Send In The Drones: Obama Spies On America

News the EPA is conducting surveillance on farmers goes against our grain. Freedom means freedom of movement and the presumption of innocence. How can we have it if every move is monitored by government? America is awash in surveillance cameras, from red-light cameras at intersections to cameras in and outside businesses. For the most part, we tolerate their intrusiveness if the pictures are triggered by actual lawbreakers or are in a public place for legitimate security purposes where the expectation of privacy does not exist. But a drone flying over farmer Jones' farmhouse seems a stretch that sets a dangerous precedent. A federal policy promotes the use of drones by local law enforcement, and drone manufacturers are now pushing their products to the nation's 18,000 police jurisdictions. This raises the question of whether drones will be allowed to capture information normally requiring a search warrant authorized by a judge? Syndicated columnist and IBD contributor Charles Krauthammer calls drones instruments of war suited for war. They should not be used domestically, he says. He notes that you can hear a police helicopter but not a drone over your house, and argues that "the first guy who uses a Second Amendment weapon to bring a drone down that's been hovering over his house is going to be a folk hero in this country."...more