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I’m inclined to agree about our over-zealousness to punish, except... It’s already a felony to impede emergency rescue efforts. And rightfully so: it places li

I’m inclined to agree about our over-zealousness to punish, except... It’s already a felony to impede emergency rescue efforts. And rightfully so: it places lives directly at risk. It’s intuitively illegal, and intuitively grave. “Curiousity” wouldn’t be an excuse for getting in the way of normal firefighters with an RC car, would it? Why is impeding emergency services any less serious because it happened via drone?

koolba 8y ago
> Why is impeding emergency services any less serious because it happened via drone? I’d argue it’s more serious as there’s less skin in the game for the perpetrator.
- jonhendry18 8y ago
  And it's harder for the emergency services to counter. The only option may be to ground aircraft. It's not like someone parking in front of a fire hydrant. In that case the fire fighters may just break your windows and run the hose through your car.
kolpa 8y ago
If I hear an explosion and I intentionally walk outside to investigate, unintentionally blocking the path of an emergency vehicle, have I committed a felony?
- arkades 8y ago
  Is that an honest question, or do you mean to draw a parallel between “accidentally getting in the path of an emergency responder” and “intentionally going out of your way to stick yourself in the middle of an emergency situation”?
  - arwineap 8y ago
    Flying a drone above a wildfire doesn't automatically prove intent
- waterphone 8y ago
  When you walk out and get in the way of a vehicle, it's easy to get out of the way or be told to move. There's a direct interaction. When someone flies a drone over a wildfire, they often don't even think they're doing anything wrong, and firefighting aircraft have to be all suspended until they can find the pilot and get them to stop flying, or otherwise prevent it from being in the area anymore. It's a threat that's a lot more difficult to mitigate.
  - techdragon 8y ago
    In that case, the drone pilot is already committing the offence of impending emergency responders. It should otherwise be fine to drone fly over a brushfire not being flown over by firefighter aircraft. Why a new law? I smell knee jerk legislating. Just amend the existing law if new power is needed to prosecute the existing law. Don’t make a new law for every new thing.
xkcd-sucks 8y ago
If the law is written simply to prohibit flying drones over wildfires, it will be used to prosecute people who fly drones over wildfires with no first responders present or nearby, and the definition of wildfire will grow to include common innocuous events.

koolba 8y ago

> Why is impeding emergency services any less serious because it happened via drone? I’d argue it’s more serious as there’s less skin in the game for the perpetrator.

jonhendry18 8y ago
And it's harder for the emergency services to counter. The only option may be to ground aircraft. It's not like someone parking in front of a fire hydrant. In that case the fire fighters may just break your windows and run the hose through your car.

kolpa 8y ago

If I hear an explosion and I intentionally walk outside to investigate, unintentionally blocking the path of an emergency vehicle, have I committed a felony?

arkades 8y ago
Is that an honest question, or do you mean to draw a parallel between “accidentally getting in the path of an emergency responder” and “intentionally going out of your way to stick yourself in the middle of an emergency situation”?
- arwineap 8y ago
  Flying a drone above a wildfire doesn't automatically prove intent
waterphone 8y ago
When you walk out and get in the way of a vehicle, it's easy to get out of the way or be told to move. There's a direct interaction. When someone flies a drone over a wildfire, they often don't even think they're doing anything wrong, and firefighting aircraft have to be all suspended until they can find the pilot and get them to stop flying, or otherwise prevent it from being in the area anymore. It's a threat that's a lot more difficult to mitigate.
- techdragon 8y ago
  In that case, the drone pilot is already committing the offence of impending emergency responders. It should otherwise be fine to drone fly over a brushfire not being flown over by firefighter aircraft. Why a new law? I smell knee jerk legislating. Just amend the existing law if new power is needed to prosecute the existing law. Don’t make a new law for every new thing.

xkcd-sucks 8y ago

If the law is written simply to prohibit flying drones over wildfires, it will be used to prosecute people who fly drones over wildfires with no first responders present or nearby, and the definition of wildfire will grow to include common innocuous events.