Lawmakers are late to the party, but they need to step up and limit drone usage now!
There’s been much in the news lately about domestic drones. As more and more of them start to fill the skies, both Republican and Democratic lawmakers are trying to put safeguards in place to protect Americans’ privacy. While I’m glad to see these efforts, I’m sickened to see how late they are.
Once again, the current administration has gone ahead and stripped Americans of their privacy rights before any legal restraints can be put into place. Drones are the Wild West of surveillance, which is just the way the administration wants it. Getting drones up and running before any laws can be passed regarding their usage and limits is a dream come true for them.
One of the biggest frustrations that American citizens have regarding drones is that we don’t know a whole lot about them, including how many there are, how capable they are of identifying individual people and whether or not they can record conversations. We do know that some of them are capable of killing people, and that’s not exactly filling us with warm and fuzzy feelings.
How many drones will be allowed to patrol U.S. skies? Who is authorized to operate them? What are drones capable of? Why haven’t privacy safeguards been put into place regarding drones? Does the government need a warrant to use a drone to record someone’s conversation? What about a deadly drone strike…what kind of authorization is needed to do something like that? What is the ultimate goal for the use of drones?
All of these questions and many more should have been answered and fully explained to the public BEFORE even a single drone was launched. But the fact is, most of us are very much in the dark about them. How can the government justify this obvious abuse of power? I’m not surprised that this is happening, but I am appalled at how our privacy rights are once again being totally disregarded. Read more about it here.
How about you? Do you have a problem with drones filling the skies, identifying people and recording conversations? Do you believe that legal safeguards should be put into place regarding drones to protect Americans’ privacy? Is there anything we can do to keep something like this from happening again the next time a new surveillance device is created? Your opinions are very important to me, so please chime in with your thoughts.
I have already voiced my thoughts and opinions on drones. I related a true story how a local city chief of police apologized for using the police drone to spy on the citizens. I used the phrased that it is better to ask forgiveness than it was to ask for permission. It was true now; as it was then.
Drones come in all sorts and types. Some are like jets or an airplanes. Others, are like helicopters. In any case they are the newest toy around. The price range is from a thousand dollars to up to one hundred thousand dollars.
At such a low price, people are just going out and snapping these drones up. These people want to see what it is like to fly these drones and photograph from above. These people don’t care about your rights to privacy. These people look at it as, “I am only one person; so who really cares if I look in a window on the 27th floor and watch a woman exercise in the nude.” “How is she going to know who or where I am?” This happened in Seattle, Washington as this guy used his drone to fly around the space needle then pop in to watch a woman in her apartment before the drone crashed.
We speak of Rights, our Constitutional Rights as if they are sacred; given to us by GOD Almighty himself. Yet, when we get a “new toy” like a drone; we are willing to toss out the window our religion, or rights, just for the few moments of self-gratification we feel as we spy on someone else and giggle at what we see.
These people don’t care that they may cause a real airplane to crash because their drone flew in the pathway of a airplane airspace. All they care about is the here and now. they think that there is no way to track them down. In most cases they are right.
The FAA is of no help. They are aware of the growing problem of drones becoming a disruption; but has yet to make any rules governing these drones until they meet near the end of the year. (Which is October 1, 2014 for the federal government.)
What about the unstable people out there, that mean us harm. Are you aware that a drone could follow you around and spy on your every movement? Or perhaps it could start a fire and burn your house or business down. What about carrying a bomb that can land on a car to blow it up? It could even follow a convoy and target a world leader then take him/her out before anyone could do anything to stop it. (This was one of my jobs when I was in the Army, to think up scenarios, then try and prevent them from happening or to carry them out against our enemies.)
The drones is just the latest technological item to come along that has no limits or laws to protect the citizens of this country or the world from it use or misuse. The genie is definitely out of the bottle on this one folks; and there is no putting the genie back into the bottle.
Oh please send a drone my way so little to target practice on. Oh what is this one looking for, all my stills, pot plants or climbing tomatoes ?? WE are allowing all of our rights to be taken again little by little. How can a picture from a red light camera give me a ticket ?? Lets see , no person seen anything, do we not require witnesses — computer had to go in state records to find my tag number, can I go in state records any time I want to find someone? Did mail loss my ticket which is ” in the mail “, is that why police are at my door today ?, This will be the drone job one day soon if we do not stay up for our rights. Oh yea drones can take pictures of those Land Rovers in the back yard so homeland security can use swat teams to serve criminal warrants again to seize those EPA ” violated ” vehicles
If your going to fly drones fly them near our borders to see who is invading us this could cut down on illegals but i wonder if our government really wants to do this they would loose votes .
impeach the imposter
shoot the drones down
This is just the beginning as you said, my biggest regret is that my government in Canada, is in bed with Uncle Sam in the first place. Another government running this great country of mine is something, I do not support but am powerless to change. How would you like to have another country spying on you with no way of stopping this from happening, just short of shooting them out of the sky yourself. What would that make me, a patriot or a terrorist, to early too tell, guess I will have to find out someday?
