Police chopper chasing a crim near an airport? Ideal time to use my laser pointer, says Texas idiot now behind bars An idiot who directed a laser at a police helicopter, temporarily blinding the pilot while he was searching for a shooting suspect, has been sent down for four-and-a-quarter years. John Shorey, 39, was sentenced this week in San Antonio, Texas, for pointing a laser pointer at the helicopter in February 2019, hitting the pilot …
I fail to see the point. Shirley by shining the light they are automagically giving away their position?
Only if the laser is pointed directly at a sensor. Otherwise, you only see the beam if it has something to diffuse off. Having enough particulates/fog in the air to see the beam itself is highly weather dependant.
The beam divergence only needs to be low enough to still be detectable from its reflection.. After that, a a single drone with a sensor looking for the common laser pointer frequencies can be anywhere within line of sight. Hell, they might give their position away just by testing it on the ground nearby.
Until someone aims a laser at a busy airport and the reflectors from all the aircraft blind multiple people rather than just the one it's aimed at.
Retroreflectors are not perfect mirrors back to the origin, if they were they'd look like a mirror.
The solution is a set of cameras on the outside of large planes that triangulates the source when it detects a laser, reports it to the police, and then keep throwing the culprits in jail for a year or so until they learn not to do it again.
Retroreflectors ideally reflect photons parallel to their original course (i'm ignoring the specifics of how photons interact with mirrors, as i feel it needlessly pedantic), with a varying degree of offset dependent on the original course and mirror arrangement. If designed properly, they come very close to what you say they are not. A simple mirror just deflects light dependent on the angle of incidence.
Does not mean they're actually useful for this application, just I feel they've been mischaracterized here.
Video footage from Portland at night invariably shows green lasers being shone at the police.
It's illegal in war, really can't see why the US police are so timid in hunting down and prosecuting the ones doing it to them. It's one of the few things a protestor can do that I'd happily rule justification for use of live ammo.
@" It's one of the few things a protestor can do that I'd happily rule justification for use of live ammo."
Obviously protestors shining lights at police doesn't justify deadly use of force.
You have Trump supporting gunmen killing police while pretending to be BLM protestors, if laser-pointers were enough to justify deadly use of force, then Trump's boys wouldn't need to spice it up with some false-flag police murders. Police murders by Trump supporters:
https://www.salon.com/2020/06/17/far-right-boogaloo-boy-killed-officer-after-using-black-lives-matter-protest-as-cover-prosecutors/
"Far-right “Boogaloo boy” killed officer after using Black Lives Matter protest as cover: prosecutors"
You know your boy "Unindicted Co-Conspirator #1" will start to get really desperate near the end of his term. The whole reason he's trying to damage the USA right now is to force an exit deal, Nixon style.
Fox News and his enablers think he won't throw them under a bus if they help him try to keep power, but he will. It's all about him now, they're the suckers he's fooled.
I think they should make him President for life despite the election loss.... President of Landscaping.
* Hannity Ingrahams and Tucker Carlson can go down with that sinking ship, but Fox Execs need to cut the links to those 'anchors' before they drag FN down with them.
@" It's one of the few things a protestor can do that I'd happily rule justification for use of live ammo."
Obviously protestors shining lights at police doesn't justify deadly use of force.
You have Trump supporting gunmen killing police while pretending to be BLM protestors, if laser-pointers were enough to justify deadly use of force, then Trump's boys wouldn't need to spice it up with some false-flag police murders. Police murders by Trump supporters:
https://www.salon.com/2020/06/17/far-right-boogaloo-boy-killed-officer-after-using-black-lives-matter-protest-as-cover-prosecutors/
"Far-right “Boogaloo boy” killed officer after using Black Lives Matter protest as cover: prosecutors"
You know your boy "Unindicted Co-Conspirator #1" will start to get really desperate near the end of his term. The whole reason he's trying to damage the USA right now is to force an exit deal, Nixon style.
Fox News and his enablers think he won't throw them under a bus if they help him try to keep power, but he will. It's all about him now, they're the suckers he's fooled.
