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Mysterious New Jersey drone sightings prompt call for 'state of emergency'

theguardian.com

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Re: Mysterious New Jersey drone sightings prompt call for 'state of emergency'

#701

Post by kjkjadksj »

unsupp0rted wrote: post #669
jerf wrote: post #649

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The military theory doesn't fit to me on the grounds that at this point they should be just admitting it. They're calling more attention to the drones than they would if they would just say "yup, those are ours". You don't hide things by parading them around in front of people. They've got all sorts of places to secretly fly things and all the permits they need to create whatever RF environment they want in the proce…

The next question after "yup those are ours" is "then why are they there", and they might not wish to answer that one.

“Training exercise” case closed if they wanted to end it right there.

Re: Mysterious New Jersey drone sightings prompt call for 'state of emergency'

#702

Post by Loughla »

zelon88 wrote: post #695
hiatus wrote: post #615

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If history is any indication it will be local police responding to shots fired. Many municipalities in NJ do not allow the discharge of a firearm within town limits. Morris Township has such a law in their code as well.

I wonder where the threshold is for claiming self defense against a drone? Does the Castle Doctrine apply to non-human assailants?

More like - does the castle doctrine apply to defending yourself against someone not actually trying to enter your castle.

It would be like shooting someone for taking pictures of your house from the street.

I'm relatively certain law enforcement would have opinions about that.

Re: Mysterious New Jersey drone sightings prompt call for 'state of emergency'

#703

Post by tummler »

There are people in the government who know exactly what these are, and why they are not threatening. I assume the vague non-response is because if they reveal this information, the very next question is “how do you know this”? And the answer to that question involves revelations that could very possibly lead to upheaval and civil unrest.

In short, they’re at a total loss on how to respond to this phenomenon, because the answer opens a big ol’ can of worms, or Pandora’s Box, or pick your metaphor.

FWIW, the “drones” (they’re not drones though some present as such) are the opposite of a threat. They’re here to help, if they’d be allowed to. Can’t wait to hear the justification for why they haven’t been allowed to. grabs popcorn

Re: Mysterious New Jersey drone sightings prompt call for 'state of emergency'

#704

Post by dgfitz »

nradov wrote: post #699
dgfitz wrote: post #616

Late to the thread so this will probably get buried. My spouse and I have seen these things flying for __years__ around the northern Baltimore area. They even had patterns. Recently, we have been hearing what sound like Apache helicopters at around the same time at night. This video in this article: https://apnews.com/article/fbi-drones-new-jersey-a978470fa3b... Is 100% __identical__ to what we have been seeing for l…

AH-64 Apache helicopters sound similar to most every other turbine engine helicopter. I doubt that you could distinguish between them, especially not at any distance.

> I doubt that you could distinguish between them

Do you think that is is possible that someone can? Just not me? Or literally impossible? I would also encourage you not to make assumptions about the background of a random person on the internet.

> especially not at any distance

They fly over our home.

Re: Mysterious New Jersey drone sightings prompt call for 'state of emergency'

#705

Post by lupusreal »

pjc50 wrote: post #657
jerf wrote: post #644

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The real story here is the apparent... and I use this term very, very deliberately... fecklessness of all the relevant authorities. Apparently... again, a deliberate choice... nobody has the authority to figure out what is going on, or nobody has the motivation, or nobody has the technical capability, or something like that. I'm not sure what the problem is, exactly, and that is in some sense now the dominant problem…

> nobody has the authority to figure out what is going on, or nobody has the motivation, or nobody has the technical capability Well .. SNAFU? This is basically what I'd expect. In these kind of cases there's a steady stream of crank reports from the public which are 100% false positives. The authorities will have a process for routing all the UFO reports to someone who sends out form letters and otherwise ignores th…

Foreign drones must be above aliens (but no higher I think.) Foreign drones are known to exist, while aliens are just speculative science fiction.

Re: Mysterious New Jersey drone sightings prompt call for 'state of emergency'

#706

Post by fasa99 »

rjrdi38dbbdb wrote: post #537
selfmodruntime wrote: post #526

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> How can anyone know these aren't a threat without knowing whose they are They are - obviously - lying. This screams secrecy to me. All 3 know that these drones are not a threat. They aren't US military because they are a 3 letter agency program. They know there's nothing to worry about it, but they won't tell you any more details. Which has been the modus operandi for secret services for decades, so I'm surprised i…

I think what's so surprising is that they would run a secretive program in such a conspicuous manner, not that the secretive program exists.

Exactly. That's what I think it is, government secrecy as their standard operating procedure. When unsure, don't say anything. After all, disclosing the public includes adversaries also knowing.

It seems to me what's happening is a "Streisand Effect" where the whole attitude of "go away, nothing to see here" is in fact maximizing attention and defeating the purpose of hiding this away.

If it were me I'd put a band-aid on a drone, fly it to a person, and say, "we are testing military capabilities to render first aid to our soldiers" or something similar. It's not a lie, it's good optics, adversaries can worry about it... then put whatever it is on ice for a while until the heat dies down

Re: Mysterious New Jersey drone sightings prompt call for 'state of emergency'

#707

Post by btbuildem »

Honestly, this looks like a some kind of a training exercise, probably a contractor working with the DOD or another acronym agency. From the videos, they're definitely quadcopter drones, definitely larger than most hobby drones (and def above the size you need to file a flight plan with the FAA). What's puzzling to me is that they run with all lights on, at night -- as if being seen was a goal.

I imagine part of a training exercise could be to learn how local authorities respond to such aircraft activity. If you see what the Ukrainians have been able to accomplish using this type of tech (with a lot of cottage-industry DIY-type contributions) in an active theatre of war, it should give you pause.

Re: Mysterious New Jersey drone sightings prompt call for 'state of emergency'

#708

Post by zelon88 »

Loughla wrote: post #702
zelon88 wrote: post #695

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder where the threshold is for claiming self defense against a drone? Does the Castle Doctrine apply to non-human assailants?

More like - does the castle doctrine apply to defending yourself against someone not actually trying to enter your castle. It would be like shooting someone for taking pictures of your house from the street. I'm relatively certain law enforcement would have opinions about that.

I don't think you understand. It sounds like you think I'm talking about defending youself against a human. I am not.

If a drone is trying to gain access to your home, do you have the right to defend against it using deadly force? Meaning; Force that would be deadly to a human attacker.

Re: Mysterious New Jersey drone sightings prompt call for 'state of emergency'

#709

Post by AdamJacobMuller »

shagie wrote: post #681
wholinator2 wrote: post #628

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

The FAA classifies drones as aircraft. https://www.faa.gov/Air_traffic/Publications/atpubs/aim_html... Damaging an aircraft is considered criminal aircraft sabotage under 18 U.S.C. 32 https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/32 https://www.justice.gov/archives/jm/criminal-resource-manual... There is nothing in there about if the aircraft is legally or illegally operated. https://dronedj.com/2024/06/30/florida-walma…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E54YtvmRKAM
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