I don’t do any thing wrong and wouldn’t mind being watched if I Knew I could trust the people watching, but these people are the government and we all know you can’t trust THEM. But whats the difference between drones and manned aircraft? They have had surveillance air craft for years and probably on U.S. soil but no one has complained about that. If I trusted them I wouldn’t mind!!
in the early 60s when OSHA was being put forth ,there was a poster depicting what an american cowboy would look like under osha’s rules .this is what america has become under a socialist agenda.
I don’t know alot about the gov’t buisness getting into our buisness but recently in our area a commercial roofer was going from house to house.with a drone and taking pics of their roofs I would believe to drum up buisness. Not really the right way to conduct any buisness. I do read alot of what Frank has to say and am getting quite nervous about what our gov’t intends to do to our personnal rights. No drones allowed except for ones own pleasure. Gerald, above, has the right idea. Get old betsy out with some turkey shot. Over & out.
if they fly low enough some good double ought buckshot would mst likely bring them down
As interesting as all of these comments are, I have a different fear, I build and fly RC aircraft. Some of my models are only inches in wing area, I have others with up to 8 foot long wing spans. These aircraft are not toys, make no mistake about that. The radial enging in just one of my planes cost over $5,000.00. That’s right, that’s a lot of money, but it’s my hobby.
Now lets get back to RAVS (radio controled aerial vehicles) as the government would call them. Drones as they are called in other circles. We hobbiests have been flying them for years, no, decades. With and with out cameras mounted on them. Still pictures, motion pictures, GPS monotoring their is nothing new in any of this. As a matter of fact, I track all of my expensive models a with gps. monotering device. So what is the problem? Survalince? Don’t you like the thought of an eye in the sky watching your back? if you’re staying out of trouble, what do you care? Be thankful someone has your back, and don’t screw up my hobby for me with a bunch of unnecessary laws and/or litagation. The FAA makes it tough enough with their regulations. The next time you have a free weekend, go out to your local modelers flying field and watch, enjoy, and come away inspired by what you have seen. Some of the models and the modelers will completly astound you. Enough said…
Earl are you an Idiot, Why should we care about your toy planes when the rest of us are having our rights and privacy trampled on daily. I HOPE YOUR PLANE CRASHES IN MY BACKYARD… SO I CAN DESTROY IT…….. Bear
Bear, can you give all of us just one example of a drone violating YOUR rights and privacy? I hate to say this but when I read posts from morons like you, the old expression “Dumber than a fishing worm!” comes to mind. Go wrap your head in tin foil, I heard that helps…
Say Earl I have been an RC flier for ovrt 50 years (1960). Drones are not RC planes in the same way as our RC models. Some new Drones are the same size as real fighter aircraft as being used by the US Navy. Hobby RC Photo aircraft are different in that they don’t carry munitions or penetrating Radar and they are only flyable in the line of sight, stop trying to mix Oranges with Apples.
WRONG EARL! U HAVEN’T SAID ENOUGH. WAKE-UP U DAMN IDIOT! GOV. DRONES ARE NOT YOUR MODEL AIRPLANES. THEY HAVE 1 MISSION: TO INVADE YOUR PRIVACY & THAT’S ILLEGAL! IF 1 EVER SHOWS UP AT MY HOUSE IT’S COMING DOWN!
“So what is the problem? Survalince? Don’t you like the thought of an eye in the sky watching your back? if you’re staying out of trouble, what do you care?”
Earl are you kidding me? Since when has anybody just stopped there? Are you that naïve to realize that if you allow any infraction of your rights or anyone else’s; that it is all that easier just to break them? When you make a statement like that, it is like saying, “If you got nothing to hide, let me search you, your house or business.”
Come on Earl, think man, think!
Earl,
You are naive. It seems you are saying if you are not doing anything wrong there is nothing to worry about right? Let me let you in on a little secret, if you are pro constitution and pro bill of rights in the govt’s eyes you are the enemy and doing something wrong!!!
no i do not want gov looking into our lives with drones
seems to me if you don’t do anything wrong you won’t care if you are being monitored.
why should any person who isn’t doing anything wrong care if they are being monitored? whats the point of that? we aren’t children who need supervision and looked after. the politicians need monitored. what reasoning. have you researched hitler’s holocaust?
THEY will decide what’s right and what’s wrong. Anyone who disagrees with their fleecing of this country’s wealth or any of their other policies will be targeted. The same reason they are buying up all our ammunition. Make no mistake, it’s not to protect us, it’s to control us.
