Police employ Predator drone spy planes on home front (jet)

[Wynternight]

Search warrant=good
No search warrant=bad

The bill currently threatening to do away with the 6th Amendment=terrifying. This country is going down a dark road and it's both parties doing it. We know who voted for it, anyone in favor needs to be out of a job come election time.

[Mathguy]

In the old days they would have just gone in there with a posse and hung the 3 guys up from a tree.

How is using a surveilance plane and a search warrant to make a non-violent arrest some huge rights infringement?

They didn't have night vision scopes back in the 1920's either....is that militarization too?

Oh wait then there is fingerprinting which wasn't around in the 1850's and DNA testing....helicopters to follow white broncos down the highway?

Seems to me that application of technology to fight crime is pretty much nothing new.

[Quick Enough]

Originally Posted by Chromekitty

Disgusting!

Why?

It is no different then the police cruising in their cars or walking a beat.

[Wynternight]

Originally Posted by Mathguy

In the old days they would have just gone in there with a posse and hung the 3 guys up from a tree.

How is using a surveilance plane and a search warrant to make a non-violent arrest some huge rights infringement?

They didn't have night vision scopes back in the 1920's either....is that militarization too?

Oh wait then there is fingerprinting which wasn't around in the 1850's and DNA testing....helicopters to follow white broncos down the highway?

Seems to me that application of technology to fight crime is pretty much nothing new.

Agreed. Technology evolves. The issue is whether or not it's used legally and properly.

[subsound]

Originally Posted by oz in SC

Can't wait for when there will be a need for armed drones,to save lives of police officers of course.

Plus the lives of innocent people endangered during high speed pursuits, and those who need to be tracked covertly (like kidnappings or bank robberies).

I would wonder what you would say if a family member was killed during a pursuit and the cops wished they had another means of going after the suspect, but too many people complained about those new fangled drone thingys.

[Frank DeForrest]

Originally Posted by Quick Enough

Why?

It is no different then the police cruising in their cars or walking a beat.

Because I can see what they are up to when in a car or on foot (they are accountable).

I guess those of you who are comfortable with this, were lab rats in a previous life.

These things also cost millions of dollars (and subsidized by the federal government with our tax dollars of course) to basically spy on us.

[AeroGuyDC]

Originally Posted by Mathguy

In the old days they would have just gone in there with a posse and hung the 3 guys up from a tree.

How is using a surveilance plane and a search warrant to make a non-violent arrest some huge rights infringement?

They didn't have night vision scopes back in the 1920's either....is that militarization too?

Oh wait then there is fingerprinting which wasn't around in the 1850's and DNA testing....helicopters to follow white broncos down the highway?

Seems to me that application of technology to fight crime is pretty much nothing new.

Don't you think that surveilling citizens from the sky goes a tad bit beyond using "technology to fight crime?"

[snofarmer]

So everyone that is against using the drones is also against Google earth?
Everyone can see what is going on in your yard already with Google earth.
Anyone with a plane can fly over your home and take pics with out a warrant as they are not doing anything illegal.
They have been using them for a long time in the US,
We have then flying over northern MN all the time.

You only have privacy in your home with the doors locked and the curtains pulled across the windows.

[Frank DeForrest]

Originally Posted by snofarmer

So everyone that is against using the drones is also against Google earth?
Everyone can see what is going on in your yard already with Google earth.
Anyone with a plane can fly over your home and take pics with out a warrant as they are not doing anything illegal.
They have been using them for a long time in the US,
We have then flying over northern MN all the time.

Google Earth isn't real time (live) nor does Google get a financial incentive for investigating (or manufacturing) suspicious activity.

[Glitch]

Originally Posted by Roadking2003

If they have a search warrant for the area they are flying over, then I don't have a problem with this. But I suspect there will be many drone flights without warrants.

Maybe people will shoot some of these invasive drones out of the sky.

I agree. Also, those drone flights that are performed without a court-issued warrant cannot be used as evidence in any court.

I think those drones could also prove to be a useful tool for search and rescue units.

As far as shooting them "out of the sky," they would have to be a complete idiot to think they can hit something two miles up. More than likely they will only end up killing themselves as the spent bullet falls back to earth and lands on their pointy little heads.