The news that this spring the United States used unarmed drones in an arrest of suspected terrorism suspects doesn’t sound shocking. Unarmed drones have proven to be an invaluable tool in surveying terrorist activities in Iraq and Afghanistan, but the news from the LA Times is downright terrorizing, because these unarmed drones were used to arrest American citizens on American soil.
The situation started when Nelson County, North Dakota Sheriff Kelly Janke knocked on the door of a house belonging to members of the Sovereign Citizen Movement with a search warrant to look for 6 lost cows who were believed to have wondered onto the property. The Sheriff was met at the door with shotguns. His reactions was to call in reinforcements, the reinforcements he received however are likely to be unconstitutional and excessive in nature. According to the LA Times.
Janke knew the gunmen could be anywhere on the 3,000-acre spread in eastern North Dakota. Fearful of an armed standoff, he called in reinforcements from the state Highway Patrol, a regional SWAT team, a bomb squad, ambulances and deputy sheriffs from three other counties.
He also called in a Predator B drone.
Yes, a Predator B drone was used to arrest an American family accused of having lost cows on their property. For those who believe that this technology is necessary in fighting terrorism and would never be abused by men who should not have power over such equipment, let me repeat this for you. A North Dakota Sherriff called in a Predator B drone to arrest an American family accused of having lost cows on their property. According to the LA Times,
As the unmanned aircraft circled 2 miles overhead the next morning, sophisticated sensors under the nose helped pinpoint the three suspects and showed they were unarmed. Police rushed in and made the first known arrests of U.S. citizens with help from a Predator, the spy drone that has helped revolutionize modern warfare.
But that was just the start. Local police say they have used two unarmed Predators based at Grand Forks Air Force Base to fly at least two dozen surveillance flights since June. The FBI and Drug Enforcement Administration have used Predators for other domestic investigations, officials said.
"We don't use [drones] on every call out," said Bill Macki, head of the police SWAT team in Grand Forks. "If we have something in town like an apartment complex, we don't call them."
How did we get to this low point in American liberty? Well, Congress first authorized Customs and Border Protection to buy unarmed Predators in 2005, but according to one of the lawmakers involved with this legislation the predators were meant to protect the borders and not spy on citizens. Former Rep. Jane Harman (D-Venice), who sat on the House homeland security intelligence subcommittee at the time and served as its chairwoman from 2007 until early this year, told the LA Times.
No one ever discussed using Predators to help local police serve warrants or do other basic work.
Using Predators for routine law enforcement without public debate or clear legal authority is a mistake, Harman said.
"There is no question that this could become something that people will regret," said Harman, who resigned from the House in February and now heads the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, a Washington think tank.
Once thought impossible, the decay of our personal liberties expedited by the Bush Administration and the Patriot Act, has left us as a country where privacy should soon no longer be expected in your own home. For years courts have protected the government in aerial surveillance. According to the LA Times,
For decades, U.S. courts have allowed law enforcement to conduct aerial surveillance without a warrant. They have ruled that what a person does in the open, even behind a backyard fence, can be seen from a passing airplane and is not protected by privacy laws.
Advocates say Predators are simply more effective than other planes. Flying out of earshot and out of sight, a Predator B can watch a target for 20 hours nonstop, far longer than any police helicopter or manned aircraft.
"I am for the use of drones," said Howard Safir, former head of operations for the U.S. Marshals Service and former New York City police commissioner. He said drones could help police in manhunts, hostage situations and other difficult cases.
At risk of sounding a lot like Rick Perry, there is something wrong with America when we can use Predator B Drones on our own people, but our children can’t say the pledge of allegiance in schools. We officially live in a country where courts would rather protect a chubby cop with a goatee’s right to walk around spraying people in the face with pepper spray than the citizens trying to exercise their constitutionally protected right to freedom of speech. We’d rather protect some Sheriff in North Dakota who has decided he’s had enough of the local and wants to call out Predator Drones than, well, the local crazies. In the 1770’s America was filled with local crazies who history now remembers as patriots.
Janke requested help from the drone unit, explaining that an armed standoff was underway. A Predator was flying back from a routine 10-hour patrol along the Canadian border from North Dakota to Montana. It carried extra fuel, so a pilot sitting in a trailer in Grand Forks turned the aircraft south to fly over the farm, about 60 miles from the border.
For four hours, the Predator circled 10,000 feet above the farm. Parked on a nearby road, Janke and the other officers watched live drone video and thermal images of Alex, Thomas and Jacob Brossart — and their mother, Susan — on a hand-held device with a 4-inch screen.
The glowing green images showed people carrying what appeared to be long rifles moving behind farm equipment and other barriers. The sheriff feared they were preparing an ambush, and he decided to withdraw until daybreak. The Predator flew back to its hangar.
At 7 a.m. the next day, the Predator launched again and flew back to the farm. The drone crew was determined to help avoid a bloody confrontation. No one wanted another Ruby Ridge, the 1992 shootout between the FBI and a family in rural Idaho that killed a 14-year-old boy, a woman and a deputy U.S. marshal.
This time, Janke watched the live Predator feed from his office computer, using a password-protected government website called Big Pipe.
Around 10 a.m., the video showed the three Brossart brothers riding all-terrain vehicles toward a decommissioned Minuteman ballistic missile site at the edge of their property. The sensor operator in Grand Forks switched to thermal mode, and the image indicated the three men were unarmed.
Janke signaled the SWAT team to move in and make the arrests. No shots were fired.
A search of the property turned up four rifles, two shotguns, assorted bows and arrows and a samurai sword, according to court records. Police also found the six missing cows, valued at $6,000.