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NEWS AND VIEWS THAT IMPACT LIMITED CONSTITUTIONAL GOVERNMENT

"There is danger from all men. The only maxim of a free government ought to be to trust no man living with
power to endanger the public liberty." - - - - John Adams

Tuesday, September 1, 2015

GOP OKs police to use weaponized drones



Police State Republicans
The "small government" GOP legislature of North Dakota Goosesteps into a 1984 future of police Terminators.


(New American)  -  In ironic betrayal of a bill’s original intent, HB 1328 authorizes law enforcement to weaponize drones and use them against citizens, provided that the weapons are “less than lethal.”
The measure, originally drafted by Republican state representative Rick Becker, called for tight regulation on the use of the unmanned aerial vehicles by police and for protection from their misuse against citizens and the Constitution.
In 2012, Becker, a plastic surgeon then serving his first term as a legislator, proposed a bill to the North Dakota state legislature looking to limit the use of drones by law enforcement, including a provision that completely banned the weaponizing of the devices.
Despite the legislative restrictions he sought to impose on the use of the drones, Becker explained that he wasn’t trying to offend police, but to defend the Constitution.
"It's a new technology that has really amazing capabilities and can be used in excellent ways for our communities. I don't want to say that drones can't be used," Becker said. "But with the new technology there are also issues, primarily privacy issues, which can come into play.”

Big Brother is Watching You

That was how the bill was written, but that wasn’t the bill that was ultimately presented to and passed by state lawmakers.
Bruce Burkett, a lobbyist employed by the North Dakota Peace Officer’s Association, was given a green light by Republican legislative leaders to tack an amendment onto Becker’s bill that limited the restriction to “less than lethal” weapons. (The congressional drone lobby is equally as powerful and funded by the vehicles’ manufacturers, as well).
Burkett’s betrayal of the bill’s original intent resulted in North Dakota becoming the first state to grant such expansive power to police.
Becker certainly wasn’t pleased by the lobbyist’s legerdemain.
“This is one I’m not in full agreement with. I wish it was any weapon,” he said during a hearing on the amended version of his measure. “In my opinion there should be a nice, red line: Drones should not be weaponized. Period.”
It’s not as if non-lethal weapons have never been lethal.
On a database of people killed by police maintained by The Guardian newspaper, 39 people have been killed by Taser.
Becker sees an even more sinister future for the flying weapons.
“When you’re not on the ground, and you’re making decisions, you’re sort of separate,” Becker said in March. “Depersonalized.”
With the rise of the drones comes the rise of several critical questions of constitutionality of their potential uses. One of the most crucial of those inquiries concerns the application of the Fourth Amendment’s prohibition against “unlawful searches and seizures” and the requirement that warrants be supported by affidavits “particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.”
North Dakotans know something of this constitutionally charged controversy.
Constitutional conflicts rising in the wake of the domestic deployment of drones went to court in the case of North Dakota resident Rodney Brossart, who became one of the first American citizens (if not the first) arrested by local law enforcement with the use of a drone owned by a federal agency. Police launched this loaner after Brossart held the police at bay for over 16 hours in 2011.
Read More . . . .


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Police Terminators
It's just a matter of time and the liar, whore politicians will tell you that it is for your own good.

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