WON’T SOMEBODY PLEASE THINK OF THE WINDOWS
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WAY cheaper than a helicopter filled with people operating for the same period of time, point of fact. That, in fact, is exactly why drones are used: lower cost and zero risk to the operator(s), combined with extreme time-on-station.
Sorry, I still can’t agree.
Yes, fuzzing or obscuring the true capabilities of any in-use equipment is pretty much de rigueur in this type of situation. You’re likely seeing the navigation feed in those cases, which is nowhere near the same as the feed from w/e instrument package is equipped.
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I wasn’t comparing cost, I was addressing you saying it was cheap. It’s not.
There’s also no evidence this is being used for “fire spotting” or anything other than identifying and tracking citizens since that is the actual use case the Predator was designed for, not speculation. I would bet dollars to doughnuts that the Minneapolis FD has drones for just the sort of thing you’re speculating about.
The link in the post lays out the tremendous array of surveillance equipment this machine was almost certainly brought in to augment. Now the governor is saying that 80% of protestors aren’t from Minnesota. Sure sounds like surveillance for tracking.
You seem to be missing the core point. In no way is this the cheapest, most effective machine to use and Occam’s Razor says that the probability of deployment was not, in any way, benign.
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all skies are our skies. 
just depends on your measure of our 
( but, yeah. indeed. )
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Flying that damned drone over these cities is nothing but Trump the Unfit and his minions attempting to intimidate Minnesota protesters.
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while i get that you want that, if you pull back and look at the big picture: if you judge property damage against the continual murder, violence, and looting directed at people with black skin… property damage - to me - just doesn’t seem to rank that high.
where was the outrage, where was the justice system and our government, where was the national guard when violent act after violent act was perpetrated by the police, by the banks, and wall street?
you don’t get to decide what is genuine or not. people are genuinely fed up. they want america to stop the death and injustice.
protestors are people. all with differing opinions on tactics and action. after years, lifetimes, of things not getting better - there are people who genuinely feel like this is the only way to get noticed and the only way to force the nation to correct itself.
if you don’t want property damage and the looting of stores, then give people a reason to believe the system is working honestly and fairly for them
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(post withdrawn by author, will be automatically deleted in 12 hours unless flagged)
That number definitely deserves an exclamation point – as point of comparison, the Twin Cities have 9000 hotel rooms total. When you have a moment could you post a link to the article that discusses it?
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That doesn’t make any sense. Traffic at your airport is about 4-5,000 people a day now. Hundreds of flights have been canceled. That’s like saying that every single person in Duluth went there today.
75,000 people came in from other states when they’re having demonstrations in their own states - that people are saying are filled with outside agitators too? That’s some serious cop math.
These are all people in our own cities- we own them.
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Look at all those people from other places coming to Philadelphia!
Nah - it’s us.
Edit - now four police cars set on fire. Couple blocks from me.
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Come on. It would be grossly irresponsible to spread panic-mongering and unfounded rumours in the midst of a national crisis. I’m sure a reputable source for the figure is forthcoming.
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The rally we were just at read off the names of about 100 or so victims. It was incredibly powerful.
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Sorry man, I should have thrown the /s flag. I was being sarcastic. I remember when Rand Paul fillibustered for 13 hrs and was ranting and raving about how it was just a matter of time before this crap was used on us.
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I worked on integrating crop sensing optics onto Cesna Caravans more than 25 years ago and the images we were getting were much sharper then.
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The expressway is closed.
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Sorry, but there’s no “us” when it comes to Rand Paul and anyone I know and love. I have several good friends who are libertarians and they’ve all disowned him. He’s just the same white supremacy in a slightly different flavor than the rest of the GOP.
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