Cops use "Predator Drone" to capture... cattle rustlers? Big Brother's Watching!

[KCIndy]

From today's Drudge Report... via the UK's Mail Online(Nice to know that U.S. media is keeping up with this stuff... yeah, right! :rolleyes::




Meet the North Dakota family of anti-government separatists busted by cops using a Predator drone... after 'stealing six cows'

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2073248/Local-cops-used-Predator-drone-arrest-North-Dakota-farm-family-stealing-6-cows.html#ixzz1gRaSRz7p


Last updated at 4:48 PM on 13th December 2011

Meet the Brossarts, a North Dakota family deemed so dangerous that the local sheriff needed unleashed an unmanned Predator drone to help bring them in.

The Brossart's alleged crime? They wouldn't give back three cows and their calves that wandered onto their 3,000-acre farm this summer.

The same aerial vehicles used by the CIA to track down and assassinate terrorists and militants in Pakistan and Afghanistan are now being deployed by cops to spy on Americans in their own backyards.

The Brossarts are the first known subjects of the high-flying new surveillance technology that the federal government has made available to some local sheriffs and police chiefs - all without Congressional approval or search warrants.

Local authorities say the Brossarts are known for being armed, anti-government separatists whose sprawling farm is used as a compound. Rodney Brossart, 55, and his wife Susan live in a house and a trailer and two RVs with seven of their eight adult children.

When the cattle wandered onto the Brossarts' land, Sheriff Kelly Janke, who patrols a county of just 3,000 people, rounded up some sheriff's deputies and arrested Mr Brossart for failing to report the stray livestock.

They also took away his daughter, Abby, after she allegedly hit an officer during the arrest.

When cops returned to collect the lost cattle, three of Brossart's sons - Alex, Jacob and Thomas - confronted Sheriff Janke with rifles and shotguns and would not allow officers on the farm.

That's when the sheriff summoned a $154 million MQ-9 Predator B drone from nearby Grand Forks Air Force Base, where it was patrolling the US-Canida border for the US Department of Homeland Security.

Using a handheld device that picked up the video camera footage from the spy plane, Sheriff Janke was able to watch the movements of everyone on the farm.

During an 16-hour standoff, the sheriff and his deputies waited until they could see the remaining Brossarts put down their weapons. Then, dressed in SWAT gear, they stormed the compound and arrested the three Brossart sons. No shots were fired.

Susan Brossart, the matriarch of the clan, was later arrested, as well.

Police also recovered the cattle, valued at $6,000.

They face several felony charges and have repeatedly not shown up for court after posting $250,000 bail.

US Customs and Border Protection agents fly eight Predator remote-controlled aircraft to patrol the American borders with Canada and Mexico, searching for smugglers and illegal immigrants.

But increasingly, the federal government and local police agencies are using those drones to spy criminal suspects in America with sophisticated high-resolution cameras, heat sensors and radar. All of it comes without a warrant.

Story continues.....

[Icymudpuppy]

Well, if you're going to be anti-government, you should learn to be neighborly. Cattle get out sometimes, and the neighborly thing to do is to return them. While I don't agree with the use of predator drones, I certainly do not condone theft of valuable property. Live cattle are worth about $1000/head. That makes them thiefs of $6000 worth of property. Enough for an average american's paycheck for two months.

[KCIndy]

A few thoughts from the story:


Local authorities say the Brossarts are known for being armed, anti-government separatists whose sprawling farm is used as a compound. Rodney Brossart, 55, and his wife Susan live in a house and a trailer and two RVs with seven of their eight adult children.

A compound? A farmhouse with a couple of trailers now counts as a "compound" in the view of the so-called authorities? Welcome to the age of Newspeak.


US Customs and Border Protection agents fly eight Predator remote-controlled aircraft to patrol the American borders with Canada and Mexico, searching for smugglers and illegal immigrants.

But increasingly, the federal government and local police agencies are using those drones to spy criminal suspects in America with sophisticated high-resolution cameras, heat sensors and radar. All of it comes without a warrant.

Eight Predators, huh? I wonder if this counts - or likely does NOT count - the ones the local cops are "borrowing" from the military?


Another article about the same basic subject was published by the LA Times:
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-drone-arrest-20111211,0,324348.story

The Times article raises even more questions:


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.

So it sounds like this is going on all the time. And if it's going on all the time in the North Dakota area, it's going on EVERYWHERE.


...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, said no one ever discussed using Predators to help local police serve warrants or do other basic work.

Gasp! You mean to say that the government was given an inch, and took a mile? I'm shocked. Deeply, deeply shocked. :rolleyes: Actually, what does shock me is that there are STILL those who trust the government to do the right thing and not go power crazy when given the chance.


Proponents say the high-resolution cameras, heat sensors and sophisticated radar on the border protection drones can help track criminal activity in the United States, just as the CIA uses Predators and other drones to spy on militants in Pakistan, nuclear sites in Iran and other targets around the globe.

So, let me see if I can understand the reasoning here by the "proponents" of this disaster: Since it's okay to use it on our enemies on the battlefield, it's okay to use it on a population of largely law-abiding citizens? HUH? I suppose if this were WWII, these same folks would want to start using flamethrowers to combat the mafia, since flamethowers worked great in the campaigns of the South Pacific.... jeez.

If we don't get Ron Paul into office, we will lose this country. And I'm beginning to wonder if even electing Ron Paul is going to be enough.

:mad:

[KCIndy]

Well, if you're going to be anti-government, you should learn to be neighborly. Cattle get out sometimes, and the neighborly thing to do is to return them. While I don't agree with the use of predator drones, I certainly do not condone theft of valuable property. Live cattle are worth about $1000/head. That makes them thiefs of $6000 worth of property. Enough for an average american's paycheck for two months.


I agree with you completely on the cattle. That's Grand Theft in any jurisdiction. Very likely this inbred little family are a bunch of trashy lowlifes who have alienated everyone living near them. I have no sympathy for thieves and rustlers at any rate.

What bothers me is how fast local law enforcement turned to to the Feds and the military for their solution, and how happy the Feds were to use their little $150 million taxpayer paid toy to set new legal and law enforcement precedents. This was done, very likely, at the cost of freedoms, rights, and civil liberties for the rest of us. So much for posse comitatus, at any rate.

[QuickZ06]

All they are doing is easing these into the community. Soon they will mount every gun they can on these, spraying some kids smoking pot in there parents basement.