Forum Post: I Love the Smell of Fascism in the Morning

Armed Drones Have No Place In America. We are not terrorists. We're Americans and we have rights.

We have unfortunately sometimes seen our overseas battlefields bleed across our own borders. As part of the debate over the National Defense Authorization Act and indefinite detention, for example, we already witnessed a willingness by Congress to move the battlefield in the war on terror into our own backyards. Importing weaponized drones to the domestic context would be the latest and arguably most extreme example of the militarization of our police. This trend, fueled in part by companies seeking domestic markets for weapons of war, has already led to many tragic abuses.

From their controversial deployment for targeted killings and other uses abroad, we know that armed drones are incredibly powerful and dangerous weapons. When domestic law enforcement officers can use force from a distance, it may become too easy for them to do so. When it becomes easier to do surveillance, surveillance is used more, and when it becomes easier to use force, force will be used more. We have seen this dynamic with “less lethal” weapons such as Tasers; since 2001, over 500 people in the United States have died after being tased, according to Amnesty International, and Tasers are often used in clearly unnecessary situations—for example, in retaliation against nonviolent people who have angered a police officer. Drones may also be more likely to result in harm to innocent bystanders.

As we have documented extensively, the most urgent threat that domestic drones pose at this time is as instruments of mass surveillance and other invasions of privacy. - ACLU

http://www.aclu.org/blog/technology-and-liberty-free-speech-national-security/ban-arming-domestic-drones