Culture AP: Numerous drone sightings in New Jersey frustrating but don’t pose safety concern, governor says - Who drone it?

Shipkowski, B. (2024, December 4th). FBI Investigating reports of large drones flying in New Jersey, seeks public's help. AP News.

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FILE - New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy speaks during a press conference in Newark, N.J., Aug. 16, 2024. (AP Photo/Eduardo Munoz Alvarez, file)

PRINCETON, N.J. (AP) — Dozens of drones have been spotted across New Jersey in recent weeks, including near sensitive sites such as a military research facility, which can be frustrating but don’t appear to pose a public safety concern, Gov. Phil Murphy stressed Monday.

The FBI has been investigating reports about several mysterious nighttime drone flights that started occurring last month across central New Jersey and has asked the public for help. Since then, residents have reported seeing drones in other areas.

While speaking at an unrelated bill signing event in Princeton, Murphy noted there were 49 reports of drones on Sunday, mostly in Hunterdon County. The Democratic governor said those numbers included possible sightings and potentially the same drone being reported more than once.

“This is something we’re taking deadly seriously. I don’t blame people for being frustrated,” Murphy said.

It’s unclear who is piloting the drones and why, but federal and state officials have repeatedly stressed that there is no known threat to public safety.

Drones are legal in New Jersey for recreational and commercial use, but they are subject to local and Federal Aviation Administration regulations and flight restrictions. Drone operators also must be FAA certified. Most, but not all, of the drones spotted in New Jersey were larger than those typically used by hobbyists.

The flights initially raised questions in part because they took place near the Picatinny Arsenal, a U.S. military research and manufacturing facility, and over President-elect Donald Trump’s golf course in Bedminster.

Most of the drones have been spotted along coastal areas, and some of the devices were recently spotted over a large reservoir in Clinton.

The FBI asks that residents share any videos or photos they may have of the flights, along with any other relevant information.

U.S. Rep Chris Smith, a Republican, said he was on Long Beach Island Monday night with Ocean County Sheriff Mike Mastronardy to look into the situation.

“Understandably, New Jersey residents are very alarmed at this significant and reoccurring phenomenon, and the tepid response from our state and federal agencies so far is totally unacceptable,” he said. “The people of New Jersey deserve swift and bold action on the part of our state and federal agencies to investigate, assess, and address the situation immediately and to alleviate the growing concerns of our community.”

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The Snail said:
If you're speaking in regards of the police, I believe that's the process going forward. It's suspicous that wasn't the instant mode of action, however, it could've been assumed they were part of a retail trial. Someone in flordia got arrested and fined and exorbitant amount for shooting down a walmart drone.

For me personally, the most I can say, is that it was larger than an average retail drone.
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I went and looked this up. He was charged $5,000 and shot it with a 9mm.

LAKE COUNTY, Fla. — The 72-year-old Lake County man who shot a Walmart drone he believed to be surveilling him has been ordered to pay the retail chain $5,000.

Dennis Winn was charged with one count of shooting or throwing deadly missiles into dwellings, vessels or vehicles, one count of criminal mischief causing $1,000 or more in damage and one count of discharging a firearm in public or on residential property.



The Lake County Sheriff's Office was called to a Walmart on Johns Lake Road in Clermont on June 26. Two workers with a drone delivery service that works with Walmart told police someone had shot at one of their drones while it was flying over a home in the Overlook at Lake Louisa neighborhood. They were conducting a "mock delivery" at the time.

The workers told police after the drone was shot, they fled back to Walmart and flew the drone back to the store.

The Lake County Sheriff's Office went to meet with Winn after the incident. According to an affidavit for Winn's arrest, he said he was outside fixing a pool pump when he heard the drone overhead. He told police "he had past experiences with drones flying over his house and believed they were surveilling him." He then went inside to get a 9mm pistol out of his gun safe and shot at the drone.

Police said there were children playing in the area at the time.

The officer who interviewed Winn said that when he informed Winn he had shot a Walmart drone, he looked "in disbelief" and said "Really?"

The affidavit says that the officer told Winn the drone "was likely tens of thousands of dollars." The officer asked Winn if he had ever reported an issue with drones to the police, and he said no, but he had told his HOA.

While he waited for the police to take him to jail, Winn yelled to a neighbor that he was "going to jail for shooting a drone," the affidavit said.

On Nov. 27, Winn agreed to submit to a restitution order. His attorney described this as an "admission of wrongdoing," but not a guilty plea. The Circuit Court of the Fifth Judicial Circuit ordered him to pay $5,000 to the drone company for the damage to the drone, which he has now paid.

