Police chopper chasing a crim near an airport? Ideal time to use my laser pointer, says Texas idiot now behind bars
- Reference: 1605050962
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2020/11/10/laser_pointing_prison/
- Source link:
John Shorey, 39, was [1]sentenced this week in San Antonio, Texas, for pointing a laser pointer at the helicopter in February 2019, hitting the pilot in the eyes and making it hard for him to read the craft's gauges. At the time, the pilot was flying over a highway, and was in the path of San Antonio International Airport, making the danger of being blinded that much more acute.
The pilot and the tactical officer immediately gave chase, at which point Shorey admitted that he again started pointing the laser beam at the aircraft as it headed toward him. The helicopter eventually landed at the airport and, prosecutors noted, “the injury to the pilot’s eyes caused by the defendant’s actions resulted in the pilot being unable to fly for a week.”
Pentagon in uproar: 'China's lasers' make US pilots shake in Djibouti [2]READ MORE
The issue of “lasing” has become a big problem in recent years thanks in large part to the readily availability of cheap, powerful laser pointers. In 2014, with the number of lasing incidents having jumped to 3,960 in 2013 – 11 per day – the FBI decided it needed to force people to take the issue more seriously.
To highlight the fact that it was a federal crime to point a laser at an aircraft and [3]offered $10,000 as a reward for information leading to an arrest for lasing – a pilot program it later [4]expanded . Despite that effort, the following year, the issue got worse with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) reporting 20 incidents on a single Wednesday night in 2015.
Still a problem
Despite a number of jail sentences in both the US and the UK, lasing continues to be a problem. In 2016, a transatlantic Virgin Atlantic flight from Heathrow to New York had to turn around and return to London after the co-pilot was [5]dazzled by a laser .
That incident sparked stricter laws in the UK with a possible jail sentence [6]expanded to five years for anyone that trains a laser pointer at ships, aircraft or air traffic control towers.
Despite greater awareness of how dangerous lasing is – and the [7]arrests and jail sentences that come with doing it – it's still a problem, the authorities say. The 51-month jail term this week for John Shorey “should serve as a warning to others who engage in this dangerous criminal activity,” said the FBI special agent in charge of the case, Christopher Combs.
“When aimed at an aircraft, the powerful beam of light from a hand-held laser can travel more than a mile and illuminate a cockpit, disorienting and temporarily blinding pilots. Lasing an aircraft represents a significant public safety threat, which endangers pilots, aircrew, passengers, and individuals on the ground, should an aircraft crash or require an emergency landing,” he warned. ®
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[1] https://www.justice.gov/usao-wdtx/pr/schertz-man-sentenced-federal-prison-pointing-laser-san-antonio-police-helicopter
[2] https://www.theregister.com/2018/05/04/china_laser_attack_djibouti/
[3] https://www.theregister.com/2014/02/11/fbi_offers_10000_bounty_for_arrest_of_laserwielding_idiots/
[4] https://www.theregister.com/2014/06/04/fbi_laser_reward/
[5] https://www.theregister.com/2016/02/15/virgin_atlantic_laser_incident/
[6] https://www.theregister.com/2018/05/11/laser_misuse_act_5_year_sentences/
[7] https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdtx/pr/local-woman-custody-lasing-aircraft-mcallen-airport
[8] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Retroreflectors?
Retroreflectors?
Not only would it be "returning fire", there would be a nice, easy-to-track laser designation point.
I suppose it depends on how far the beam diverges.
Re: Retroreflectors?
How about laser-guided missiles? Just follow the source instead of the pointer.
Re: Retroreflectors?
I fail to see the point. Shirley by shining the light they are automagically giving away their position?
As for divergence, collimation on laser pointers ain't something to write home about.
Re: Retroreflectors?
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.
hopefully prosecutions elsewhere too
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.
Re: hopefully prosecutions elsewhere too
Tear gas is illegal in war as well. I think the protestors should have live ammo to compensate.
Re: hopefully prosecutions elsewhere too
You are correct in that sense, but it is legal to use as a crowd dispersal agent according to the Chemical Weapons Convention (1997)
I still haven't found anything disallowing the use of Castor Oil vapor though.
Re: hopefully prosecutions elsewhere too
@" 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.
Re: hopefully prosecutions elsewhere too
@" 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.
Bunker boy and his coup
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.
Dear Emily Murphy
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.
Re: hopefully prosecutions elsewhere too
PDNFTTs
ATdhvaannkcse.
Blinded by the light
I think 5 years chokey is about right.
10 if it results in permanent injury to someone.
Daft thing is ...
... that the fucking morons don't seem to realize that they are giving their position away to people who are highly trained to identify ground positions from the air. The mind absolutely boggles.
As staunch liberal I have to say
> has been sent down for four-and-a-quarter years.
Why not for a draw and a quarter?
(I might be a liberal, but I'm also a former commercial pilot)
A related problem that needs tackling
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.
"...a pilot program..."
Ahaha. How apposite.