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xxdr_zombiexx

Army recon drone spots smokers
From AFP | The Australian | June 14, 2004

ZEALOUS Swiss soldiers called the police when the infra-red camera of a pilotless spy aircraft they were testing showed an image of two civilians smoking cannabis.

The newspaper Le Matin Dimanche said police turned out with screaming sirens and arrested the smokers after they were tipped off to the incident near the central city of Lucerne late last month.

The army had been giving a trial run to one of its seven drones, pilotless planes equipped with cameras and normally used to spy on enemy troops, when they observed the scene, the paper said.

[zombienote: Since when are marijuana smokers anything but the enemy?]

The incident caused a Socialist member of parliament to make a protest statement, noting that citizens were not supposed to be spied on from the air without their knowledge.

[zombienote: Aww... if you "advise" them then it's not spying, and you spoil all the fun...]

In reply, Defence Minister Samuel Schmid said that the drones "are not made to spy on citizens", and did not have sufficiently precise cameras to identify an individual.

However he also defended the soldiers' action. "When one is serving one's country, one is also a citizen, and a citizen has a duty to denounce whatever seems abnormal," he told parliament, according to the report.

[zombienote: Think about that for a few minutes....]

The paper said the soldiers had called the police after observing "a car and two individuals, apparently very agitated."

Although smoking cannabis is illegal in Switzerland, a survey published in 2000 found that six out of 10 people aged between 20 and 24 admitted to having partaken at least once.

The newspaper said the Swiss army had seven drones that were acquired from Israel in 1995. The craft fly at altitudes of between 300m and 900m.

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Kannibal

...showed an image of two civilians smoking cannabis.

and then...

In reply, Defence Minister Samuel Schmid said that the drones "are not made to spy on citizens", and did not have sufficiently precise cameras to identify an individual.


Precise enough to show 2 civilians smoking some weed though? That's pretty amazing imho.

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Hiz Highness

Nice to see military technology being put to good use. I guess we should be grateful it wasn't an armed drone. Afterall, maybe the Swiss citiznes also have a responsibility to obliterate anything that seems abnormal as well.

-HH

Greenbud

How did they know that the individuals were smoking pot and not tobacco? How can infra-red distinguish between the two? That's absurd. What are they going to do now, start making flybys of people in their homes and bust them for anything "unusual"? Parlament says citizens aren't supposed to be spied on from the air without their knowledge, but it looks like they made an exception here. I guess if they have "just cause" to protect the public from "dangerous pot smokers", the military can do whatever they want.

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StewScum

Its the ultimate big brother fellas, now there wont have to be police driving around neiborhoods there are going to be these spy drowns with camaras that can see people doing things wrong. Welcome to the future, where our civil liberties are going to be quashed and the goverment is going to do what they think is best. These drones kind of have the makings of a sci-fi movie, but instead of them looking for real criminals, like people breaking into houses or a girl getting raped in an ally, they will use it for drug use. If this was a test, then the army had no buisness calling the cops, that would be the worst way to get caught. I wonder what it was like to be one of those guys chiefing on the highway and seeing a UFO and then getting pulled over by cops for weed.

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denoffour

is that Switzerland is a neutral country. When is the last time they have been involved in a national conflict requiring 7 spy drones? Who is this enemy that they plan on spying upon? I hope the Swiss realize that what was called a test may be a new policy for watching their own populace. By the way, I wonder how many of these planes and satellites the U.S. (my country) employs for domestic "tests"?

Srvflunky420

The paper said the soldiers had called the police after observing "a car and two individuals, apparently very agitated."

So they saw people very agitated and decided they were smoking pot? ....ok and since they didnt have percise enough cameras how could they know they were doing anything wrong at all? Damn nazi swiss

DaDornta

I doubt they could identify by sight alone the diffrence between MJ and tobacco. They probably were coughing a lot, and smoking a roach to a joint. The infared shouldn't be able to distinguish between pot and cigarette smoke.

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xxdr_zombiexx

DEFENSE MINISTER.....ie: LIAR.

That's their job. Lie to people.

For the good of the country and mankind, of course......

SevenLeafs

So they were two vey agitated individuals in a car smoking.... I guess that I'll have to report many marijuana-related crimes in the following days, because this brings to me information I never considered before.

I have seen many agitated, smoking individuals in many cars, guess I didn't even consider that they could be marijuana-smoking criminals, next time let us know that we should report anything similar, so you (LEOs and Military) don't have to rely on costly "spy drones" to do the work.

As usual, I think there's a lot more behind that call that the soldiers made to the police. Maybe they had something to do with this "enemy" the drones were supposed to spy on?, or who knows, maybe the soldiers who saw these 2 individuals had a grudge against them and knew they smoked and wanted them to have a bad time?

You see, as many of you have pointed out, many things in this situation are subject to speculation, but I don't know if the lawyer(s) of the "2 individuals" has noticed this (although I am pretty certain that it may have crossed his/her/(their) mind(s)). Any sensible person should realize that the simple observation of "a car and two individuals, apparently very agitated" isn't enough to call in the police so, how could the police respond to this call?

Most of the times one calls the police, many questions are asked about what you are allegating. "Two individuals in a car smoking and agitated" may be subject to questions like "are they just sitting there, or are they performing any illegal activity?", and in the case that the caller says that they are smoking marijuana, I'm sure the officer must first ask if the person knows what marijuana is, what it smells like, how it is consumed, etc., etc.

But I guess the simple fact that "soldiers who had used a spy plane" were the ones who had made the call merits enough "evidence" or confidence to run out and arrest to people who were just minding their own business and chillin' for a while...

Peace.7L

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