Is America a Police State Yet?
By Donald Pennington
News.Yahoo.com
Like a page out of George Orwell’s “1984,” the skies of America soon might be filled with the privacy-invasive, Fourth Amendment-ignoring, civilian drones watching us all like we’re prisoners needing to be monitored at all times, according to a report from the Associated Press.
The author briefly touches upon the topic of personal privacy and our rights as citizens, all the while covering the topic as if the only concerns anyone should have are those of safe operation among other airborne craft. But no, the real concerns are our rights to privacy as Americans. We let our freedoms slip away inch-by-inch, as if not a drop of blood was ever shed for any of them.
These drones range in size from the 116-foot-wingspan “Global Hawk” down to the “Whirly Bird,” as small as a maple leaf seed — “equipped with imaging sensors.” While these devices can have many productive, beneficial uses for farmers and businesses, the great majority of the demand is for use by law enforcement. And remember, here in the new America — you’re guilty and not allowed to prove yourself innocent.
On New Year’s Eve 2011, President Barack Obama signed the “National Defense Authorization Act of 2012,” which was unique in its provision for indefinite detention without due process of “terror suspects” on U.S. soil — “terrorist” remaining an arbitrary definition by bureaucrat whim. While the White House marketed the bill as “not applicable to American citizens,” section 1022 of the bill allows for “open-ended executive judgment with regards to U.S. persons.”
The Rest…HERE
