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First State Legalizes Taser Drones for Cops
Key Excerpts from Article on Website of The Daily Beast


The Daily Beast, August 26, 2015
Posted: August 30th, 2015
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/08/26/first-state...

It is now legal for law enforcement in North Dakota to fly drones armed with everything from Tasers to tear gas thanks to a last-minute push by a pro-police lobbyist. House Bill 1328 wasnt drafted that way. The bills stated intent was to require police to obtain a search warrant from a judge in order to use a drone to search for criminal evidence. In fact, the original draft of Representative Rick Beckers bill would have banned all weapons on police drones. Then Bruce Burkett of the North Dakota Peace Officers Association was allowed ... to amend HB 1328 and limit the prohibition only to lethal weapons. Less than lethal weapons like rubber bullets, pepper spray, tear gas, sound cannons, and Tasers are therefore permitted on police drones. Even less than lethal weapons can kill though. At least 39 people have been killed by police Tasers in 2015 so far. The Grand Forks County Sheriffs Department ... is hiding a full accounting of how many drone missions theyve flown since 2012. The FAA notes 401 drone operations performed by the Grand Forks County Sheriffs Department from 2012 to September 2014, while [County Sheriff Bob] Rost and [drone pilot Al] Frazier maintain just 21 missions have taken place. We dont make a practice of snooping on people, Rost said recently. However, Rosts statement was followed by an admission that the sheriff expects drones to be used in criminal investigations in the near future. Few noticed when HB 1328 passed with a clause allowing them to be armed.

Note: For more along these lines, read about the increasing militarization of police in the U.S. after 9/11. Also, see concise summaries of deeply revealing news articles about ""non-lethal weapons", or read about how sophisticated and deadly some of these weapons technologies can be.


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