Connecticut is a state that mingles progress with sometimes crazy notions. The current mulling over whether to allow police to use drones armed with Deadly Weapons will hopefully end up in the crazy pile. Drones themselves, like driverless cars, are questionable. The idea of unleashing weaponized drones over the Connecticut landscape is beyond shaking your head and saying no. It is more in the realm of, "What are we coming to?"
Protests
Fortunately, Connecticut has some vigorous civil liberties and civil rights advocates. As legislators mull, advocates engage in protest.
Scot X. Esdaile, head of Connecticut's chapter of the NAACP says, “We have huge concerns that they would use this new technology to abuse our communities.” Esdaile says. “We’re not in warfare here,” David McGuire, head of the Connecticut ACLU told CBS New York.
Defense
The defense is predictable. On the good side is a fairly civil-liberties friendly set of provisions that will mean you need a warrant to go off into the wild blue yonder and inflict lethal damage. In fact, the example provided by one defender of the tactic was that an armed drone might be called on to shoot a tire. There were others who thought that the ordinary police inclination might be to shoot to kill. The upshot is that the defense is not exactly airtight.
Permitting police to use drones with deadly weapons mulled in one state https://t.co/4RdSp8POAK
— Stephen C. Rose (@stephencrose) March 31, 2017
The very idea
Unfortunately if one gets too far into this story one gets the impression that it is only a matter of time before the states gravitate toward allowing police to use drones, whether with stringent or lax regulation.
It might be better to step back and ask the same question that can be easily answered when it comes to guns. If drones are for police who is to say that anyone so inclined could not weaponize a drone and wreak havoc regardless of the consequences.
Technology is great if its aim is to reduce harm
The simple universal ethic that should obtain is that all harm is an evil and that preventing harm is the basis of all that is good.
One might cite a case in which a weaponized drone might be a true hero, good and a credit to humankind. But weaponizing drones is too compelling an idea not to lead to more harm than good, even if police follow a narrow legal permit to the letter. The more control we lose out there the less control we have within ourselves.
