They would never spy on “people”

So it’s come to this.

Whether because it has been legislated away or voluntarily surrendered, Americans’ privacy has largely disappeared. Our rulers are getting ever bolder, so robot drones are now poised to fly over our homes. A few kooky types like libertarians and whiners at the ACLU are sounding the alarm, but the law enforcement classes are pooh-poohing their concerns:

Drone proponents say the privacy concerns are overblown. Randy McDaniel, chief deputy of the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Department in Conroe, Tex., near Houston, whose agency bought a drone to use for various law enforcement operations, dismissed worries about surveillance, saying everyone everywhere can be photographed with cellphone cameras anyway. “We don’t spy on people,” he said. “We worry about criminal elements.”

Huh? Americans who commit crimes are not people?

I would argue that not only are they people, but they are in a majority.

As Nat Hentoff pointed out, “Most Americans are criminals and don’t know it.” But the fact that most of us are criminals is old news. What’s new news is what our rulers plan to do to us.

Naturally, because there’s such a huge “criminal” class, there’a a huge and burgeoning market for spying on nearly everybody.

Under the new law, within 90 days, the F.A.A. must allow police and first responders to fly drones under 4.4 pounds, as long as they keep them under an altitude of 400 feet and meet other requirements. The agency must also allow for “the safe integration” of all kinds of drones into American airspace, including those for commercial uses, by Sept. 30, 2015. And it must come up with a plan for certifying operators and handling airspace safety issues, among other rules.

The new law, part of a broader financing bill for the F.A.A., came after intense lobbying by drone makers and potential customers.

And the manufacturers just love it!

The market for drones is valued at $5.9 billion and is expected to double in the next decade, according to industry figures. Drones can cost millions of dollars for the most sophisticated varieties to as little as $300 for one that can be piloted from an iPhone.

If a drone could save just one life!

The Montgomery County Sheriff’s Department in Texas bought its 50-pound drone in October from Vanguard Defense Industries, a company founded by Michael Buscher, who built drones for the army, and then sold them to an oil company whose ships were threatened by pirates in the Gulf of Aden. The company custom-built the drone, which takes pictures by day and senses heat sources at night. It cost $300,000, a fraction of the cost of a helicopter.

Mr. McDaniel said his SWAT team could use it for reconnaissance, or to manage road traffic after a big accident. He said he regretted that he didn’t have it a few months ago, to search for a missing person in a densely wooded area.

Mr. Buscher, meanwhile, said he was negotiating with several police agencies. “There is tremendous potential,” he said. “We see agencies dipping their toes.”

Yes, all they want to do is save lives. They would never spy on people. The bastards probably imagine they are heroically saving lives when they kick in doors and shoot people and their dogs during a drug raid.

The worst part of this fiendishness is that they will use my tax dollars to pay for it.

MORE: In 2009 Glenn Reynolds wrote about “The Danger of a Paramilitary Police Force.” Since then the situation has escalated.

And Ron Paul says the U.S. is “slipping into a fascist system.”

Good for Ron Paul, but where are the rest of the Republicans?