BIG BROTHER now has an eye in the sky



"The thought police would get him just the same. He had committed--would have committed, even if he had never set pen to paper--the essential crime that contained all others in itself. Thoughtcrime, they called it. Thoughtcrime was not a thing that could be concealed forever. You might dodge successfully for a while, even for years, but sooner or later they were bound to get you."
- George Orwell, 1984, Book 1, Chapter 1



Big Brother  -  A California City will record your every movement from the sky and then transmit those images to the Sheriff's Department in order to "protect" you.



Big Brother is totally bi-partisan.  Each party for reasons of their own wants to watch and control people 24-7.  Now we have the Republican city of Lancaster, California putting a Big Brother eye-in-the-sky to watch us and "protect" us.

Bull Shit.

The aerial surveillance program, slated to begin by May, will involve a piloted Cessna 172 fixed-wing aircraft with high-tech optical equipment that will record the movements of people on the ground. The plane will circle the Antelope Valley city at altitudes of 1,000 to 3,000 feet some 10 hours a day.

The technology, developed by the Lancaster-based Spiral Technology, Inc., includes the use of infrared imaging. It will record video footage that will be transmitted to the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, reports the Los Angeles Times.


Lancaster, California is in the high desert
of northern Los Angeles County.

 The program is expected to cost $1.3 million to launch. Financing will come from existing funds in the fiscal year budget, city officials said. The charge for surveillance is expected to run around $300 an hour, or about $90,000 a month. The aircraft will be fueled and maintained at a Lancaster airfield.


"People who have done nothing wrong shouldn't have anything they do in their yards or homes subject to video surveillance from the sky," said Peter Bibring, senior staff attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California. "To the extent that it involves observing things which a typical pilot overhead might not be able to see, it raises serious constitutional questions."

The ACLU has filed a California public records request to get further details about the program. The group wants specific information such as the capability of the cameras, how long the video will be kept and whether images gathered by the Sheriff's Department will be public record, Bibring said.

"I think we have a privacy problem, and I think the city is going to have a lot of lawsuits," longtime Lancaster resident Ed Galinda told the City Council.

Residents Danelda Robbins and Lyndey Williams expressed concern that sheriff's officials harboring personal vendettas might direct the plane's pilot to focus on specific neighborhoods and target particular people.

"It's our goal to become the safest city in America," Republican Mayor R. Rex Parris said in an interview.

A $90,000 a month spy plane uses infrared imaging.  It will record video footage that will be transmitted to the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department.

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