I don't like this. I guess it is inevitable that local law enforcements will start using UAV's against their citizens. I don't like it though. The war on terrorism is turning our country in to a police state.
If this article is accurate on the alledged crime, I don't blame the family for doing what they did. If someone's cattle came on to my land then I should be able to do what I want to it. If my neighbors chickens start digging, eating, and shitting in my yard, I should be able to kill and eat them.
I'm not sure, but the local law enforcement could have violated the Posse Comitatus Act. According to Wikipedia, the Posse Comitatus Act " limits the powers of local governments and law enforcement agencies from using federal military personnel to enforce the laws of the land." I thought that the predator drones were designated for terrorists and smugglers across the borders.
I should cite that picture. I took it from LAtimes.com
ReplyDelete-ToeJamm
I don't know if there are special rules regarding livestock wandering. The guy should have let the rancher know where his cattle were, and then billed for damages. But...yeah, spy drones? Seems to violate illegal search & seizure laws.
ReplyDeleteIt starts with the building of detention centers....
ReplyDelete"The KBR document is more evidence that the federal government has established internment camps and plans to fill them with dissidents and anti-government activists that have been demonized consistently by the establishment media."
http://disquietreservations.blogspot.com/2011/12/existence-of-military-detention-centers.html
Then when the people take to the streets to riot they get congress to pass a bill stating America is now the battlefield (along with American Citizens)
http://www.opencongress.org/articles/view/2438-Read-the-Military-Detention-Bill-
Now they are looking for internment specialists
http://www.goarmy.com/careers-and-jobs/browse-career-and-job-categories/legal-and-law-enforcement/internment-resettlement-specialist.html
So much for the Constitution
Internment Specialist? Sounds like a job for ToeJamm!
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand, what if the cops had seen the cattle from a cop plane or chopper? Would that be OK or not? The drone is just a cost cutting measure, saving taxpayers $$, reducing the size of government.
ReplyDeleteIt sounds to me like the local Sherriff had beef with this dude.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure that drones reduces $$. They cost a lot to begin with and not to mention all the fixed expenses with owning/operating one. Ex: speical maintenance guys and parts, training for piloting. I'm sure a helicopter costs a fraction of the amount.
-ToeJamm
Unit Cost: $20 million (fiscal 2009 dollars) (includes four aircraft, a ground control station and a Predator Primary Satellite Link)
ReplyDeletehttp://www.af.mil/information/factsheets/factsheet.asp?id=122
Paid by the taxpayer for the taxpayer's "protection"
I can understand why the police used the drone as the people on the compound did threathen the police with guns. I think law enforement will eventually start using drones and other technology that will seem invasive and a violation of privacy as they are developed. (I remember reading about some van in the UK that has infrared cameras that were used to spy on people's houses to enforce some environmental law.) On the internment camps, I don't think it is some conspiracy by the government to round people up. And I read an article somewhere that debunked that belief somewhere. I did read that the government repositioned a military unit or brigade to America for the purpose of dealing with potiontential social unrest. And I read somewhere that the military has been training to deal with social unrest. This is because there was/is (especially back in 2008) a very real possiblity for large scale social unrest due to economic conditions in the not too distance future and it is the job of the military to be prepared do deal with all situtations that it might have to deal with. (One of the reasons Bush gave in an interview for agreeing to bail out the banks and give up free market principles for the purpose of saving the free market was that he was told that if the economy was allowed to collaspe we were looking at collapse of the world, summeraizing it. So such an event is not out of the realm of possiblity.) I think these topics were touched on in the JOE report in the required reading section of the blog.
ReplyDeleteTo put everything in to context, personal liberties are being encroached on and the government is gaining more authority to intervene in people's lives such as reading emails and texts of people as a result of the war on terror. The government has the power to shut down the internet in the event in the case of a national emergency because of the very real cyber threat from China and other nations. When I surf the internet, text, email, watch tv, rent books from the library I just assume that all of this information is capable of being intercepted and read: I don't assume any amount of privacy. But I don't think that all of this is by design of some central body necessarily, but just the natural outcome of the events that America and the world is faced with. But this trend is a very serious threat to individual liberty as history has shown that when power in concentrated to a great extent in a centralized authority that this power has been misued. A system is being set up as the result of circumstances that if used by the wrong type of authority could become despotic. Big Brother is becoming a reality.
Good Comment Dean.
ReplyDeleteWhat sucks is that there are no more frontiers to pilgrimage to. If America destroys its people's liberties, there will be no where to run.
It is tough because I'm sure that the patriot act has undoubtedly foiled some criminal plots out there. But now the capacity for a despotic government to take away liberty has been created.
It is kind of a Catch 22.
-ToeJamm
I think many big ticket defense firms will start adjusting their consumer base as the DoD starts to make some big picture cuts. It makes sense that they will start trying to market these goods to police stations across the country ( http://www.forbes.com/sites/bradlockwood/2011/11/30/the-militarizing-of-local-police/ ). It will be interesting to see how people spin these high profile incidents to show the utility of their hardware. If South Dakota can solve one shoot out peacefully with a UAV, why shouldn't any small town American police station have them? That's what we need to be suspicious of, when these arguments come to us from the police to expand their budgets or (or to defend the status quo of their recent acquisitions).
ReplyDeleteThis is absolutely terrifying:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=80DbxSZ_FB8
Fuck police unions.
That is a very terrifying video...WOW
ReplyDelete-ToeJamm
I don't understand how filming cops doing their jobs can be illegal, but it seems to be a hard law to throw out. And as Melkor says, Public Employees' Unions hand in glove with Public Administrators and judges, who largely come from the public employee ranks (though aren't unionized). Disgusting. Of course, it's also to protect cops from lawsuits, which, thanks trial attorneys. All Democratic groups working with or against each other with the net result: private citizen/taxpayer screwed.
ReplyDeleteI expect these laws to be overturned eventually.
Looks like these laws won't last long; I don't foresee the Supreme Court overturning this:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.universalhub.com/2011/court-says-state-law-banning-recording-police-offi