Pre-Crime Eye-in-the-Sky, Now Privatized
Jackson, the capital of Mississippi, is now being patrolled by a surveillance helicopter complete with high-tech wizardry such as a zoom camera, insanely high-powered searchlight and an infrared camera, according to Jackson Free Press’s Adam Lynch. But the real story isn’t in Jackson’s pretension to being a big city and wanting to use infrared cameras to illegally see into the homes of its citizens, its that the helicopter is mostly funded by private donations.
Even better, McCreery has volunteered that the helicopter will using its infrared camera to peer into houses, something that’s been ruled unconstitutional for police officers.
Now the city has signed on to provide $25,000 in startup costs and ongoing operating expense contributions. This strikes me as a supremely odd arrangement. There’s now a snooping helicopter that can zoom over and peer into Jacksonian’s houses, but its not clear who runs or owns the company.
From the original article:
“We’re certainly concerned about the neighborhood profiling and the violation of privacy rights,” Lambright said, explaining that many residents should be concerned over the high-altitude peeking, whether it was coming from the government or a private company like Metro One, LLC.
Think a citizen being ‘protected’ by the copter can complain about it? Ha! From a comment to the original article:
It’s past midnight as I write this comment, having been kept awake by the copter flying around and around downtown Jackson where I live. As I would have with any other nuisance being caused by a private vehicle, I called the Jackson Police Department to file a noise complaint. Unfortunately, when the officer arrived, he refused to take my complaint and threatened to arrest me. When I complained immediately afterward to his supervisor, I was told that the officer would be justified to arrest a citizen for making such a noise complaint.
Civil suit?
Golly, I sure hope none of those good-ole-boys shoot at it with high powered deer rifles.
Jackson, MS – the home of the free and the land of the brave.
Oh, America, I fear for what you are becoming.
#3. Have already become.
How many sleep deprived citizens will it take to touch off the long-overdue revolution?
It won’t be about tea, this time.
In the immortal words of Bruce Cockburn: “If I Had a Rocket Launcher …” Of course, he was singing about repression visited by helicopter in a tropical state, something totally different.
Steve Reno, that sounds like a bad movie trailer.
“This ain’t no tea party. This time, its personal” {cue overly dramatic music}
I dont want to hear any more tin-foil jokes. This shit is getting out of control.
As a twenty year veteran police officer I’m troubled by the privatization of police work that has been going on for awhile now. I’m basically a libertarian so a part of me is happy with government trying to save money. On the other hand, law enforcement should be handled by cops and not a private company. The people elect the government and the government hires the civil servants to do the government’s business. If one of the civil servants gets out of line the government (elected officials) is supposed to straighten that out. If they don’t then the people (us) can straighten out the government by putting in new office holders ( example: the U.S. Congress). When the government uses private contractors then it gets a little murky.
I’m also ashamed of the behavior of the Jackson cop who threatened to arrest a citizen for making a noise complaint. Hey, none of us were there and we have to take the writer’s word for it but if it happened it was wrong. Even if the guy was a complete jackass, the officer should have been a professional and let it go.
That mayor sounds like a complete nut.
The police can’t do anything. The correct agency to respond would be the FAA. There are regulations about flying over homes and pilots may lose their licenses for violations. The other, expensive route, would be a Federal Court injunction against the company operating the helicopter. In both cases, a video of the offense would help.
how long before somone shoots it down?
and will that person pull the race card when it happens (its mississippi after all)
“OCP can do a better job of keeping the citizens of New Detroit safe than the government any day!”
Hmmmmmmm……….
I can assure you I will go nucking futz if this happens in my home town.
Not that privatization is bad… but the LAST thing we need is a private “contractor” conducting criminal “law enforcement.”
Look at what the “oil cartel” has done with Iraq!
If I saw the thing I’d have a go at it with a shotgun.
jason – the exact same thing occurred to me.
That movie is turning out to be a more accurate take on what we’re in for than 1984…
and Connor, I’m with you, too. I’d blast the fucking thing to it’s component atoms.
We really need to keep a very, very close eye on any government official who has anything whatsoever to do with proposing, funding, approving or implementing this technofascistic nightmare.
#8 if you are a libertarian, you might want to read some of the libertarian oriented literature on the nature of police work and the fact that government-paid police work is a relatively recent phenomenon.
The problem isn’t private contractors, the problem is that we the people have granted privileges and the right to initiate force to some individuals. Private contracttors, in general, enjoy only the same rights and privileges as private citizens, but regardless of whether those individuals are private or public servants, we need to eliminate these special privileges and restore the right to defense against unwarranted intrusion.
Sorry, BHK, but with law enforcement, as is already being proven in healthcare, introducing the profit motive will inevitably lead to inhumane and abusive treatment – because respecting human rights, the Constitution and suchlike imposes too much overhead and erodes profits.
In light of this blog entry: ev’body should go watch the Robocop movies again. They’ll give you considerably more to think about this time around. They’ll sure seem a lot less like SF…
That sound you hear is Philip K. Dick spinning up outta his grave @ 7200RPM, saying “I told you so!”
Just vote out the assholes that approved it.
Oh yeah, they rig the elections over there don’t they?
Don’t you boys know how to go hi-tech skeet shootin >