Growing Opposition as US Mulls Arming Domestic Drones

ACLU: Not Appropriate for Police to Have Attack Drones

The decision for the US to bring drones, still relative newcomers as tools of overseas assassination, to a part of everyday life in Everytown, USA has come quickly, with large numbers of agencies nationwide getting approval for the deployment of domestic spy drones.

Civil liberties groups were just starting to rally against the new and growing threat to privacy, and officials are now doubling down, with reports that some police agencies are considering arming their spy drones to attack people.

“It’s simply not appropriate to use any of force, lethal or non-lethal, on a drone,”  noted ACLU attorney Catherine Crump. She warned that people shouldn’t have to worry about being randomly tased in public when no police are present.

The Montgomery County, TX (which includes part of Houston) Sheriff’s Dept. is looking to be the first to arm their drones, and promised that they would only use them when “there is criminal activity afoot.”

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.