
Military Helicopters Descend on Washington in Bizarre Low-Altitude Show of Force - throwaway888abc
https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/33802/military-helicopters-descend-on-washington-in-bizarre-very-low-altitude-show-of-force
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japhyr
Anyone who's been around large helicopters knows exactly how much this is
about a show of force, and has nothing to do with keeping the peace. The last
thing you do with a large helicopter if you care about people's safety is
hover over them.

This is why I did not enjoy the "health care flyovers" recently. Normally when
we have flyovers, it's meant to say "look at all the might we have to use in
protecting you". Even that's not particularly appealing, knowing that that
might is going to be turned against most likely undeserving people. But the
recent flyovers really felt like "look what we could be using against you".
And now here we are.

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apexalpha
Reminds me of the protests in Egypt.

Except in Egypt the military did it to show that were with the protestors and
getting ready to swap the dictator out.

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baddox
With a Red Cross. You’d think that wouldn’t be allowed, but who out there is
enforcing what things are supposed to be allowed?

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geofft
How often do we think they've done that in other countries?

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baddox
Who is “we” or “they?” I’ve certainly never done it. It has been terrible
every time someone has done it.

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geofft
We, the people in this discussion; they, the US military.

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Whatarethese
Laser pointers are about to be bought out everywhere if this keeps going
around the states. What is honestly the point of this? Show of force? Cool.
Lots of people look scared based on these videos. Not.

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inawarminister
If you use a laser pointer on an airborne vehicles cockpits, you are attacking
them lethally and must expect lethal reaction also. Please DO NOT do this.

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GurnBlandston
Don't justify an exaggerated response like this. A laser pointer is not
lethal. There is no comparison between a laser pointer and the armaments on a
military helicopter.

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bmn__
You underestimate the risk. Targetting a laser into the cockpit has a non-
negligible chance of dazzling/blinding the pilots, possibly with lethal
outcome. The light beam will refract and scatter through the glass/transparent
plastic.

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newyankee
Well i guess in a few days we might see some new generation drone and
autonomous weapons too which were under wraps so far.

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bigiain
I wonder how long until the first protestor flies a DJI drone into a military
helicopter turbine intake?

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LargoLasskhyfv
That would be interesting, considering the feeble drone would have to fly
against the massive rotor downwash/draft to get near them. Could also be they
have some sort of wire mesh against foreign object intake installed...

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tomjen3
Then you would only need the drone to go over the helicopter, then let physics
find the way in.

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LargoLasskhyfv
How fast does the rotor spin? To shred, or not to shred, that's the question
here...

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maxden
I can only imagine this will increase the number of people carrying lasers
now.

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usrusr
This can get very ugly when the personnel assigned starts wondering if this is
really what they signed up for.

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threatofrain
[https://soundcloud.com/the-daily-beast-politics/trump-
audio](https://soundcloud.com/the-daily-beast-politics/trump-audio)

President Trump on severity of response to protests.

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klyrs
> The UH-72 in this instance has red crosses on white square backgrounds on
> its door and under the fuselage

This is absurd. Is that not a violation of Geneva conventions?

[https://ihl-databases.icrc.org/customary-ihl/eng/docs/v2_rul...](https://ihl-
databases.icrc.org/customary-ihl/eng/docs/v2_rul_rule59)

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lostmsu
D.C.

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cinquemb
GWOT brought back home… how unexpected…

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pm90
The alarm bells of fascism are ringing loudly, are the American people
listening?

It started with violating the rights of non-citizens by throwing them and
their families in cages. Its building on centuries of black oppression and a
nationwide corps of officers lead to believe certain class of Americans to be
less than human.

Today, the president used American Military-lite in a completely unnecessary
display of machismo, to terrorize groups of peaceful Citizen protesters and
continues to do so by semi-wartime methods. The CBP has offered its help in
brutalizing another class of people; these are the same group of people who
have been let loose on border communities with little repercussions for their
actions.

Unchecked, the fascism will grow until there is nothing left to contain it.

Its clear to the present occupant of the White House that winning fairly is
not possible. Using emergencies as a pretext for grabbing on to power is an
entirely predicable playbook, and yet Americans seem utterly powerless to stop
what they know in their hearts is going to happen.

