Domestic use of aerial drones by law enforcement likely to prompt privacy debate

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/01/22/AR2011012204111.html?nav=hcmodule

You are now under constant surveillance citizen!
The real crapper about this deal is, not only is your right to privacy being compromised but so is your safety.
Drones don't mix well with air traffic at all, they cause plane wrecks.
So you have to wonder whose stupidity started this trend, and how long will it be before people die from it.
The key question here is, why are "we" Americans allowing ourselves to be treated as though we're an "occupied nation" that has been taken over by the leftovers of the military industrial complex.
The real kick in the ass is that you the taxpayer, are paying for the government grants that supply all of these leftovers to your local governments so that they can keep up the high surveillance of you.
Another key question is: When did "We" become the enemy and why?
Heads up my friends
A horror is a happening!
You just don't realize it yet.
But you will




AUSTIN - The suspect's house, just west of this city, sat on a hilltop at the end of a steep, exposed driveway. Agents with the Texas Department of Public Safety believed the man inside had a large stash of drugs and a cache of weapons, including high-caliber rifles.

Domestic use of aerial drones by law enforcement likely to prompt privacy debate
Drones on the home front
With Air Force's Gorgon Drone 'we can see everything'


As dawn broke, a SWAT team waiting to execute a search warrant wanted a last-minute aerial sweep of the property, in part to check for unseen dangers. But there was a problem: The department's aircraft section feared that if it put up a helicopter, the suspect might try to shoot it down.

So the Texas agents did what no state or local law enforcement agency had done before in a high-risk operation: They launched a drone. A bird-size device called a Wasp floated hundreds of feet into the sky and instantly beamed live video to agents on the ground. The SWAT team stormed the house and arrested the suspect.

Police turn to drones for domestic surveillance

http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/surveillance/2011-01-13-drones_N.htm

Lol the Vets are pushing for the use of drones by the police departments.
And the DoJ is trying to speed up the process to make it happen.

Police agencies around the USA soon could have a new tool in their crime-fighting arsenal: unmanned aerial vehicles inspired by the success of such drones on the battlefields of Iraq and Afghanistan.
Local governments have been pressing the Federal Aviation Administration for wider use of unmanned aircraft — a demand driven largely by returning veterans who observed the crafts' effectiveness in war, according to experts at New Mexico State University and Auburn University.Police could use the smaller planes to find lost children, hunt illegal marijuana crops and ease traffic jams in evacuations of cities before hurricanes or other natural disasters.

One of the chief obstacles to widespread use of UAVs is their inability to "see and avoid" other aircraft as required by federal regulations, a key to flight safety. Davis says he believes operators on the ground can comply with federal rules if they can see the aircraft and the surrounding environment. Wesley Randall, principal investigator on an FAA grant awarded last year to researchers at Auburn University to study the risks associated with unmanned aircraft, predicts drones will be used by police departments in five to 10 years. Randall predicts that much larger unmanned aircraft will be used to transport cargo within 15-20 years.