Saturday, February 25, 2012

No Parking - Drone Strike Zone

No Parking - Drone Strike Zone

Now that we're past that emotional nonsense day Valentine's day, can we get on to bigger and better issues? Namely how government is seeping in more and more into your life. Take for example those unmanned predator drones.



Oh yeah, you thought they were a great idea at first. It means one less soldier in the field potentially dying. The flip side was that it made war and the act of killing an enemy nothing more than the action and repercussion that you would get from killing someone on Xbox or PS3.

That's the sad truth of it. The further you extend yourself away from being right there in front of a man you just shot, the less of a person you become and that kill becomes even less meaningful. It just makes the life of others feel like some computer game and that's really tragic. Not to mention that the rate of kills on those predator drones is about 1 terrorist for every 15 civilians that are killed by a drone strike.



So perhaps it's only fitting that drones have been approved to fly over our own nation. Gotta keep it on a tight leash, after all. Well, some people weren't looking forward to that idea and they decided to put up what you'll eventually see in the future... A Drone Strike Zone Warning Signs

Several weeks ago, a 28-year-old Army vet, who had worked with drones during two tours in Iraq and is now a radical art student in New York, came up with a creative act of protest to raise awareness around the growing use of drones domestically by police forces across the country.

In last week’s New Yorker, over the course of several nights, the veteran (who remains anonymous) and a few friends posted eleven unusual street signs around New York City, which is apparently investigating using drones as a law enforcement tool.

Designed to look exactly like official street signs, the fake NYPD signs had several different messages: “ATTENTION: Drone Activity in Progress,” or “ATTENTION: Local Statutes Enforced by Drones,” or “ATTENTION: Authorized Drone Strike Zone, 8am-8pm, Including Sunday.”

Near each sign, they also stenciled a quote from a Founding Father, such as a warning from Ben Franklin that seems particularly apropos: “They that can give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.”


And here I was hoping drones had achieved sentience and decided they couldn't handle being the tools of murder, so they just would go ahead and unionized or something.



I'm sure that everyone knew that these were pranks, right? There was no way 'drone strike zone' was ever a serious thing. I mean, domestic use of drones is very real, of course. And more than likely coming our way sooner rather than later, but a 'drone strike zone'? Yeah, perhaps I don't have my tin foil hat on too tightly tonight.

But then again, your average American will see agitprop drone strike zone posters and suddenly feel slightly safer none the wiser, but hey, if it makes you feel slightly safer and you're able to carry on with your day, then why not try them every now and then?



It is, after all, like some sort of robot cop. I mean, I know that name sounds so ridiculous. Like it'd be a movie or something. Robot..... Cop.... You know, they would call it Botcop or something, knowing Hollywood.

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