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mydongle
Can't listen over the sound of businesses being burned down and innocent
people crying out of terror.

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whymauri
I don't understand this. The warning signs of the current administration's
fascist-adjacent policies have been here for four years. Please do not pretend
that it's now that Americans cannot heed those signs due to protests,
especially when the protests are partially in response to the current
administration.

~~~
MattGaiser
More that many Americans will now see fascism as providing a certain method of
protection. Plenty of authoritarians are popularly elected based on some
threat.

~~~
whymauri
I find this to be a much more compelling commentary and concern than the one I
replied to. If what you mention does happen, it will be legitimately
frightening.

At least when authoritarianism hit my home country (Venezuela), we could
leave.

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MattGaiser
If we go back to the Kent State shooting, Gallup found that 58% blamed the
students and 11% blamed the National Guard.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kent_State_shootings#Aftermath...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kent_State_shootings#Aftermath_and_long-
term_effects)

I don't see it as a crazy idea that shooting some protestors would be popular.

~~~
whymauri
I've told friends that I have a sinking feeling a Tiananmen Square-like event
might happen soon in the US. I predict that there will be people online
arguing the semantics of what constitutes a "massacre" or a "tragedy."

I hope we never get to that.

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NonEUCitizen
Did you see the videos of police SUVs driving through the people? The tank in
Tiananmen Square actually stopped.

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rvschuilenburg
That was just one tank though. You can't really compare what happened in
Tiananmen Square to what's happened in the US.

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somebrody
I know from another thread about how the police use indiscriminate violence
instead of de-escalation that this is totally ok with about half the people
here. That half can go fuck themselves

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SV_BubbleTime
EDIT: Can someone not possibly support peaceful protests and the police
shutting down riots/looters?

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dang
We've banned this account for repeatedly violating HN's guidelines. Please
stop creating accounts to do that with.

[https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html](https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html)

If you don't want to be banned, you're welcome to email hn@ycombinator.com and
give us reason to believe that you'll follow the rules in the future.

~~~
SV_BubbleTime
Emailed. No answer. Now shadowbanned... seriously?

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dang
Shadowbanned? Just banned. "Shadowbanned" means banning someone without
telling them. I told you in the comment you're replying to.

It's impossible to answer every email right away. You'll certainly get an
answer, but I can't promise when. If you saw the catastrophic mess that is the
HN inbox, you'd understand why.

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MattGaiser
I'm not an American but a Canadian who has Canadian friends down there. People
who would never have considered buying guns up here are purchase one per
family member down there because of the riots.

You have a crazy country. Stay safe.

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SV_BubbleTime
Have you not seen Montreal protests? Police suiting up in the same gear and
getting ready to fire the same less lethal rounds in to crowds.

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MattGaiser
My friends are scared of the protestors, not the police. Their fear is that
the police will not show up if overwhelmed.

Violence in Montreal seems well contained for now.

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jondwillis
Leaked audio of Trump call with Secretary of Defense essentially ordering use
of force and control, using the term war in reference to protest/LE/Natl Guard
relations, 3rd link down on
[https://linktr.ee/jonalmostfree](https://linktr.ee/jonalmostfree)

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SV_BubbleTime
I just finished it, what is the part exactly is the problem? What is the
timestamp of the offensive part?

Considering that it was a private administration call they didn’t intend to be
public, I’m not sure “you gotta arrest these people” over and over is wrong.

I must have missed it in my first pass, can you help me out with a timestamp?

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iron0013
This post was at #2 on the front page, and then it disappeared completely.

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augustt
Because god forbid this country's descent into fascism is discussed instead of
the newest cli tool to be rewritten in rust.

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ReticentVole
Forcing/encouraging the populace to wear masks, thus anonymising them, at the
same time that many of them have lost their jobs and are unable to enjoy a
social life, may not have been a good idea...

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riffraff
We have masks and an economic crisis in Europe but we don't have street riots.

The problem here is (other than underlying systemic issues) a pretty stupid
attitude from the administration which went for confrontation rather than
accomodation.

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ReticentVole
In areas where there is a heavy population of migrants, you do have riots:

[https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/paris-
riots-...](https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/paris-riots-
suburbs-banlieues-police-fire-crash-bezons-argenteuil-a9523511.html)

