Wednesday 31 December 2014

I'm Confused, Are The Drones Those Things In The Air,,,

...or those cretins in hi-vis who seem to lack intelligence and awareness of the law?
Mitchell, a trained drone pilot who is also one of the few journalists with approval from the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) to commercially operate Small Unmanned Aircraft (SUA), said he did not need to advise air traffic control as he was operating a drone weighing under 7kg at the time.
“I identified myself to police officers at the scene and said that I would be putting a drone up,” he said.
Which is exactly what he's supposed to do. Remember all the pants-wetting the police were indulging in earlier over the fears of unlicensed folks getting their hands on these things?

Well, hold that thought...
“Twenty minutes later, while I was flying it a sergeant arrived and shouted ‘get the drone down now’. I said that I couldn’t talk as I had it in the air. All three of them then came at me, ripped the controller from my hands and slapped cuffs on me.”
All three of them tried to bring it down. They were passing the controller between them but it was all over the place.”
/facepalm
Mitchell, who trades under the name of Aerial-News, said that the officers from Surrey police told him that he was being arrested for a breach of the peace. He said that he was released after nearly five hours in custody with no further action taken.
However, his drone was still in the possession of Surrey police.
And is probably being flown around the Surrey Police canteen right now. Or maybe having its film tampered with?
He intends to lodge complaints with the Independent Police Complaints Commission and CAA this week.
It does rather make you wonder what it was he filmed police doing at the scene that they didn't want filmed, doesn't it?

Update: Surrey Police PR wonks were pulled off their New Year pre-celebration activities to dish out this load of self-serving, identity-group placating load of flannel:
"The arrest was made following complaints from local residents and others in the vicinity of the tragic incident in which a woman and two young children sadly lost their lives. Detective Chief Inspector Antony Archibald, said:
“While in attendance, concerns about the behaviour of a man were raised to officers from people who believed he was acting in a disrespectful and intrusive manner.
“At the time of the arrest, the main focus for officers and fire crew at the scene was to conclude the initial forensic investigation and to allow the dignified removal of the bodies of those who had sadly died.
“This was a deeply distressing incident which has devastated the community and the impact will be felt for some time. The thoughts of all at Surrey Police are with those affected by the fire.”
The arrested man was taken to Salfords Custody Suite but once the risk of the breach of the peace had ceased he was released from police custody. An item which was confiscated from him during the arrest is now in the process of being returned.
Translation: "We stopped a journalist doing his job in a lawful manner because an identity group complained and we have to pander to them no matter what, or we'll never climb the greasy pole, will we?"

18 comments:

Pavlov's Cat said...

sounds very akin to the old 'Photographer not terrorist' days . Police do not understand rules, make stuff up as they go along, arrest innocent member of public ( still it's another DNA sample innit) piss many people off .

CJ Nerd said...

Peckerheads, Lardasses, Onanists and Doochbags.

Longrider said...

Folk have been flying radio controlled model aeroplanes for years. What's the difference?

Vir Cantium said...

Clearly police have not been trained in the tricky, advanced and risk-laden skill of 'talking to someone'. Why be civil when you can get a collar under the POA and feel big?

CJ Nerd said...

The comment above is not from me. Whoever it is, please stop. I wonder who it might be?

Lancastrian Oik said...

The Dibbles are getting progressively more stupid with every passing year.

See what I did there?

Happy New Year, Julia. This is a splendid blog.

Anonymous said...

I suppose if you were related to the dead bodies being filmed you might have a different opinion Julia?
Jaded

Anonymous said...

What Jaded said. I suspect if there had been no intervention by the police the 'photographer' would be needing some expensive orthodontic treatment by now and you would be dribbling on about how the police did nothing to protect him, still we can't all be as perfect as you are can we?
Retired

Anonymous said...

I'm more pissed off at the amount of police time wasted 'investigating' what katie Hopkins has said about (a0 fat bastards, (b) EBola & (c) Scotch gits.....naaaaaaah..not really, I like the girl! She got spunk compared to the whinging adult babies and twitter farts

Anonymous said...

I witnessed a radio controlled helicopter about a week ago all lit up like a xmas tree hovering over the local chippy with the chavs throwing chips and chip papers at it it.

It was Yarmouths answer to Desert storm.

Sand , surface to air missiles...I never saw the controller of the helicopter... plenty of confused and angry chavs though.

Rickie

Furor Teutonicus said...

XX I witnessed a radio controlled helicopter about a week ago all lit up like a xmas tree hovering over the local chippy with the chavs throwing chips and chip papers at it it.XX

Sounds like those apes throwing bones at the begining of "2001."

Furor Teutonicus said...

Except you average ape has a lot more intelligence than a chippy chav.

JuliaM said...

"...sounds very akin to the old 'Photographer not terrorist' days..."

I suppose at least they didn't try an arrest under the Terrorism Act!

"Folk have been flying radio controlled model aeroplanes for years. What's the difference?"

These have cameras. And are widely available & can (allegedly) be flown by novices.

"Clearly police have not been trained in the tricky, advanced and risk-laden skill of 'talking to someone'. "

Indeed!

"Happy New Year, Julia. This is a splendid blog."

And to you! It's my readership that keeps me going :)

JuliaM said...

"I suppose if you were related to the dead bodies being filmed you might have a different opinion Julia?"

Maybe.

But as I'm not an identity group, would anyone feel the need to stop a man going about his lawful business to spare MY feelings?

I suspect not. And THAT'S the issue here.

"The comment above is not from me."

No, I don't expect so. Register a Blogger 'identity' and whoever it is can't impersonate you.

Sadly, Blogger doesn't give me the options to see where that was posted from, like WP does.

"I suspect if there had been no intervention by the police the 'photographer' would be needing some expensive orthodontic treatment by now..."

Assault's an ACTUAL crime. Why not arrest the folks who commit it?

Because it's too much trouble? Because the diversity wonks would get upset?

And do you really still maintain the pretense that you can't understand why people lose faith in a supposedly-impartial police force when things like this happen?

"...hovering over the local chippy with the chavs throwing chips and chip papers at it it."

Damn! Now I want one!

CJ Nerd said...

"Register a Blogger 'identity' and whoever it is can't impersonate you."

Testing... testing... done!

CJ Nerd said...

Err, yes you can. I do it all the time when I'm logged in in real life and can't be arrsed sorting it out.

S-E

Anonymous said...

"Testing... testing... done!"

A great effort and an unforgettable techno debut, constable Moron.

JuliaM said...

Ah, but there's a clue there if you hover over your id, SE... ;)