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99th_Monkey

(19,326 posts)
Thu May 7, 2015, 09:17 PM May 2015

FBI Admits to Using High-Tech Spy Planes to Monitor Freddie Gray Protests

FBI Admits to Using High-Tech Spy Planes to Monitor Freddie Gray Protests
FBI won't say whether Joint Terror Task Force was used.
By Adam Johnson * AlterNet * May 7, 2015

Baltimore joins a growing list of cities where anti-police brutality protests have fallen under the purview of FBI’s surveillance apparatus. According to yesterday’s Baltimore Sun, federal authorities used their sophisticated fleet of spy aircraft to “watch over Baltimore in the wake of rioting”. FBI spokeswoman Amy Thoreson insisted the aircraft were used to help Baltimore Police “keep an eye out for criminal activity”:

"The aircraft were specifically used to assist in providing high-altitude observation of potential criminal activity to enable rapid response by police officers on the ground," Thoreson said. "The FBI aircraft were not there to monitor lawfully protected first amendment activity." :


The admission was in response to amatuer sleuths noticing unsual flight activity about the Baltimore area. As the Washington Post reported on Tuesday:

Discovery of the flights — which involved at least two airplanes and the assistance of the FBI — has prompted the American Civil Liberties Union to demand answers about the legal authority for the operations and the reach of the technology used. Planes armed with the latest surveillance systems can monitor larger areas than police helicopters and stay overhead longer, raising novel civil liberties issues that have so far gotten little scrutiny from courts.

Civil libertarians have particular concern about surveillance technology that can quietly gather images across dozens of city blocks — in some cases even square miles at a time — inevitably capturing the movements of people under no suspicion of criminal activity into a government dragnet. The ACLU plans to file information requests with federal agencies on Wednesday, officials said.


The airplane’s surveillance technology, as Arstechnica points out, was perfected overseas in US wars Iraq and Afghanistan.

http://www.alternet.org/civil-liberties/fbi-admits-using-high-tech-spy-planes-monitor-freddie-gray-protests
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FBI Admits to Using High-Tech Spy Planes to Monitor Freddie Gray Protests (Original Post) 99th_Monkey May 2015 OP
It's not legal to look at stuff from a plane? jberryhill May 2015 #1
Big picture..Big picture. trumad May 2015 #2
I suspect this may be a "nothing to see here" red herring. nt 99th_Monkey May 2015 #4
It's not so much about its technical "legality" or lack there of. 99th_Monkey May 2015 #3
Big picture... trumad May 2015 #5
Thanks 99th_Monkey May 2015 #6
In other news... water is wet nadinbrzezinski May 2015 #7
It was only one night of looting and burning seveneyes May 2015 #8
Ah, the same planes they had monitoring the Cliven Bundy protests... Fumesucker May 2015 #9
 

trumad

(41,692 posts)
2. Big picture..Big picture.
Thu May 7, 2015, 09:42 PM
May 2015

See that's the problem...most Americans don't see the big picture and slippery slope.

 

99th_Monkey

(19,326 posts)
3. It's not so much about its technical "legality" or lack there of.
Thu May 7, 2015, 09:54 PM
May 2015

It's about whether it's a productive and wise use of the FBI's limited resources,
AND about whether it's appropriate for ANY law enforcement to be "monitoring"
peaceful protest movements and events as though they represent some "national
security threat" ... i.e. suspected 'terrorists' ... it's an absurd, obscene and
disgraceful misplacement and misuse of their resources and authority.

Actually it reminds me of during the 60's when J. Edger Hoover assigned an
entire team of FBI officers to decipher the "real meaning" of the famous rock
and roll hit "Louie Louie".

 

99th_Monkey

(19,326 posts)
6. Thanks
Thu May 7, 2015, 10:12 PM
May 2015

Last edited Thu May 7, 2015, 10:50 PM - Edit history (1)

How can I not 'think Orwell', these daze?

We've been morphing warp-speed to resemble the
Orwellian nightmare now, for how long

at least since 9/11.

 

nadinbrzezinski

(154,021 posts)
7. In other news... water is wet
Thu May 7, 2015, 10:16 PM
May 2015

and my coffee has cooled down.

A lot of this has now, sadly to be expected. I am quite flipant becuase many of us screamed to high heaven when all this started, and of course, we were told that it could not be this bad, 'cause well it's murica and we're special!... but hey... it will get far worst before it gets better.

And yes indeed we are special. Most countries remember what happened 800 years ago, let alone last week. We collectively have trouble remembering last night.

 

seveneyes

(4,631 posts)
8. It was only one night of looting and burning
Thu May 7, 2015, 10:22 PM
May 2015

It's not like anyone is championing the actions and reactions.

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