I do support law enforcement, but I am also watchful for government overreach, and this is somewhat scary to me. Police taser drones have been authorized in the state of North Dakota. The drones have also been authorized to be equipped with tear gas and rubber bullets. Is there a lot of need for that in North Dakota? Is this in response to increased crime from the oil fields? Are they expecting mass civil disobedience or perhaps violent biker rallies? http://www.khou.com/story/tech/2015/08/28/police-taser-drones-authorized--north-dakota/71319668/
Haha, yes, there's that. It's good to know that someone is apparently watching, otherwise I wouldn't have seen the article mentioned in my local news feed.
Although it says that North Dakota is the first state to put the drone use into their state laws; there are quite a few other states that also are using drones. It may be that ND is the only state where they are weaponized; but I imagine that it will not be much longer before other states will follow suit, especially since many of them are already using drones in one way or another. I can see that it can help save police lives; but on the other hand, it makes you wonder how long it will be before the government can just order a drone hit on someone just like they already to when they want to take out some supposed terrorist in another country. Here is a map showing the states that have been using drones. http://www.governing.com/gov-data/s...al-law-enforcement-agencies-license-list.html
Drones are very in person they really do not have any feeling of the situation a little tunnel vision. They could easily see a person in distress after his wife and children killed and react by tasering him for being unruly. It is like you having feeling for the people you kill in a video game.
Yes, I'm aware that many are using it for various reasons. I don't have an issue with that (to an extent), especially along the border, since we are a sovereign country. I do have concerns though about weaponized drones being used against citizens who may or may not be doing something criminal/violent. I find it odd that it's being legalized in North Dakota, which is out of the eyes of much of the country. Unless someone was following this topic or happened to see this story (as I did), most would be unaware.
If you look at the map you can see that they are more interested in what is going on in the country than who is coming over the borders. I guess they think the threat is from within and not from without.