here's another dose of fascist tyranny in NJ

[Downtownv 1,782]

One US city is deploying a Chinese firm’s drones to police Americans who are not social distancing

April 19, 2020 | BPR Wire | Print Article

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Chris White, DCNF

• Elizabeth, New Jersey Mayor J. Christian Bollwage is deploying a Chinese company’s drones to help police people who violate social distancing mandates. 
• The drones will help police officers enact fines as high as $1,000 on people who are not keeping their distance amid a global pandemic that has killed tens of thousands in the United States.
• Immigration and Customs Enforcement warned in 2017 that the drones are collecting information on crucial U.S. infrastructure and the U.S. Army has banned their use.

Elizabeth, New Jersey, is using a Chinese company’s drones to police citizens who fail to employ social distancing guidelines. Past reports suggest the drones are feeding China data.

Elizabeth Mayor J. Christian Bollwage is deploying drones from Chinese-based company DJI to warn Elizabeth citizens who are walking outdoors not to get too close in physical proximity to other people. The drones blare sirens and issue this warning: “Stop gathering, disperse and go home.”

Bollwage is dismissing critics of his approach.

“If these drones save one life, it is clearly worth the activity and the information that the drones are sending,” the mayor said Friday in an MSNBC interview.

New Jersey is considered a coronavirus hotspot — more than 3,000 in the state have died from the virus, which originated in Wuhan, China, before skipping across the globe and landing in the United States, where it has killed more than 30,000 people. The drones might not be benign.

 

Past reports suggest DJI poses a substantial security threat to U.S. infrastructure.

A 2017 memo from the Los Angeles office of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement bureau said officials had “moderate confidence” that DJI’s commercial drones are giving critical U.S. “infrastructure and law enforcement data to the Chinese government.”

The memo cited first- and second-hand anonymous sources inside the drone industry. ICE has not responded to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment about the memo, which was initially reported in November 2017 by The New York Times.

The memo also stated that officials had “high confidence the company is selectively targeting government and privately owned entities within these sectors to expand its ability to collect and exploit sensitive U.S. data.” The U.S. Army banned the use of all DJI drones in 2017, citing “cyber vulnerabilities.”

DJI is dismissing ICE’s claims and said the company gives full control over the drones to the users.

 

“We debunked the claims in the NYT article a long time ago. We hired a firm to investigate the claims. If you want to share the data, then you can. But if you want to keep it to yourself, then you can.” Adam Lisberg, corporate communications director for DJI, told the DCNF. “DJIs don’t perform facial recognition, period.”

DJI’s app offers an automatic function to store data, which can be turned off if the user dives into a series of settings.

DJI donated drones to 43 agencies in 22 states to help enforce social distancing, MSNBC reported. The donations are part of DJI’s “COVID-19 US Disaster Relief Program,” which provides cities access to the drones for the purpose of surveilling populations during the pandemic. 

Elizabeth City Policy is also trying to provide more context to the drone’s usage.

“All its [sic] doing is spreading an automated notice about social distance. No recording or pictures are taken, just a tool of encouragement to follow the rules,” the Elizabeth City Police Department noted in an April 8 tweet.

 

The tweet came after the police department wrote a Facebook post the same day that contained a more dire warning.

“These drones will be around the City with an automated message from the Mayor telling you to STOP gathering, disperse and go home,” the post noted before issuing a warning that violating the policies subjects them to potential $1,000 fines. “You have been advised.”

Elizabeth City Hall spokesperson Ruby Contreras told the DCNF that officers “are not directed to fly over private property,” and that police officers “will give a summons” if people do not heed a drone’s warnings. The technology does not collect facial recognition data from people they warn, she added.

 

China is employing similar techniques to get ahead of the pandemic. Many of China’s roughly 300 million surveillance cameras contain facial recognition technology, Sophie Richardson, the China director at Human Rights Watch, told The Wall Street Journal in March.

The cameras give authorities the ability “to track who specifically has gone to which precise location,” Richardson said. “It’s another way for the government to gather large amounts of information about people, really, without their consent, and in some cases, without their knowledge.”

 

 

[Handyman 5,682]

Yeah, this is a little Orwellian. If I had a chance to take a shot at one of these, it would be hard to resist. 

[Downtownv 1,782]

In Elizabeth they could use this to capture the illegal aliens (90%) but no, they want to capture real citizens.

NAZI'S

[voyager9 3,440]

DJI is the most popular maker of drones. It’s like saying “government uses computers made in China” because they have Intel chips. 

[Downtownv 1,782]

Just now, voyager9 said:

DJI is the most popular maker of drones. It’s like saying “government uses computers made in China” because they have Intel chips. 

So you're ok with Elizabeth doing this?

 

[voyager9 3,440]

1 minute ago, Downtownv said:

So you're ok with Elizabeth doing this?