I think they should make him President for life despite the election loss.... President of Landscaping.
* Hannity Ingrahams and Tucker Carlson can go down with that sinking ship, but Fox Execs need to cut the links to those 'anchors' before they drag FN down with them.
Stacey's' boyfriend is back, and forgot to take his meds again.
Obviously protestors shining lights at police doesn't justify deadly use of force.
Luckily we weren't talking about shining lights, we were discussing using lasers to blind people.
You're welcome to join me in condemning that, against policemen or anybody else.
midgepad, when some dickhead points a laser at a moving vehicle, dazzling someone *is* blinding them - especially at night. When you are dazzled, you cannot see clearly, if at all. How the hell do you think that is different to blinding someone, even if "only" temporarily?
You really do not want to be on the receiving end of such stupidity, especially if in a significant mass of metal or plastics some distance above the ground. Even more so when you have a load of people depending on you.
"You're welcome to join me in condemning that, against policemen or anybody else."
There's a rather large difference in condemning a particular behaviour, and following that condemnation up with "...and therefore it's entirely justified to summarily execute them all on the spot". I don't see anyone here saying that deliberately attempting to blind people, police or otherwise, is at all justified. But saying that doing so is one of the few things that would justify the police gunning down protesters is just insane, and it's hardly surprising that few appear to agree with you on that.
I see Mike Pompeo is saying "there will be a smooth transition to the next *TRUMP* administration", i.e. he's openly saying there is a coup plot ongoing.
I see Trump has replaced 4 senior Pentagon people with his lackies, so the coup plot obviously will be based on the military taking power. In his head he will place his lackies in, the soldiers will obey said lackies and kill American people to keep him in power, kill police, kill protestors, kill church goers, kill factory workers, kill teachers, kill children, kill Republicans, kill you*, heck you kill 300,000+ people what's a few hundred thousand more?
Put armed forces in US cities to kill protestors, put army around the Senate and Congress and Supreme Court and threaten and intimidate and murder the lawmakers and the judges into submission.
A full on military coup.
Bunker Boy is sitting in his bunker plotting his coup, his back against a wall, knowing all the crimes he's committed.
This is how it plays out:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xBWmkwaTQ0k
He's lost, the man selling $5 shrimp plates to fund $800 million Atlantic City debt needs to face reality. He'll drag Pompeo and the rest into a coup plot, then sell them out in exchange for an exit deal.
There is no 'team' Trump. Only Trump, and his remaining few family members. Even Melania will exit that soon.
* Fox News viewers, Red State viewers were the ones duped into catching the Corona Virus and the ones that died in large numbers. Republicans are cannon fodder to Trump.
Let me tell you how it works.
Trump will full on attack the USA, trying for a full military coup at the 11th hour. To end the damage quickly, a deal is struck where he gets immunity and he sacrifices his enablers instead.
People like Pompeo, and you, they will go to jail and serve as proxy for Trump. So the law might want to send Trump to jail for a few thousand years, but instead they will send you. You will go to jail for the rest of your life. Trump will say "I never met her", "Mike Pompeo? He acted on his own", and Trump will retreat to Mar-a-Largo, or Moscow, a free man with an immunity agreement.
But not you.
Fox News will pivot on a dime, Mitch McConnell and Republicans will disavow you. They won't save you. You don't save cannon fodder.
The protection for that? Well do your job, sign the transition document, Trump will sack you, and you will move onto a new job as a free person.
Trump made $900 a day selling his $5 shrimp plates. He took his backers money as license fees to Trump corp, and he screwed them over and left them broke. For you? You go to jail as proxy for him and his coup.
Use of lasers in military operations is perfectly legal. Many of the are powerful enough to blind or partially blind, particularly if viewed through binos or an optical sight. It is intentionally using them as blinding weapons that is illegal.
During the Falklands Conflict the UK used lasers to dazzle Argentinian pilots. Not by shining directly in the eyes but by relying on dispersal and diffraction by the cockpit canopy.
