FAA prepares 6 Test Sites for Drones

by designs 4 Replies latest social current

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  designs

  Thousands of Drones are being readied for flights over cities and borders across the US. Many worry about the added intrusion into our privacy. We already have super-computers scanning our trips to shopping malls, along freeways and highways and traffic intersections. Satellites that can read a dime on the ground have been around for years. There are a lot of very bad people who live among us. 6 million felons on the streets and a parole system that cannot keep up.

  How do you feel about the loss of privacy vs tracking and catching criminals.
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  akafreelife

  We are rapidly becoming one of the biggest police states in the world under the disguise of a free country. We really are losing our right to be free and we just keep letting it happen. We have fema camps set up across the country that can act as prisons in a seconds notice. If the govenment views you as a ememy of the state we lose all our constitiutional rights. If you are deemed a threat you can be assasinated by one of these drones walking down a street in a foreign country and it is considered legal. This Phony terror war was brought upon us to enslave us to the system that we live in and give up our individual rights.
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  Resistance is Futile

  Thousands of Drones are being readied for flights over cities and borders across the US.

  Source?
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  Glander

  Growing up a Jehovah's witness I got used to the idea of a big drone in the sky watching my every move and keeping a tab on whether or not to squash me like a bug at any moment.

  Guess I'll have to get used to it. Maybe I'll just wave the middle finger at the sky once in a while.
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  sammielee24

  There was an article somewhere that pointed to applications so far that will allow 3,600 drones over the USA within a short number of years. The FAA has to figure out how to allow drones to fly within airspace, safely considering the number of flights per day in the USA by planes. That same article pointed to some of these drones being able to take pictures, use audio to hear what is going on and also arm them. Some States are already lining up to put them in use as 'eyes in the sky'. At this point I don't think there is much anyone can do. The majority of people don't really care any more - I think they are just trying to get by and the time and energy they see wasted on things they cannot change, they probably see as draining their last resources emotionally, mentally etc. sammieswife

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  Citing privacy, critics target drones buzzing over USA

  Judy Keen, USA TODAY 6:50p.m. EST January 10, 2013

  Just another tool in the homeland security toolbox, or do domestic drones encroach on citizens' liberties?

  

  • As of last week, 348 drones were approved for domestic use
  • Universities are researching their use in disaster response, agriculture and other areas

  Backlash against the domestic use of drones is building.

  Congress and at least 10 state legislatures could consider bills this year that would limit the use of the camera-equipped, unmanned aircraft in the USA.

  As of last week, 348 drones were approved for domestic use, the Federal Aviation Administration says. More than half the applications submitted through August 2012 were from the Defense Department; law enforcement filed 7% and academic institutions 24%. Universities are researching their use in disaster response, agriculture and other areas.

  Growing public wariness about the loss of privacy is driving concerns about drones, says Joanne Gabrynowicz, director of the National Center for Remote Sensing, Air and Space Law at the University of Mississippi. "I think concerns are going to mount," she says.

  Drones are "fine for killing terrorists ... but I don't think they should be used to spy on American citizens," says Florida state Sen. Joe Negron, a Republican who introduced a bill last month to prohibit their use by law enforcement except to prevent terrorism.

  Among other legislative efforts:

  • Last month, state Sen. Alex Padilla, a Democrat, introduced a bill that would regulate drones in California. He worries they'll be used to "infringe upon fundamental constitutional rights."
  • Rep. Ed Markey, D-Mass., introduced a bill in December that would establish national privacy safeguards and limit surveillance.
  • A bill introduced in Missouri by Rep. Casey Guernsey, a Republican, would require warrants before drones gather evidence. "I don't like the idea of Missouri becoming a police state," he says.

  Gary Brunk of the American Civil Liberties Union of Kansas and Western Missouri, says drones "are going to become a feature of American life, unfortunately."

  The Mesa County, Colo., Sheriff's Office has two drones that are "just another tool in our toolbox," spokeswoman Heather Benjamin says.