 

I never said that. But that’s more a matter of what they’re using the drones for, not the fact that the drones come from China as the headline claims 

[Downtownv 1,782]

4 minutes ago, voyager9 said:

I never said that. But that’s more a matter of what they’re using the drones for, not the fact that the drones come from China as the headline claims 

ok I thought that was the gist of the article, the Nazi's of Elizabeth. That the government AND the Police for doing it.

The cops don't get a pass here.

[voyager9 3,440]

8 minutes ago, Downtownv said:

ok I thought that was the gist of the article, the Nazi's of Elizabeth. That the government AND the Police for doing it.

The cops don't get a pass here.

So they’re using drones to fly around and play an automated message.  They also say no pictures or video are recorded, which could be disingenuous since most DJI (if they have the camera) record.  The geek in me is curious what they added to the stock drone to make any audio message heard over the props at any reasonable distance.

  It seems pretty worthless if it’s just flying around playing audio.  To be beneficial for what Elizabeth claims it would need to monitor and alert uniformed officers on the ground to break up gatherings.  

[Downtownv 1,782]

8 minutes ago, voyager9 said:

So they’re using drones to fly around and play an automated message.  They also say no pictures or video are recorded, which could be disingenuous since most DJI (if they have the camera) record. 

And you don't believe that, do you?

[voyager9 3,440]

21 minutes ago, Downtownv said:

And you don't believe that, do you?

Disingenuous

[Zeke 5,504]

9 minutes ago, voyager9 said:

Disingenuous

A walk in the woods was a great audiobook!

[Handyman 5,682]

If you popped one of these center of mass with a .22, what are the chances they could find you?

[father-of-three 243]

20 minutes ago, Handyman said:

If you popped one of these center of mass with a .22, what are the chances they could find you?

It may depend on how many are popped in a particular area...

[Tunaman 560]

Slingshot would be fun as hell...

[10X 3,310]

I fully expect our fascist governor to arm these.

[matty 810]

facist? Someone's face? Not sure what the issue is here?

[10X 3,310]

37 minutes ago, matty said:

facist? Someone's face? Not sure what the issue is here?

I don’t care to have the government tracking me with drones.  Not using them to generate revenue with $1000 fines, and not using drones with known security holes-conveniently donated by the Chinese manufacturer 

Not for nothing, the Newark airport class Bravo airspace goes right down to ground level at Elizabeth, so drones cannot be flown legally there. So I also don’t like the Elizabeth mayor ignoring federal law in order to have his little private for-profit Air Force.

[Displaced Texan 11,768]

1 hour ago, Handyman said:

If you popped one of these center of mass with a .22, what are the chances they could find you?

Anti-drone drone??? 
 

Sounds like a fun project....

[Heavyopp 167]

5 hours ago, voyager9 said:

So they’re using drones to fly around and play an automated message.  They also say no pictures or video are recorded, which could be disingenuous since most DJI (if they have the camera) record.  The geek in me is curious what they added to the stock drone to make any audio message heard over the props at any reasonable distance.

  It seems pretty worthless if it’s just flying around playing audio.  To be beneficial for what Elizabeth claims it would need to monitor and alert uniformed officers on the ground to break up gatherings.  

They are probably using DJI enterprise drones — the enterprize can be fitted with a speaker or a light — one version of the Enterprise has a low quality IR camera

[Zeke 5,504]

1 hour ago, Displaced Texan said:

Anti-drone drone??? 
 

Sounds like a fun project....

Shot gun? Mike Rowe 

[voyager9 3,440]

LMADIS should do the trick. 

[CAL. .30 M1 2,101]

Its a target rich environment !!!

 

 

[Zeke 5,504]

1 hour ago, voyager9 said:

LMADIS should do the trick. 

Wtf! No boom boom bang bang?

[Cheflife15 455]

With the amount of issues in elizabeth i feel those drones could be put to better use. 

Is this legal? I mean didnt they remove red light cameras cause they were unconstitutional in nj. Does this notify a cop to write the ticket?

[Zeke 5,504]

9 minutes ago, Cheflife15 said:

With the amount of issues in elizabeth i feel those drones could be put to better use. 

Is this legal? I mean didnt they remove red light cameras cause they were unconstitutional in nj. Does this notify a cop to write the ticket?

Idk, the girls gone wild in public kinda set a precedent for” public filming “

[Sota 1,191]

happy hunting!

[Zeke 5,504]

4 minutes ago, Sota said:

happy hunting!

I’m betcha I’ll get 2x as many as @Ray Ray. I’ve seen him shoot!

[Downtownv 1,782]

[Ray Ray 3,566]

33 minutes ago, Zeke said:

I’m betcha I’ll get 2x as many as @Ray Ray. I’ve seen him shoot!

Care to make a bet?

[Underdog 1,593]

Well, that's why you wear a mask, so that the drones that aren't recording (wink wink) can't tell who you are.  I bet they are working of mask recognition software.  Maybe we will be required to get little mask "license plates".