And yet so few of the offenders are caught, even with the carrot of a $10,000 reward and the stick of up to 5 years in prison. It's the reason so much low level crime goes on. The risk reward ratio is in favour of not getting caught in the "noise" of all the other low level crime. The solution is really to try and create a better society where fewer people feel the need to commit crime. (Since you ask, the sky is green with violet highlights on my planet, it's quite nice :-))
Is that of people using GPS jammers (often lorry / delivery drivers).
As we are transitioning towards GNSS-based procedures (in many smaller airports these are the only type of procedures available), this is a pretty big deal. Getting RAIM (signal integrity) errors on the approach or departure is zero fun, costly and puts people at risk because of some skyving idiot close to an airport.
"What would the motivation for lorry/delivery drivers to use GPS blockers?"
Maybe because some companies define route you must take (& refuse to listen to arguments why its a bad route even though the routes are often auto generated by software) - often not taking account of changing situations such as roadworks, or predictable rush hour traffic jam conditions & you can save time by taking non approved route but need GPS off so you don't get into trouble.
The schedules are really unrealistic - assume magically empty roads and each delivery is near instant, so any time saved is worthwhile.
Delivery is bad as an employee as big brother always watching you, bad as a zero hours contractor as pay & conditions are shit but you have a bit more control.
AC for obvious reasons -
A previous company mandated that ALL cars - including personal cars used for business use, not just company cars had to have GPS trackers installed. (Rumour was that one bod was using his car as a mini-cab at weekends). So I did out of curiosity did have a quick look at GPS blockers, as it was my car and I don't want to be tracked in my time. Apparently the range of these devices were in the range of a few hundred metres - bit too much, so didn't pursue it further.
> A previous company mandated that ALL cars - including personal cars used for business use
That is not unusual in my corner of the woods, which is very protective of individual privacy and personal data, and is typically done for tax reasons. Basically, you need to satisfy the tax office that the fuel for which you're claiming your tax back was used for legitimate business purposes.
This of course assumes that your employees have a company fuel card or equivalent arrangement and that only business trips are logged.
> Rumour was that one bod was using his car as a mini-cab at weekends
That of course would be an utterly unjustifiable reason. Especially if it was his own car.
> it was my car and I don't want to be tracked in my time
If your company (or some cretin within) were suggesting that, likely they were breaking a number of laws. A quick word with the relevant labour administration in your location (plus local data protection agency) would have been in order.
> What would the motivation for lorry/delivery drivers to use GPS blockers?
I have no idea, but it's a thing. I would like to see a few of them charged with endangering the safety of a commercial flight (along with violations of telecomms laws, labour fraud, etc.) and their cases well publicised, pour l'encouragement des autres et tout ça.
What I think we need to take into account is though it may be a police pilot was off work for a week potentially you could have had an other Clutha incident or worse. This equates to murder (not manslaughter as it is a predictable outcome and premeditated (didn't accidentally buy and shine the laser.)
N.B. the Clutha crash was caused not by a laser but a "fuel problem."
(AC from above): I agree that it's worse than punching a policeman (or other "off-work for a week" injury), since the pilot was in charge of a vehicle which could have crashed, killing or injuring several people. Hence why I think four and a half years is a light sentence. Since the incident occurred in Texas (with it's tough-on-crime) reputation, it sounds even lighter.
Sometimes the criminals get lucky with the judge, I suppose.
Isn't it still illegal in the UK to sell sufficiently powerful laser pointers? But they are still sold and not just mail order from overseas.
It seems that while the authorities are down on their illegal use they could probably be doing more to stop people getting hold of them in the first place.
The MW vs mW mistake was pretty common once laser pointers became a mass-market item. Let's face it, graphics designers making labels for consumer goods to be sold in other countries have never exactly been known for their technical ability.
It probably wasn't anywhere near 5mW either, when you think about what it was.
But it never does, because the sort of people that would do this in the first place are too stupid to see the problem. They think they won't get caught (I'm on the ground, they're in the air - I'll be long gone!) and/or don't even know the legislation exists, and/or don't care anyway. Hence the incident rate continues to rise despite the increases in sentencing, expansion of punishments.
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