NYPD ‘looking into’ drones to survey crowds

[octoberlib]

New York City Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said on Thursday that his police force is “looking into” using drones to survey demonstrations, reported DNAinfo.

During an interview at the 92nd Street Y in New York City with Reuters News’ editor-in-chief, Kelly explained the need to look into “anything that helps us,” although a drone program was not being aggressively pursued currently.

When asked about the massacre in Newtown, Conn., he said that he did not believe banning assault weapons would have significant impact on gun crime because “people are being shot with handguns.”


He also discussed the department’s counter-terrorism programs and the fact that the force has privately paid officers in 11 cities worldwide to “act as tripwires or listening posts for the city.”

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/01/11/nypd-looking-into-drones-to-survey-crowds/


Drones to "survey" demonstrations? Ugh.

[graham4anything]

1. If it saves one life, it's a good thing. People are planted into protests, and

it would seem like the good protesters wouldn't mind outing any bad protester with anarchy or evil on their mind

and historically infiltration by plants always happens

9-11 happened in NYC, and because of it, the nationwide economy went broke

I commend the extra security and the wanting to keep ALL guns out of the streets

it only takes one gun to kill many
guns=wmd

[Bonobo]

2. Would you support enabling the drones to fire non-lethal rounds?

Or chemical mace to disperse unruly, violent crowds?

[graham4anything]

3. I would support getting 100% of every gun out of 100% of the streets

If you don't think plants are put into protest groups, well,you haven't followed protest history over the years

its like bad cops and baseball players who use steroids

you would think one would want to out all the bad cops and steroid users, so that
others don't think everyone is using and bad

anarchy helps no one
violence helps no one

Who wouldn't have loved a drone to hit Hitler in the head one day before the first of 20 million died?
Same with getting Osamabinladen the day before he gave the orders to do 9-11, not waited to get him 10 years later after the damage was done
Same with TimMcCoward in oklahoma, wish they had a drone then to take him out before he killed all those babies
Same with the CT shooter.

so anything that can prevent another incident like any of those, is a good thing

because my first amendment rights are violated by not being able to assemble peacefully in a supermarket, restaurant, movie theatre, etc.

And security has always been around.
Hell, I go to see concerts and sporting events at Madison Square Garden in NYC and have been frisked for 35 years now, maybe 40 or more.
It goes with the territory.

NYC is one of the safest cities in the nation
Glad they are always updating
Btw, think this is an old story, read a simliar one a long time ago

[Bonobo]

4. Long reply. How about a short one answering the simple question? nt

[fredamae]

5. The "other" drone prob

How many ways can this go wrong?

[maggiesfarmer]

6. I don't see a difference between this and stationary survillience cameras

I think there's a stigma attached to the word 'drone' because we associate with a weapon of war used to kill people. The drones being discussed are web cams mounted unmanned, remote control aerial vehicles, allowing police to deploy a camera to a section of the city where a large crowd is gathering.

There is no mention by any source in NYPD of deploying armed drones that I've seen. Steering the discussion in the direction suggesting otherwise are just distracting from the real story.

All that being said, I'm not a huge fan of routinely being under camera surveillance but, as discussed many times on DU, our constitution doesn't grant an explicit right to privacy.

[TheKentuckian]

7. Our constitution does not grant rights, it enumerates them restricting the government.

Or making the govern responsible for guaranteeing them.

That aside, it would if "reasonable" wasn't stretched to ANYTHING goes if someone can come up with a reason, including hunches.

[TheKentuckian]

8. What is that is puzzling about stationary? Don't want to be observed? Move.

Me walking into the view of your camera (at least when I know it is a camera) and you putting a camera on me are two very distinct things.

[Odin2005]

9. "Survey", is that what they call shooting protesters, now?