If you feel this way ..I guess its ok if they look and hear when you and your husband or friend are in your bed room making love..hearing what you all say …I don’t think so !!!!!
penetrating Radar can see you !!!..in your house
They can hear what you say ..Peeping tom…
I think they have a LAW stopping that …
Metal roofs are good as a shield to a point
next step…shoot them down !!!!!!!!!!!
Nelson, what makes you think we ALL need monitoring? If you feel that you do need monitoring perhaps you can return to prison. They can monitor you to your hearts desire.
Don’t you think we are “man enough” to take care of ourselves without someone keeping an eye on us? Do you think we are 5 years old or something? Perhaps it is a good thing that you are still living at home; where your mommy can keep an eye on you.
it is an astonishing display off government infringement on our individual rights. where does it all stop? it is appalling to think the average john-doe has no thought about how government has such a control of our everyday movements.Try travelong across the us or even to another state and see how quickly you are stopped by law enforcement simply because you are out of state.The list goes on and on. These drone technology and what the government is able to do with them is really unnerving. i’m not a anti-government individual by any means, I proudly served my country for more than four years in the u.s. Navy.I am just a very concerned grandfather and to be honest truly pissed-off at where our country has gotten to.Is it really necessary to police our own people?
Our complaints seem to fall on deaf ears these days.However,it will ultimately be up to us,our former military that risked their lives and for what?A government that could care less about anyone but themselves.Our current military is who we need to work on as they will be our first line of defense against this evil Obama regime.The military will realize that one day they will be regular citizens and under this evil clan.The powers that be have been working their plan long before Obama came along .Who had ever heard of this enept fool before he started running for the presidency?Heck,his wife does not even like him.Load up on food and ammo because the day of our reckoning is just around the corner.That is why those drones are in the air .Do you think the FAA is going to stop them from arming those things over U.S. skies?Guess again.I am sure they are reading this now but I could care less.I would rather be dead than to live like they will be forcing us to do! so.if you see a soldier.let him know we thank him for his service and remind him that his job is to protect us from foreign and domestic and emphasize domestic terrorists Like Obama and his regime.
Yes they violate our rights to privacy. They can probably here the noise you make on the toilet. Damnd if they don’t make great target practice right before dove season in Texas. Haven’t hit one yet, but come a closer lttle drone and see what surprise I got for ya! Beats clay! :-)
Unknown drone usage over our states; Run-a-muck presidential edicts with no Congressional resistance; a domestic military financed within obamacare; hoarding of survival food by FEMA; hoarding of ammo by obama’s government; the removal of individual gun owner’s rights; all these point to obama making ready for a take-over of our country before his term is up. Make him a lame duck president NOW. Impeach the liar-in-chief and get his ass out of our oval office!!! When will OUR Congress get the balls to do their jobs?
Frank are you acquainted with the Rocket Mass Heater ? If not goole it please .
Dear Frank,
The glories of high-tech surveillance is a blessing and a curse, but like you I feel it is getting NUTS! As an LEO and investigator for decades I had to write detailed, complex “probable cause” reports that had to meet a Constitutional legal standard just to apply for a search, phone or other communications wire tape.
As I write I am watching Fox News and they are commenting on new “heat seeking” and “AP tapping” search technology probes being installed and used by major retailers.
These little “Eye Spy” devises use simple infrared alarm technology to determine where most “warm bodies” are hanging out in their stores. Plus, they have the ability to read and are tapping into what AP’s are on our phones … then they transmit messages to our cell phones about “stuff” we are likely to interested in buying.
As for domestic law enforcement, I believe “over view” of publicly performed criminal events are a good thing, much like a helicopter. HOWEVER, when they start using drones to listen to person to person conversations, individual tracking, ticket writing, etc., that is a clear violation of our Constitutional protections from government! abuses!!
We are very pleased to see our book SURVIVAL 101: How To Bug Out and Survive the First 72 Hours, is now available through Power 4 Patriots. What a God’s blessing it will be, if our efforts save a life or two.
Merry Christmas my friend and may the Lord bless you and your family,
Orrin
NOTE: democrat administration is doing this.
That Democrat Administration will spin its way out of the obvious illegality of what they’re doing, by blaming the Tea Party Congress (led by a rotating list of names labeled right-wing conservatives, even though most are RINOs) . The people who help finance it are mostly middle and lower income people whose lives are hurt the most by Obama, but his glib tongue makes them think they are helping a great cause. But they won’t find the truth in the liberal media, which is determined to deceive them.
The use of surveillance Drones is unconstitutional and an insult to the Nation and every American Citizen. If any law enforcement agency has probable cause for their use then let them obtain a LEGAL SWORN WARRANT.