In a first-of-its-kind case, a North Dakota farmer was convicted and sentenced to prison based on evidence gathered with the use of a surveillance drone.
The case all started with an accusation against Rodney Brossart that he had stolen some cows from his neighbor in 2011.
Brossart was arrested on June 23, 2011, but his family refused at gunpoint to let authorities armed with a search warrant onto their 3,600-acre property to investigate the neighbors' complaint. Brossart was later released on bail, and warrants issued for his three sons, but the family refused for months to respond to orders to appear in court, prompting Nelson County Sheriff Kelly Janke to have the U.S. Border Patrol deploy a Predator drone conduct live video surveillance of the farm.
REAL life finally caught up with art....Minority Report (circa 2002) with Tom Cruise....OF COURSE,
it can happen here....(all over the United States).....there is NO privacy and you know that
very well....
Since law enforcement had a search warrant, yet the family refused to allow them on the property, I'd rather see a drone used than an a armed confrontation. This was a pretty narrow set of circumstances.
FredHayek wrote: Fish & Game have been monitoring game herds for years flying over large ranches without warrants. This is just done without a pilot.
Hmmm... where have I heard this before?
"In the far distance a helicopter skimmed down between the roofs, hovered for an instant like a bluebottle, and darted away again with a curving flight. It was the police patrol, snooping into people's windows. The patrols did not matter, however. Only the Thought Police mattered."
George Orwell 1984
I know this book intimately. I wrote an adaptation of the book to stage. See the reviews at...
Then again, consider that the Colorado State Patrol operates fixed wing aircraft primarily for clocking speeders on the highways but that doesn't mean they could also be tasked with flying over private property assuming that there is a probable cause to do so. Most front range Colorado Sheriff departments have helicopters or access to helicopters for multiple purposes and could also be tasked to overfly private property when there is a probably cause to do so. In any case Law Enforcement aircraft could also be simply flying through an area and spot something that looks out of place and decide to loiter to determine what is happening, possibly have ground units dispatched to the location, and then head back to their original destination. I suppose a citizen could take a couple of pot shots at law enforcement aircraft but I have to believe that wouldn't end well for the citizen...
I can explain it to you but I can't understand it for you.
"Any man who thinks he can be happy and prosperous by letting the Government take care of him; better take a closer look at the American Indian." - Henry Ford
Corruptissima re publica plurimae leges; When the Republic is at its most corrupt the laws are most numerous. - Publius Cornelius Tacitus
