...look like a regular american family
Posted on 01/04/2005 4:27:48 PM PST by Las Vegas Dave
NEWARK, N.J. - Federal authorities Tuesday used the Patriot Act to charge a man with pointing a laser beam at an airplane overhead and temporarily blinding the pilot and co-pilot.
The FBI (news - web sites) acknowledged the incident had no connection to terrorism but called David Banach's actions "foolhardy and negligent."
Banach, 38, of Parsippany admitted to federal agents that he pointed the light beam at a jet and a helicopter over his home near Teterboro Airport last week, authorities said. Initially, he claimed his daughter aimed the device at the helicopter, they said.
He is the first person arrested after a recent rash of reports around the nation of laser beams hitting airplanes.
Banach was charged only in connection with the jet. He was accused of interfering with the operator of a mass transportation vehicle and making false statements to the FBI, and was released on $100,000 bail. He could get up to 25 years in prison and fines of up to $500,000.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Ping... It's all Bush's fault this guy got arrested. /sarcasm
I heard it was a more powerful "green" laser.
He blamed his own daughter? Why not Bush like everyone else?
I know a few lighting "technicians" at parties who should be charged under the Patriot Act for poor performance with a laser.
"Federal authorities Tuesday used the Patriot Act to charge a man with pointing a laser beam at an airplane overhead and temporarily blinding the pilot and co-pilot. The FBI acknowledged the incident had no connection to terrorism..."
... but said "ah what the heck, we got the power - let's use it!"
...look like a regular american family
If the Patriot Act is used for any other purpose than providing for national security (against terrorist attack), then the arguments by those opposed to this law (ACLU, other destroyers' claims that the law will be abused) WILL BE VALIDATED.
What could the FBI be thinking? IMO, it is vitally important to use the liberal law enforcement provisions of the Patriot Act with extreme discretion, lest a groundswell of resistance cause it's demise. Idiotic prosecutions like this will lead to exactly that. And thus we all lose -- all for the stupidity of these FBI officials.
Surely there must be other laws which could be invoked to effectively punish this "Hold ma beer and watch this!" moronic stooge. But why jeopardize the Patriot Act over this? F*ing bureaucrats. Damn this pisses me off.
Have they explained yet how they were able to catch this moron? What was he doing, lazing these aircraft from his backyard?
That's certainly worthy of Patriot Act action.
What would have been wrong with reckless endangerment? Perhaps this was Gary Hart's real intention when he wrote the Patriot Act. All anti-social behavior is terrorism.
53 posts before sanity kicked in.
From what I understand he went forward and admitted to doing something dumb.
I'm surprised that anyone thought the Patriot Act (co-written by Andrew Young and Gary Hart) was aimed at terrorism.
Evidently, a lot of people did. And were these powers used well, they could provide the intended benefits. But every time the leviathan government obtains more power, the inevitable abuse ensues. Guess the founders were onto something, eh?
Unless you're Bill Clinton and they re-define the meaning of the word "is" for you.
Hey, why isn't this an act of domestic terrorism.? The endangerment of an aircraft full of people would seem to me to be pretty terroristic. Of course he could say he didn't really mean it, but they would be just as dead as if he did mean it, had the aircraft crashed.
I think this has something to do also with the fact that commercial airlines are interstate carriers and under federal law.
But then, I'm no lawyer. I'll have to ask my son, who is a lawyer and KNOWS IT ALL. Just ask him.
vaudine
Well that explains why the Feds are throwing the book at him. This guy is obviously a dummy on several levels! Thanks for the explanation.
But whom will President Rodham appoint as Heimatsicherheitsekretärin?
Good point. This could be the leading edge of an interesting phenomenon, wherein advanced techology -- which could be easily misused -- becomes available to the masses at affordable prices, thereby increasing the chance of misuse.
Most folks probaby have absolutely no idea how lasers operate, and that aiming one at an aircfaft could be harmul to pilots or passengers. Although these same folks would certainly realize that firing a high-powered rifle at an aircraft during final approach would be potentially harmful and definitely illegal, they would probably consider aiming a laser (a pretty green light) as equivalent to shining an incandescent flashlight into the night's sky, for the interesting aesthethetic effect.
It will be interesting to see how this plays out.
Yep. More perversion of the laws by government. Surprised = not.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.