with Zimmerman in the days following the shooting but before Zimmerman was arrested and charged with second-degree murder.
When originally interviewed by federal investigators in the weeks following the shooting, Taaffe did not tell them about the phone call...
If they knew the police were just trying to impede the media, why did they go along? Heads should roll at multiple levels.
They are scared of trouble catching on in other cities.
It ill still be videoed and "televised" via youtube etc.
"If any question why we died, Tell them because our fathers lied."
Were there no large FPV quadcopters in the area? Flying with full escort, natch, against the military tactics of the pigs.
coming soon to your town.
Maybe it was an attempt to suppress the press or maybe it wasn't but the above article doesn't prove it wasn't about safety. Commercial traffic on approach is a completely different animal than single or multiple helicopters loitering over a confined area. Somewhere around 6 or 7 years ago two media helicopters in Phoenix collided as they covered a police chase because they were too busy covering the police chase and not watching the other four helicopters around them, and that was during the day. Last thing the cops needed were helicopters crashing down on top of them in addition to the protests and other safety concerns. And come on, what would have been the value add anyway? Lots of clips for the evening broadcast of the city burning as seen from the air in addition to the ones reporters on the ground were already taking?
I wonder what the legal requirements for filing these restrictions are, I know most similar documents require those filing them attest to the real reason for the request under penalty of perjury. If that's the case for these documents then someone effectively committed a felony punishable by up to 5 years in prison. Also a quick browse of the relevant advisories in regards to Temporary Flight Restrictions does not suggest there is any allowance for "because we don't want the media to see", National security (specifically mentioning the DOD), High ranking politicians movements, Spacecraft launches, major sporting events, hijacking incidents & wildfires, but nothing about the press so I doubt that was the reason put down on the forms.
http://www.faa.gov/documentLib...
I hope this means they know people are watching now, and there will be media in the air for when the verdict is read.
Since when is a suburb allowed to declare "no-fly" zones.
Not only have we militarized local police, but it looks like we've now given them the power generally reserved for the State Department and Justice Department.
If we had an Attorney General who was worth a damn, there would be a bunch of Ferguson officials and police facing charges and civil rights suits right now. Instead, we've had an AG who was only concerned with making sure that no Wall Street banking criminal got his hair mussed.
You are welcome on my lawn.
Who would have ever expected that? So, are we accustomed to it yet? I would say we have been for a very long time, and in fact, approve. And I am pretty certain that approval will be reaffirmed on Tuesday. Sure would love to be proven wrong on that one.
“He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
Of course it was about the media. Photographs without on-the-ground context, for example, could spark further public demonstrations and there could be safety concerns.
That's not a good trade-off between public safety and freedom of the press, but the reasoning wasn't really a secret.
At what point can we just start saying that the Ferguson Police Department lies regularly. No, really. Can't that just be stated as a fact in the press?
Install me as dictator of your country. See how you can participate @ http://asmg22mg1fj7za6s.onion/
I'll guarantee free speech (at my discretion), I'll eliminate tracking programs, I'll eliminate mandatory education (but keep extend the rights and guarantees to one for all ages), I'll instill pro-gun laws (for when it's time to depose me), I'll give women the right to vote (hey, they don't have that right everywhere, but there are only candidates to vote for of my choosing, so hehe), I'll ensure all have the right to health care, including abortions (for those who are capable of having them anyway) , I'll eliminate funding of a non-defensive military (ie I don't want to start wars!!!!), I'll voluntary retire once I've found somebody just as freedom loving as me (but, only after I've stolen half the treasury for my own personal pleasure palaces, hey, you didn't think I'd let you get everything you wanted did you? I'm just as corrupt as the next leader, just be happy with what your getting)
I think in general that means we give as little power to anyone or anything over anyone. Yes, this means republicans can't chaperone your bedroom and democrats can't chaperone your pocketbook and neither can chaperone your mind... means things will be messy and everyone will see things and people they disagree with and will have to learn to tolerate most of them without using the state (which is other people) to change them.
This is too simplistic, but I would put forth that on the scale from "too simplistic and idealistic" to "oh shit I didn't intend for that when I gave up those rights" we need to swing hard towards too simplistic as while we'll never reach it, it's like free speech: being able to shout fire in a theater is probably too simplistic a view, but democrats putting forth free speech zones under clinton is so far at the other end of the field that no matter how hard we swing the lever back we'll be better off.
Bingo, we have a winner. This is a legitimate use of a TFR; to prevent mid-air collisions over things like this. While it's a jesse jackson created disaster (the rioting, not the murder), the purpose of the TFR is to allow the police to fly safely.
We need to make infringement of a constitutionally protected right both by the government and its agents personally liable in a civil suit. I would say a minimum of $100,000. Then these rights violations will come to a rapid stop.
"GET / HTTP/1.0" 200 51230 "-" "Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; Setec Astronomy)"
FTA:
"The local authorities, including police, have a responsibility to be transparent and open." -- Barack Obama
“He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
The media was actively inciting a riot based on heavily impeached testimony, was the correct response really granting more media access?
..to remove this tyrannical government and police state? There is oil, gas and coal available. Isn't this enough to start an occupation like the rest of the world? /that's sarcasm.
This is something you'd expect of some place like China or worse.
I hope the rogue drone operators get rich from this.
"When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
Who wants to fund?
It seems that when these guys have a choice between transparency and something that would make them look like even bigger autocratic police state thugs, they choose to double down on thuggery. Who ever they've hired for a P.R. firm needs to be fired...
It would appear the only choice this police department is going to have soon enough to be completely dispanded and taken over by the state police. Then an entirely new group of officers with new commanders and a new chief need to be put in place.
If these officers would like to apply for positions in other communities they are more than welcome, but not in Ferguson.
Yes Francis, the world has gone crazy.
This isn't about police brutality and it never was.
This is all about ethics in games journalism.
computers... maintained by horses?
and home of the brave?
Replace "media" with "overcrowding the airspace with people unfamiliar with the procedures" and you have the truth of it.
I have spent time in a building that can look out one window and see the edge of KSTL, and the other corner can see Ferg, and also work with some pilots. The problem you would have had is this: a piece of airspace which is right off the end of the runway in controlled airspace would be overcrowded with aircraft not familiar with the area/procedures. Then you'd have some doofus who rented a chopper to take the CNN or FOX guy up running into an airliner on takeoff or final, and then killing 250 people + another dozen on the ground. THAT is why there was a need for a TFR (forget what dumbass cop said, btw: crime is bad in STL because the cops here are the laziest bunch of slobs, but that's another post).
TFR: yes, but only because Ferg is so damn close to the end of a busy runway.