Shares

By Davey D
Source: Hip Hop and Politics

There are three things all of us should be concerned about w/ this Christopher Dorner saga.. First they are now using drones to hunt this man down.. On the surface that seems like no big deal, but because they are hunting for a ‘cop killer‘ who has stated via his manifesto that he has more in his sights, the police will equip drones with technology and use procedures that up till now are not allowed.

No I don’t think they will ‘shoot’ him from the sky.. But drones can be equipped with very intrusive snooping tools totally violate or constitutional and civil rights… Drones can be equipped to do everything from see behind walls to intercepting emails, text message etc.. Up til now the fight has been to limit law enforcement to use drones for search and rescue type operations.. They want search warrants and other legal documents to be in place before police use them…

But now the country’s second largest police department, LAPD can go all out testing and setting a precedent on using drones on American soil..bypassing the fight against them and current limits placed on them..In the search for Dorner, how much of our privacy will be violated? What sort of record keeping will be done on any of us?  The justification process has already started with media and law enforcement now dubbing Dorner as a ‘domestic terrorist‘…If he’s a terrorist does that allow the indefinite detention provisions of NDAANational Defense Authorization Act of 2013 kick in? Can people who are suspected of being in association or sympathizing with Dorner now subjected to provisions in NDAA or other anti-terrorist laws?

Adding to this climate are recent remarks from LA mayor Antonio Villaraigosa have him framing Dorner as someone who is has a reign of terror over the people of LA.. Are the people of LA in trouble or LAPD? Does the average person walking down the street need to fear Dorner? Is he going after them or LAPD?

As far as we know LAPD has 50 security units guarding family of officers mentioned in Dorner’sonline uncensored manifesto and they have safe houses in place..I wont begrudge police the right to protect themselves from danger, but let’s be crystal clear, if everyone is under a reign of terror as suggested by LA’s mayor, what protections do we have in place? … Heck,  lets move beyond Dorner to everyday scenarios…If any of us was threatened because we stood up to the neighborhood criminal/thug as we are told to do by police would be no such protections or bright spotlights in place? Would they launch a thousand person manhunt to bring about justice as they are doing now? hell in many of the departments here in Cali, we are being told some crimes will not be investigated including burgalries

Second thing we should be concerned about is this move to do people in without a trial or due process. We see this playing out in the world court with Obama’s drone policies. Many of us have cheered and gone along with justifying it even to this date.. We now see it translating down on domestic/ local levels.. The shooting of the 2 women by LAPD and the man by Torrance PD was police shooting to kill, not follow the law.. It was shoot to kill and not bring Dorner before the courts, a right all of us no matter how despicable our actions, have a right to.. We should not get used to such draconian policies because with a few slight twists and turns one of us may suddenly find ourselves at the receiving end of this type of action which is now moving in the direction of policy..

Read the rest of the article here