North Dakota Cow Thief Is First American Arrested, Jailed With Drone’s Help

[Purveyor]

Look, up in the sky! It’s a bird, it’s a plane — it’s a Predator drone finding you because you wouldn’t give your neighbor his cows back after they wandered onto your property.

Rodney Brossart, the farmer from North Dakota, was arrested after being located by Predator drone, Forbes reports. Sentenced yesterday, he is the first American to be sent to the clink thanks to drone assistance.

In June 2011, Forbes reports, police attempted to arrest him because he wouldn’t return the three cows that had grazed onto his property. This resulted in “an armed standoff between Brossart, his three sons and a SWAT team” on his property. It ended only after the family of perps was located by a Predator drone borrowed from Customs and Border Patrol.

Mr. Brossart tried to have the case dismissed on the grounds that there was no warrant for the drone surveillance, but a federal judge rejected his motion.

Forbes points out that it’s disconcerting that drones created to protect American borders are now being used to apprehend American citizens, although a manned helicopter could have done the same thing. The danger, though, is that widespread drone use could be easier to achieve than buying a helicopter for every local precinct in the country.


Read more at http://betabeat.com/2014/01/north-dakota-cow-thief-is-first-american-arrested-jailed-with-drones-help/#ixzz2rjXBUVrY

[geek tragedy]

1. this is supposed to bother people I guess, but it fails to deliver the outrage nt

[SomethingFishy]

3. No "outrage", but yeah I am bothered by this..

Not because an asshole cow thief got caught but because the potential for abuse is really really high, and the police have not exactly been friends to.. well.. to everyone..

[geek tragedy]

7. do you feel similarly about helicopters and blimps and satellites? nt

[Brother Buzz]

4. There is nothing nobel about cattle rustling

[snooper2]

2. When an armed asshole holding a gradeschool hostage

is taken out by a mini helicopter... people will change their minds

[SomethingFishy]

6. Nice fantasy.

What happens if he's indoors?

[snooper2]

10. I was talking about indoors

In mother Russia.......

[Thinkingabout]

5. hum, guess the preppies did not plan for this.

[jsr]

8. A jury found him not guilty of stealing the cows.

[geek tragedy]

11. but guilty of threatening to kill the police officers

http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2014/01/15/north-dakota-man-sentenced-to-jail-in-controversial-drone-arrest-case

Brossart's trouble began in 2011, when six cows wandered onto his property. After Brossart refused to return the cows to their owner, the Grand Forks, N.D., SWAT team was called in to arrest the man. What followed was a 16-hour, armed standoff that eventually ended when the SWAT team called in a Predator drone on loan from the Department of Homeland Security's Customs and Border Patrol. The drone was able to locate Brossart and his three armed sons on the property and let police know it was safe it make to make an arrest. Brossart was allegedly tased during the arrest.

At the time of his arrest, Brossart told U.S. News that he felt the use of the drone was illegal, and that he was "not laying over here playing dead" on his defense. His attorney, Bruce Quick, said that the use of the drone and the tasing constituted "guerrilla-like police tactics" and that the drone was "dispatched without judicial approval or a warrant."

The court disagreed: In July 2012, U.S. District Judge Joel Medd upheld the use of drones in the case, saying that "there was no improper use of an unmanned aerial vehicle" and that the drone "appears to have had no bearing on these charges being contested here." Medd refused to throw out the case. Tuesday, a jury upheld that decision, finding Brossart guilty of terrorizing police and acquitting him of theft and criminal mischief.

[Shrike47]

9. It's hard to take the side of a cattle-rustler.

If they can legally do it with a helicopter or small plane or a hot air balloon, they can do it with a drone.

[Mojorabbit]

12. the post above yours sez he was not

Guilty of stealing the cows?

[geek tragedy]

13. very possible that the elements of theft were not there or proved beyond a reasonable doubt.

he didn't get to keep the cows, and he is in jail