Some of you guys are just out there.
Yesterday I got lazed while speeding. Ironically, I wasn’t pulled over despite going 25 MPH over the limit. Its a scary thing when cops can sit in vehicles and chase you if you break the law!
Early on oveseas drones weren’t allowed to be armed either.
Pure observation.
Now its death by video game remote control.
Doesn’t anyone really think that before long an LE agency might decide to try that route instead of risking officers on the ground in certain scenarios?
1st it’ll be some holdout situation being resolved by eratication after LEA gets permission to call in a .mil that happens to be nearby out on range training flight.
Ideally by selectively picking off 1-2 bad guys rather than wiping out a whole house. (technology yet to be perfected I believe?)
And then a big follow-on court case to decide the legitimacy.
Once the case is decided in favor of the ‘save just one life’ crowd, seeing armed drones over cities and towns will become just another bit of background noise for follow on generations.
After all, if you’re not doing anything wrong then there’s nothing to worry about is there.
I’m not saying next week or even next year, but I’d lay odds that barring things going all egg shaped prior that within a decade they’ll be up there in use for use with more or less open ended ‘at discretion’ engagement polices.
SWAT team goes out? Sniper drone in orbit overhead.
A few weeks/months later, they are cleared for regular patrol use as force mulitpliers claiming to be there to help make up for short handed departments work load and to speed reaction time for SWAT type units by having stuff already up there instead of on standby waiting to be launched.
After all, a purely obsevation rigged drone can’t really help in a ‘right-now’ situation, but an armed one could save a life immediately, right?
Laugh if you want.
I really hope I’m just being stupid paranoid and its all just one big joke, and down the road we can all play the ‘remember that cockamaimy idea you had’ game.
But somehow I don’t think I’m too far off base with the only serious descrepancy being timeline.
I swear this line of “thinking” gets worse each time there’s a democrat in office. I’m surprised no one has shown pictures of the vast storage areas of foreign military equipment stored CONUS for the NWO to use against us. 
Please go re-read Grossman’s “On Killing” you failed to understand it.
You have had the chance to see the video feeds from Predators being used in the ME. Little white splodges that do not really look like people at all.
It completely depersonalizes the targets.
Do you not think that a RPV pilot in an air conditioned base hundreds or thousands of miles away from their fellow citizens might emotionally distance themselves enough from the people they are observing to not even have the fact they are spying on a fellow citizen trickling into their moral prism?
A manned aircraft pilot will be in the area and putting his own eyes on the person, bringing the emotional level closer, perhaps close enough for them to realize they might be doing something wrong, legal, but wrong none the less.
And justifiably so IMHO. Every time you turn on the news they want to do everything from banning baby formula to registering our guns with the UN.
How can you not be a little paranoid about all of it?
I’m not with the Alex Jones crowd that everything is a conspiracy and whatnot, but this bunch has already pulled enough shenanigans that I want to watch every effing thing they do.
Because I stopped believing in conspiracys once my testicles descended.
It’s find to be skeptical of some things; but the whole paranoia thing (to include the associated twisting of news stories) is what causes people to dismiss the legitimate issues.
I have only spoken about technology. Its minaturization in both size and cost along with the lowering of cost and the increasing sophistication of database mining. And it isn’t just drones, its black boxes in cars, cellphone records and credit card purchases. The drone just puts it all into a nice high-rez telephoto image stabilized picture.
Twenty years ago who would have thought that the police would say it is totally normal to throw a mobile tracker onto someones car.
I’m just pointing out what is capable of happening- with things that aren’t that esoteric or high-tech.
But you have to ask yourself- when has the govenment not used new technology to collect information about citizens? It may be for the best of intentions to stop the worst of villians- but we never look at a tool and pass on its use- history is clear.
If you are going to try to belittle us, at least do it right and have a Black UAV warning sign.
And just like with GPS trackers on cars, using thermal imaging on houses, etc there will be controls put in place. And no; I don’t think you’ll ever see armed UAVs doing CAS for LEOs
And no need for a black UAV; the helicopter image is fitting
you forgot:
finger printing
retinal scans
DNA
and with the cell phone tapping a way to make sure they know your cell info and will be required to update any cell phone info change to them 
at this point I would not put anything past the gov I dont think this is going to happen but if it does I wont be shocked if they TRY to get it through but think it wont happen
our privacy and rights are sinking quickly though !
the drone thing ? yeah I also view it like a helicopter but at the same time they got the foot in the door the new way for them to watch us !!
I surmise you find this more to your liking?
You’re right, they don’t exist!
I understand that the depersonalization of a target is possible, but it’s also possible with helicopter and fighter pilots too. I acknowledge that these systems have a video game like quality, but so do modern aircraft. Just as with manned aircraft there are procedures in place that restrict the use of these systems.
I’m an Infantryman who’s also trained as a Raven and Puma UAV operator. These are the systems that I’m referring to in my comments. These are also the systems that I know of that are currently in use with some LE agencies. I’ve flown these aircraft stateside and in Afghanistan. It’s a HHHUUGE pain in the ass just to get approval to fly these things here they’re so restricted by the FAA. That is slowly changing, but no matter the changes you will still have to request airspace, file flight plans and get approval before flying them. Also, to my knowledge, you can’t just get approval for an unlimited amount of flight time. You only have the requested airspace for a set amount of time. Right now the potential for the misuse of these aircraft is very limited, but I agree it can grow. I also believe that they can be used well i.e. SAR. The restrictions on these aircraft are the limiting factor on misuse potential at this time, but as restrictions loosen I’m sure some sort of criteria will need to be set to prevent them from being inappropriately employed.
Also, one last thing. You are in error in believing I failed at understanding Lt Col Grossman’s book. I gave my copy to my wife in the hopes of giving her some insight as to why I have issues after deployments 
That’s some brainndead bullshit right there.
Step away from inforwars and live in the real world. Halved or better. Jesus Christ.
Politics and tin foil hats aside, I don’t understand the big deal as long as it is not used for Warrant-less surveillance inside people’s (which is not what happened to this idiot).
Congratulations!!!
you win nothing
Fast and Furious was a real, actual conspiracy. You think powerful people always make decisions in our best interests in full view of the public? Please.
Having said that:
There have been legal precedents regarding how low a police aircraft can loiter over property before its a violation of privacy. I want to say 100 feet, but don’t quote me on that. Anywho, get this idea that drones the size of pizza boxes are hovering 5 feet off the ground and flying into your garage and looking at your tool bench out of your heads. As others have said, they’re higher up where a chopper would be. There’s no reasonable expectation of privacy from the air, except within 100 feet above the ground, I think.
Lighten up Francis. LEO get a bad rap but not all are bad. They get paid shit salary and deal with the most.fucked stuff. I am glad they are.out there.
Gentlemen,
Are we headed anywhere productive with this? Granted, I do recognize the value of an occasional airing of grievances, but I get the sense that we’ve rounded a corner where even the most optimistic of us would be hard-pressed to envision a positive outcome.
Putting a temp lock on this to allow us to get some distance between the issues and the ire.
AC