Police use unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVS) to spy on festivalgoers
vg | 19.08.2007 20:13 | Analysis | Anti-militarism | Liverpool
The BBC has reported that an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) has been used by police at the V music Festival in Staffordshire.
The BBC report is here:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/6953650.stm
This sort of technology is being offered to police forces around the country - currently on test in Merseyside and now, it would appear, Staffordshire - and is also touted as being useful for environmentalists to survey remote areas and so on, but it is primarily designed for use in warfare.
In the wars of the future, we'll have soldiers no longer risking their lives on the battlefield as combat is reduced, literally, to a computer game. Meanwhile, people on the receiving end won't have a chance. More injustice, more imbalance of power, more resentment and desperation, and more suicide bombers probably.
If you live in the Nottinghamshire area, you may be interested to learn that Newark Air Museum is trying to 'dispel some of the myths about what UAVs can and can't do currently and to show they can be used to benefit humanitarian and civilian applications, not just high profile military uses' with a special exhibition about UAVs, funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council as part of their Public Engagement Programme.
http://www.newarkairmuseum.org/specialevents.htm
The National Assembly for Wales has invested large sums of money so that this technology can be developed in West Wales at Aberporth. There's more about it here:
http://harriboy.blogspot.com/
It's something I think we should all be very concerned about.
![](/img/extlink.gif)
This sort of technology is being offered to police forces around the country - currently on test in Merseyside and now, it would appear, Staffordshire - and is also touted as being useful for environmentalists to survey remote areas and so on, but it is primarily designed for use in warfare.
In the wars of the future, we'll have soldiers no longer risking their lives on the battlefield as combat is reduced, literally, to a computer game. Meanwhile, people on the receiving end won't have a chance. More injustice, more imbalance of power, more resentment and desperation, and more suicide bombers probably.
If you live in the Nottinghamshire area, you may be interested to learn that Newark Air Museum is trying to 'dispel some of the myths about what UAVs can and can't do currently and to show they can be used to benefit humanitarian and civilian applications, not just high profile military uses' with a special exhibition about UAVs, funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council as part of their Public Engagement Programme.
![](/img/extlink.gif)
The National Assembly for Wales has invested large sums of money so that this technology can be developed in West Wales at Aberporth. There's more about it here:
![](/img/extlink.gif)
It's something I think we should all be very concerned about.
vg