It scares me. It describes a crime, but I don't think the crime being committed is the crime being described: A single light flickered on and off in a wildlife preserve where there is no electricity. It was spotted by a Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission (FWC) pilot overhead wearing night vision goggles. He alerted an officer on the ground, who approached the scene without headlights, switching instead to “sneak lights.†“Keep going, keep going,†pilot Joe Johnston told the officer. “Stop right there, Sam. Right out your window about 50 feet is a light that comes on every now and then.†About 20 minutes later the ground officer reported that a suspect was under arrest. It was a man recently released from prison who had hidden in the forest to smoke crack cocaine. The light came from the flame that flickered each time the rock was lit, lighting the car interior faintly, but easily spotted by Johnston at 7,500 feet. AOPA Online: Eyes above the forest
Yes, I find that disturbing. Not that I'm a crack smoker, or necessarily defending people who are, but the resources and technology wasted on some poor guy in the middle of nowhere, harming no one, is obscene. Surely we have more important things to do.
In Florida, that's a waste of resources. In Southern California, I could see the need for that, though, but only because that's exactly how those forest fires you read in the news all the time start.
i read only the segment you posted, but isn't it possible that the pilot though there could be something wrong, or that someone needed help? doesn't sound like it was necessarily someone going on a raid.
We paid $800,000 for a plane with big windows and good loiter time. One of the parts I like is that it has the same horsepower as a V-8 Ford. Right now we use it to, er, sneak up and catch deer hunters?? Over the top? Nah, nothin' wrong here.
I read the article, but I'm not disturbed by it. I got the impression that the main mission is to monitor wildlife areas and prevent poaching (maybe I'm wrong, but that is the impression I get). Finding a crack smoker in the middle of the forest was an incidental discovery to the main mission. The flickering light could have been a poacher, so they checked it out and found a crack smoker.
I agree, for years people have been thrown in jail for drug use when the user himself is the victim. And then to use High Technology smacks of 1984. It's time for America to wake up and start conserving in every direction. Every time I had Jury duty, charges were bought up on poor blacks for possesion, use, selling. I am talking about $10.00 worth of crack cocaine. What a waste of Judges, Jurys, Policemen, court reporters, guard officers, court administrative workers! And this is all over America! No wonder we are going broke!
