Houston police test unmanned surveillance drones

[Newsjock]

Source: KPRC News

Houston police started testing unmanned aircraft and the event was shrouded in secrecy, but it was captured on tape by Local 2 Investigates.

Neighbors in rural Waller County said they thought a top-secret military venture was under way among the farmland and ranches, some 70 miles northwest of Houston. KPRC Local 2 Investigates had four hidden cameras aimed at a row of mysterious black trucks. Satellite dishes and a swirling radar added to the neighbors' suspense.

Then, cameras were rolling as an unmanned aircraft was launched into the sky and operated by remote control.

Houston police cars were surrounding the land with a roadblock in place to check each of the dignitaries arriving for the invitation-only event. The invitation spelled out, "NO MEDIA ALLOWED."

... "I wasn't ready to publicize this," Executive Assistant Police Chief Martha Montalvo said. She and other department leaders hastily organized a news conference when they realized Local 2 Investigates had captured the entire event on camera.

... Montalvo told reporters the unmanned aircraft would be used for "mobility" or traffic issues, evacuations during storms, homeland security, search and rescue, and also "tactical." She admitted that could include covert police actions and she said she was not ruling out someday using the drones for writing traffic tickets.

... Houston police contacted KPRC from the test site, claiming the entire airspace was restricted by the Federal Aviation Administration. Police even threatened action from the FAA if the Local 2 helicopter remained in the area. However, KPRC reported it had already checked with the FAA on numerous occasions and found no flight restrictions around the site, a point conceded by Montalvo.

Read more: http://www.click2houston.com/investigates/14659066/detail.html

[Stinky The Clown]

1. How long before they mount tasers to their underbellies?

The civilian version of the Predator. "Only semi-sorta-lethal"

[SpiralHawk]

13. "Hey, that's a heckuva ideer. Thanks. Smirk." - Commander AWOL

"I always tell my 'elite' republicon homelander chickenhawk cronies that we can rely on the proles to supply us with fab ideas for managing the hoi poloi. Smirk."

- Commander AWOL

[baldguy]

2. Boeing

http://www.boeing.com/defense-space/military/scaneagle/index.html

[ixion]

3. fascism abounds in the new 'Murika

joy.

I really don't care to participate in a society that lauds fascism as a core value.

[tom_paine]

4. If the local Bushies are testing this for Peasant Control then you can bet your ass that OHS

has at minimum a dozen of these things already performing domestic operations, probably over minority areas, so that fewer will see and the MSM won't care.

(call it DHS if you will, but it's original name - before they market-tested it and found out that OHS was too transparent to what it actually was - a kinder and gentler SS, whereas DHS market-tests with a much higher Q-rating and much more likely not to "spook" the peasants, but OHS is what it is and always will be)

Middle-Phase of transition to tyranny is now fully and firmly underway. How long until Penultimate and Final Phases, and if/when will the violence begin? It still may not, in earnest.

The New Totalitarianism cloaks itself in the old ways for camoflauge.

It is still possible we will "ease" into a state not unlike the prescient book "Farenheit 451" which is much "better" (such as it is) than Old Totalitarianism like the Soviet Union, Nazi Germany, Pinochet's Chile, etc.

In either case, things are predictable happening and the many dominoes predictably begin to fall, as always, with a slight rumble and shadow on the horizon.

[lapfog_1]

5. This song runs through my head occasionally...

I am the eye in the sky
Looking at you
I can read your mind
I am the maker of rules
Dealing with fools
I can cheat you blind
And I dont need to see any more
To know that
I can read your mind, I can read your mind

Alan Parsons Project

[Orwellian_Ghost]

6. Seems like everywhere you turn

there are news stories about the latest gadget/technology coming from the State to surveil or bring about some form of electronically induced pain to it's citizens.

What about health care for it's citizens?

[lonestarnot]

11. Watchers watching watchers, what a life.

:dilemma:

[Orwellian_Ghost]

7. More people might want to read about this

What a waste of our hard earned dollars.

[Darth Lenore]

8. Y HALO THAR 'Dark Angel!'

It's really disturbing when our law enforcement agencies seem to be getting their ideas from a science fiction show with a totalitarian, utterly corrupt martial law in place.


But on the other hand, maybe this means we'll have more people who look like Max and Alec running around. Woo!

[Jim Sagle]

9. Better living through telemetry...

:puke:

[formercia]

10. 3.5 inch 12 ga Mag with high velocity T steel shot.

better than clay pidgeons.

[The Backlash Cometh]

12. UFO!

[sarcasmo]

14. The Police State getting stronger. Look out Protesters, next they will have tasers on those drones.