The worst small town police force in America tried to block the media from their Nazi fetish party? Big surprise.
How big is drone/quadcopter use for aerial shots in such reporting? Has law enforcement shot any down yet?
The problem is that they wanted to and the feds let them.
It goes without saying that something is deeply rotten in Ferguson (heck, even if Brown had died in a shootout after taking down several officers and a few bystanders, the subsequent crowd control clusterfuck is more than damning enough); but the fact that the FAA didn’t tell them to shove off and die in a fire raises the stakes a bit.
If the US news media had any self-respect left, (a) they’d be all over this story and (b) they’d be putting together legal action.
IF they had any self respect. But they won’t…
You can go with anything small enough to carry a gopro cam. Those mainstream quads used everywhere these days will be more than good enough. Paint the bottom with sky-gray color, like some fighter planes are, and you lower the naked-eye visibility. Fly high enough, and use a narrow-angle lens (gopro mod needed here), and you can be out of sight but still get enough situational awareness. And with good radio and fpv, you can control the bird from significant distance, and even abandon the bird (assuming the footage is transmitted off) and run in case the cops are about to get you.
And, if using a smaller lighter-weight cam, you can go even smaller-lighter-cheaper. In fair weather, even a toy could do the job.
Think a personal spy drone - whether belonging to a person or to a small and still brave enough TV station. Because if the powerful get to make the rules, then fuck the rules.
I recall the TV news showing some quadcopter shots of the recent Hong Kong protests (no idea of they were ‘official’ or not). So it seems the concept is catching on.
The 808 camera seems to be popular with hobbyists…
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