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nemomarx 14 hours ago

I guess it was a predictable outreach from the Patriot act - the new justification is flying drones "over a mission" from the border people, and they claim a lot of territory for their missions, right?

bluescrn 7 hours ago | parent | next [-]

More likely the videos of FPV drones from Ukraine showing that an inexpensive quadcopter can be a very effective weapon of war.

And that radio jamming no longer neutralizes that threat.

crote an hour ago | parent [-]

That could be used to justify banning drones in general, or banning all drones which aren't radio controlled (not that those are being used domestically). And "it can be used for war" is a bit silly in a country where you can buy guns at the grocery store. Not to mention that cars can be very effective weapons as well, and those haven't been banned yet.

The far more likely explanation is that they just don't want people filming them. They can't legally stop someone with a cellphone from filming them, but that hasn't stopped them from using up-to-lethal force against observers. On the other hand, you can't exactly beat a flying drone into submission, so the obvious move is to observe using drones instead.

Luckily for ICE the FAA already has the mechanics in place to criminalize flying drones in certain places, so with their magic "no drones anywhere we operate" NOTAM they can now punish observers with a year of jail time.

nemomarx 18 minutes ago | parent [-]

I agree with your point but they definitely want to kill you for being in a car and driving near them if they get scared so IDK if we can use cars as an example of something they don't mind

butvacuum 13 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

they also don't publish the NOTAMs ahead of time. So, they're effectively allowing ICE to retroactively make flying a drone illegal if an agent takes issue with the color of your cheesburger bun.

djmips 6 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

It's my understanding that they are no longer the border people as Trump extended their reach to every square inch of the USA