But an armed police drone would be new. Montgomery County Sheriff Tommy Gage says his ShadowHawk won’t carry weapons, but the drone’s manufacturer, Vanguard Defense Industries, boasts that it’s strong enough to carry a shotgun or even a grenade launcher. The most relevant weapon for chasing fugitives might be the beanbag launcher. Its ammunition, though, isn’t called a beanbag; it’s a “stun baton.”
This is getting ridiculous. Now even university police departments have full tactical gear and automatic weapons, and now this...
When did the purpose of police stop being to protect and serve the people and instead form a militia unit? They're quickly becoming the greatest domestic threat to our freedom.
Maybe Rick Perry's missing third department to cut was Homeland Security....probably not, but it really should be. The only action it has been successful in is arming our police to the teeth and apparently training them very poorly in how to deal with protesters.
Side note and I understand many do not agree with me here. I feel that if we continue down the path we currently are with such growing civil unrest, a civil war 2.0 will occur. I find it amazing that people actually hold up signs that say "get a job" when the number of people out numbers the number of available jobs. There simply are no jobs to get. The amount of willful ignorance on the part of some is amazing.
ScottL wrote:When did the purpose of police stop being to protect and serve the people and instead form a militia unit? They're quickly becoming the greatest domestic threat to our freedom.
During the ten years now since 9/11 and the formation of the department of Homeland Security, there have been no successful terror attacks. Rather, there have been 39 unsuccessful attempts. That's an average of one terror plot per season for ten years--all thwarted.
Maybe you could cut the guys doing such successful work a little slack? I don't think any police department needs automatic weapons and UAV's, with the exception of boarder patrol; but we have sacrificed remarkably few liberties to obtain a fair measure of security. Things could have gone much worse.
"Courage is not just a virtue, but the form of every virtue at the testing point." C. S. Lewis
ScottL wrote:Maybe Rick Perry's missing third department to cut was Homeland Security....probably not, but it really should be. The only action it has been successful in is arming our police to the teeth and apparently training them very poorly in how to deal with protesters.
Side note and I understand many do not agree with me here. I feel that if we continue down the path we currently are with such growing civil unrest, a civil war 2.0 will occur. I find it amazing that people actually hold up signs that say "get a job" when the number of people out numbers the number of available jobs. There simply are no jobs to get. The amount of willful ignorance on the part of some is amazing.
There are jobs. But you have to make your own.
On the rest - civil unrest - yes. It has been official policy since we started the war on users of some drugs. And what is really neat about the policy is that if there is insufficient unrest in America we can import it from Mexico.
Engineering is the art of making what you want from what you can get at a profit.
ScottL wrote:When did the purpose of police stop being to protect and serve the people and instead form a militia unit? They're quickly becoming the greatest domestic threat to our freedom.
During the ten years now since 9/11 and the formation of the department of Homeland Security, there have been no successful terror attacks. Rather, there have been 39 unsuccessful attempts. That's an average of one terror plot per season for ten years--all thwarted.
Maybe you could cut the guys doing such successful work a little slack? I don't think any police department needs automatic weapons and UAV's, with the exception of boarder patrol; but we have sacrificed remarkably few liberties to obtain a fair measure of security. Things could have gone much worse.
I don't attribute these to Homeland Security in the least. These were thwarted by FBI and CIA operatives.
ScottL wrote:This is getting ridiculous. Now even university police departments have full tactical gear and automatic weapons, and now this...
When did the purpose of police stop being to protect and serve the people and instead form a militia unit? They're quickly becoming the greatest domestic threat to our freedom.
You are getting a hint of my concern in starting this thread. The future is bringing fearsome mechanical servants to our current human masters.
‘What all the wise men promised has not happened, and what all the damned fools said would happen has come to pass.’
— Lord Melbourne —
ScottL wrote:This is getting ridiculous. Now even university police departments have full tactical gear and automatic weapons, and now this...
When did the purpose of police stop being to protect and serve the people and instead form a militia unit? They're quickly becoming the greatest domestic threat to our freedom.
You are getting a hint of my concern in starting this thread. The future is bringing fearsome mechanical servants to our current human masters.
Although we don't see eye to eye on a lot of things, I guess in this case we do.
ScottL wrote:Maybe Rick Perry's missing third department to cut was Homeland Security....probably not, but it really should be. The only action it has been successful in is arming our police to the teeth and apparently training them very poorly in how to deal with protesters.
Side note and I understand many do not agree with me here. I feel that if we continue down the path we currently are with such growing civil unrest, a civil war 2.0 will occur. I find it amazing that people actually hold up signs that say "get a job" when the number of people out numbers the number of available jobs. There simply are no jobs to get. The amount of willful ignorance on the part of some is amazing.
Sometimes I look forward to a civil war. I fully believe my side will win it. The seeds of destruction for the other side are already contained within it.
Those who promote socialism should not object to the consequences of it's implementation. That they are jobless is somewhat their own fault for supporting Socialists in Government these many decades. They have a severe disconnect with the real world consequences of their politics.
Conservative thinking is that people ought to be able to create their own jobs when they can. Liberal thinking is to punish anyone who does so by taxing the fruits of their labor. (i.e. harnessing them to work for the State.)
I will be shocked if things do not get far worse for these people than they can currently imagine.
edit: stupid spell check changed the word "harnessing" to "harrassing" because I misspelled it. Stupid me too.
Last edited by Diogenes on Mon Nov 21, 2011 8:53 pm, edited 1 time in total.
‘What all the wise men promised has not happened, and what all the damned fools said would happen has come to pass.’
— Lord Melbourne —
DeltaV wrote:Fortunately, this tech is still garage-doable until they start mounting the "black" payloads.
Counter-drones, anyone?
You think that drone is neat? How about one you can't even see? Invention: Invisible drones
The so-called Phantom Sentinel aircraft is Y-shaped, consisting of a single long wing attached to two short aerodynamic extensions which each end in a propeller. And the weight is carefully balanced so that the centre of mass is positioned between the two extensions. When the motors are running, the solid part of the aircraft spins around this centre of mass, and the longer wing generates lift. The whole thing moves so fast that persistence of vision turns it into a single blur.
ScottL wrote:This is getting ridiculous. Now even university police departments have full tactical gear and automatic weapons, and now this...
When did the purpose of police stop being to protect and serve the people and instead form a militia unit? They're quickly becoming the greatest domestic threat to our freedom.
You are getting a hint of my concern in starting this thread. The future is bringing fearsome mechanical servants to our current human masters.
Although we don't see eye to eye on a lot of things, I guess in this case we do.
Perhaps over time we will see more things eye to eye.
‘What all the wise men promised has not happened, and what all the damned fools said would happen has come to pass.’
— Lord Melbourne —
If nothing else drones are a cheap cost effective way to conduct surveillance. A more cost effective way to fight the drug war would be to go after corrupt intelligence operatives, bankers involved in money laundering, and politicians who protect the system. Its far cheaper to target the top few hundred people that the several million low level users. Its also a very effective way to implement positive social changes.
