Third time this week helicopters at 3:00 am - is it crime 'prevention' or

[shance]

is using helicopters to essentially 'dive bomb' a form of helicopter harassment?

Like everyone else, we are all interested in being secure in our neighborhoods and preventing any type of crime. I've been involved in my neighborhood watch as many of us have.

However, tonight being awakened one more night in Studio City, I am once again privy to rapidly approaching and increasing helicopter noise and sounds of propellers chopping through the 3:00 am sky.

At this point, many of us in the neighborhood fail to understand how helicopters circling over head at night, where the operators of such vehicles can't actively engage in stopping whomever (or effectively guide police at such a late hour in the morning), they seem to be targeting, is it useful and or a way to create a feeling of safety in our neighborhoods, or perhaps the opposite in creating more insecurity and fear?

There was an article yesterday on Homeland Security's war on terror is actually being utilized more as an active engagement against the citizenry. Tonight it makes me wonder once again, what and who is using our law enforcement to seeming invoke fear and powerlessness versus honestly addressing it logically and constructively.

Some thoughts at 3:00 am........***

[dipsydoodle]

1. Don't think the pilots will be too impressed

if the local kids have got Diablo catapults and ball bearings. You could apparently puncture a Mercedes block right through the wing with one of those.

[ColbertWatcher]

2. I too live in the Valley...

...and have heard the choppers circling overhead at all hours of the night/morning.

The worst part is when they turn that damn light on.

I thought gas prices put a crimp in the LAPD's budget, guess not.

[Eurobabe]

3. Bill collectors

looking for Clinton campaign.

[WritersBlock]

4. Maybe they were using FLIR to find a suspect on foot.

That can be used as a very effective guide in the middle of the night to direct officers on the ground to a place where a suspect is hidden from sight by darkness, because it can be difficult to hide body heat.

All the flight crew has to do is direct the ground units to the heat return.

[juno jones]

5. They did the same thing in Sacramento while I lived there.

I suspect it's about a quarter proctection and 3/4s intimidation.

[devilgrrl]

6. I live in West Hollywood and they annoy the f*** out of me

You should have been here when they were trying to get Paris Hilton to show up to court. The sky looked like a scene out of 'Apocalypse Now' :wtf: