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Posted on 12/10/2011 7:34:07 PM PST by Jet Jaguar
Unmanned aircraft from an Air Force base in North Dakota help local police with surveillance, raising questions that trouble privacy advocates.
Armed with a search warrant, Nelson County Sheriff Kelly Janke went looking for six missing cows on the Brossart family farm in the early evening of June 23. Three men brandishing rifles chased him off, he said.
Janke knew the gunmen could be anywhere on the 3,000-acre spread in eastern North Dakota. Fearful of an armed standoff, he called in reinforcements from the state Highway Patrol, a regional SWAT team, a bomb squad, ambulances and deputy sheriffs from three other counties.
He also called in a Predator B drone.
As the unmanned aircraft circled 2 miles overhead the next morning, sophisticated sensors under the nose helped pinpoint the three suspects and showed they were unarmed. Police rushed in and made the first known arrests of U.S. citizens with help from a Predator, the spy drone that has helped revolutionize modern warfare.
But that was just the start. Local police say they have used two unarmed Predators based at Grand Forks Air Force Base to fly at least two dozen surveillance flights since June. The FBI and Drug Enforcement Administration have used Predators for other domestic investigations, officials said.
"We don't use [drones] on every call out," said Bill Macki, head of the police SWAT team in Grand Forks. "If we have something in town like an apartment complex, we don't call them."
The drones belong to U.S. Customs and Border Protection, which operates eight Predators on the country's northern and southwestern borders to search for illegal immigrants and smugglers. The previously unreported use of its drones to assist local, state and federal law enforcement has occurred without any public acknowledgment or debate.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
I don’t wonder. The US government is now officially in the drug running, gun running and cartel money laundering business.
Very possible. But with all the weaponry and other electronic technology in the hands of the public now days these drones could well become targets of opportunity themselves. At least the ones in lower altitudes. Not saying that is going to happen but I wouldn't be surprised any in the least if it does at some point.
I guess they want to do war in the US now. This may tip me over to Ron Paul.
I know this is from Wiki but it is worth the posting for the clarification:
Posse Comitatus Act is the United States federal law (18 U.S.C. § 1385) that was passed on June 18, 1878, after the end of Reconstruction. Its intent (in concert with the Insurrection Act of 1807) was to limit the powers of local governments and law enforcement agencies from using federal military personnel to enforce the laws of the land. Contrary to popular belief, the Act does not prohibit members of the Army from exercising state law enforcement, police, or peace officer powers that maintain "law and order"; it simply requires that any orders to do so must originate with the United States Constitution or Act of Congress.
The statute only addresses the US Army and the US Air Force. It does not refer to, and thus does not implicitly apply to nor restrict units of the National Guard under federal authority from acting in a law enforcement capacity within the United States. The Navy and Marine Corps are prohibited by a Department of Defense directive, (self-regulation,) not by the Act itself.[1][2] Although it is a military force,[3] the U.S. Coast Guard, which now operates under the Department of Homeland Security, is also not covered by the Posse Comitatus Act.
As of December 3, 2011, the Posse Comitatus Act is under threat of repeal from the National Defense Authorization Act.[4]
Posse deals with personnel, not technology. So if the law enforcement can aquire Predator drones and use them there is little that can be done about. We have thousands of pieces of technology that has made its way into the mainstream that is used every day. We think little to nothing of it. In this case the officer had a warrant and while it is disturbing that it was executed from two miles overhead, it will likely stand up in court. Not much different that them pinging you with radar in your car.
In this case it was private property and the office had the required paperwork. Hard to argue that he could not use all the technology he had available to him.
I hope you get to be the first freeper visited by an Air Force drone since you like the police state so much. :)
John Wayne would be more likely to shoot down the enemy of the constitution.
This is not the Soviet Union or Nazi Germany. The militarized police in this country is way out of bounds.
Pulling down the pants of old ladies in the name of crime fighting at the airport was bad enough. Now they are bringing out AF drones to go after common criminals. FUBO and anyone who promotes this hellhole.
Yes, maybe, but you would have to pay the lawyer to get it thrown out of court so you are tagged no matter what.
Actually, this should be a selling point for getting rid of Dear Reader. The media is covering up for their guy and he’s gone of the deep end giving himself the power to imprison and murder citizens with no judicial process. Tell Americans that a Republican president would never get away with this.
...these drones could well become targets of opportunity themselves.
Sherrif Kelly may need to be re-elected...plenty residents can do about this abuse of power and insanity.
Right after they make SAM's illegal.
The next logical step is to arm the vehicles. They will then start blasting people just like afghanistan.
Holder committed no crime in that county. The sheriff’s job is enforcing the law in his county. The drone was for the three armed men, not the cows.
It is because of stuff like this I don’t have much hope for the USA. We are a police state, and it is going to get much worse.
See you in the catacombs. Or the camps.
Homeland Security is just handing out military hardware.
No justification needed.
I see many of the local cops at the range. Even they are nervous about the amount of high powered weapons they are being fed.
Here in Maine, back in 1990 when George H. Bush was president, I first noticed National Guard helicopters flying low and slow over blueberry fields in the summer (at least I THINK they were National Guard helicopters). They were looking for marijuana plants. The land was (and still is) privately owned. I doubt if they had the land owners permission, or a search warrant.
>>posse comitatus<<
Nope, the patriot act pretty much negated it.
Bump
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