Not how rules work.

First they can shoot down your drone. Second they can ban you from ever flying one again. All without any criminal prosection.

To prosecute you, it is not willfully and knowingly. It is willfully or knowingly.

If you expect there to be ice and put your drone in a spot where it will film them, well you didn't know. But it was willful.

> First they can shoot down your drone.

So treat them as disposable.

> Second they can ban you from ever flying one again.

Thankfully I can purchase them at Costco last I checked. Good luck with that. (TBF don't actually do that as it will 100% be traced to you. The general principle still applies though.)

The correct answer here is to relentlessly use drones to film them in such a way that it isn't obvious who is doing it.

Anyway the idea that the FAA can have any jurisdiction so near ground level outside of regional airports is a blatant overreach that tramples state's rights and is almost certainly unconstitutional. The problem is that as with so many other areas (such as for example drug laws) the states seem entirely unwilling to take the federal government to task. Texas famously backed down regarding the TSA and we're all worse off for it IMO.