Attack of the drones, 1/2 a Million $ a pop ... thanks DHS

United States
December 17, 2011 4:56am CST
Straight out of the John Carpenter movie "They Live", life is now imitating art as one Texas county has gotten a new toy http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wXG3RMGkG94&feature=related Without getting bogged down in the debate of personal privacy rights and so on, do you think that at the time when the government is in debt to foreign bankers that the department of homeland security (or local government for that matter) should be spending $500,000 a piece to police the public from the air? Are we looking at a sign of the future? Will real police be replaced with video cameras in the air? How much protection will this really give on the ground without the manpower to back it up?
2 responses
Connie
@connierebel (1557)
• United States
18 Dec 11
It is not for protection, it is for spying on American citizens, a modern day version of the KGB, and all the other communist organizations. I found a recent article online, about how they used a Predator drone to catch a supposed "cattle rustler." http://www.lewrockwell.com/blog/lewrw/archives/100481.html Used to be, the sheriff and his deputies could handle cattle rustling on their own, maybe with the helpf of a few angry cowboys. Now they need SWAT Teams and predator drones!
knoodleknight18
@knoodleknight18 (917)
• United States
18 Dec 11
I can see it as being cost effective. Half a million is pretty cheap when it comes to anything that flies. Sure a civilian can make basically the same things for a fraction of the cost. But this is the government were talking about... I digress. Compare it to a real helicopter the government would probably spend 2-5 million on, plus pilots, fuel, maintenance and repair all cost more. So, if it's replacing actual helicopters, it's a good investment. It's basically the cheap version of a man in helicopter. It's not even really breakthrough, the technology has basically been around for a while.