Texas civil libertarians oppose law-enforcement drones

[jakeXT]

Texas civil libertarians oppose law-enforcement drones

As the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office gears up to employ an unmanned helicopter to hunt criminals and find missing persons, a civil liberties advocate said drones can hurt more than they help.

Chief Deputy Randy McDaniel of the sheriff’s office said the $300,000 ShadowHawk drone — purchased from Vanguard Defense Industries — will take to the skies in the coming months to provide another tool in the law-enforcement arsenal.

“It’s an exciting piece of equipment for us,” he said. “We envision a lot of its uses primarily in the realm of public safety — looking at recovery of lost individuals and being able to utilize it for fire(fighting) issues.”

...

In the future, the drone could be equipped to carry non-lethal weapons such Tasers or a bean-bag gun, McDaniel said.

http://blog.chron.com/newswatch/2011/10/texas-civil-libertarians-oppose-law-enforcement-drones/

[Marazinia]

1. America: Are we an occupied and hostile country now?

Well, I guess in a way we are. Let's hope the police manage to rack up less civilian kills than our military has lately. Sure, they'll arm the thing with non-lethal weapons first, but will it stay that way? And what other goodies does it have on it? Infrared, I'm sure. Flying over houses, guess it can see everyone and everything going on in them. Although I suppose the narcotics squad jackboots can already do that in regular planes. We have allowed this progression for too long, and we should be ashamed.