If he is not charged with any other crimes within six months, he will not serve any jail time.

This is all so fascinating, I really hope this whole things continues to be fun to watch. I think it being big business is probably the best bet from everything I've read so far.
 
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Narcotics said:
Reposting some of the stuff i said in the UFO thread at happenings.

One of the most famous videos taken of these drones, even used by the media, ended up being a small plane.

The dozens of lights appearing and dissapearing at night? could be starlink satellites flashing reflected sunlight.
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Another one, a helicopter.
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I am NOT saying there's nothing odd about this NJ situation, fuck, i do believe there are foreign drones floating around and the government has 0 idea of what to do about them. What i'm saying is that lots of these civilian reports could just be misidentifications, people don't like to admit it but we have bad night sight naturally. I just want to see high quality pictures or videos of these things, no smartphones.
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These could just be mass hysteria, back in the mid 90's? Before drones and cameraphones were a thing? You'd get these "flaps" of people suddenly claiming to see strange silent craft in the sky, sometimes flying in formation, that would flare up and ebb down again after a week or so.

Everything from aliens to Black Helicopters were accused, but, people were probably just mistaking satellites and high flying commercial aircraft for these silent craft...

As someone said, the layperson is bad at both determining size and distance of aerial objects. And most people never even LOOK at the sky, so when they hear about all this strange stuff that's supposedly there? Suddenly 911 starts getting flooded with mass reports of something as benign as Venus that the callers swear "wasn't there before".
 
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Red Saltire said:
Maybe I'm just a paranoid schizo, but I feel like this is a WAY bigger deal than anyone seems to be realizing.
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Quite a few average people feel this way. Granted, the government and feds can't say much about ongoing investigations, but it sure seems like they either know more than they are letting on or they're acting like this is no big deal without explaining why this is a nothing burger 🍔. Even people I know who dislike Trump think he's right that the government knows more than they're letting on.

While allowing for the possibility this is much ado about nothing, there is also the possibility this is some sort of surveillance or spying on sensitive locations, ports of entry, potential infrastructure vulnerabilities, etc. Nobody knows and those that might know either cannot or will not say anything which is frustrating - especially for those dealing with this on a daily basis. I can't blame the Jersey Governor for wanting more done to address peoples' concerns. It's hard to say these drones don't pose a safety concern if it turns out there is a significant number of them and it's not people mistaking them with helicopters and other legitimate air traffic.
 
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I'm not going to quote the whole article, just the relevant part. From ZeroHedge:

NJ Drone 'Invasion' Just In Time For Congress To Reauthorize Orwellian Law (archive.ph)
X user mcm_ct_usa makes the point the purported drone sightings could be a "psyop against you to manipulate Congress into passing the new H.R.8610 (Counter-UAS Authority Security, Safety, and Reauthorization Act of 2024) which will include appropriations and enhanced government powers to control you, and they're even going so far as to use it to push for acts of war against other countries."

It's coincidental that last week, a Homeland Security joint subcommittee held a hearing on H.R.8610, the Counter-UAS Authority Security, Safety, and Reauthorization Act. This bill would renew and reform counter-UAS legal authorities and strengthen the FAA's oversight powers of drones.

"The reason we need legal authority is that without it, use of the most effective types of drone detection and counter-drone technologies could violate criminal laws, including those that prohibit destroying or disabling aircraft in flight and intercepting signals and communications," said Brad Wiegmann, the DOJ's deputy assistant attorney general for national security.

With current drone-countering authorities set to expire on Dec. 20, the sudden surge in purported drone sightings and the accompanying MSM and social media panic might make a bit more sense—as an effort to push for the reauthorization of Orwellian drone laws.
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https://www.congress.gov/bill/118th-congress/house-bill/8610/text/rh
 
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Kiwi Lime Pie said:
it's not people mistaking them with helicopters and other legitimate air traffic.
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It is, though. A number of these 'drones' have been confirmed to be commercial flights on approach with their landing lights on. Thanks to those plane-tracker apps that were used to stalk Elon and Taylor Swift you can look up any given area of the US and see what known traffic was flying at whatever time you happened to see some lights traversing the sky.
 
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clipartfan92 said:
NJ Drone 'Invasion' Just In Time For Congress To Reauthorize Orwellian Law
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And to remove any doubt in your mind, here's NY Governor Hochul telling you:
Mysterious drones shut down runways of NY airport, causing Hochul to demand feds step in: ‘Gone too far’ (archive.ph)
“In order to allow state law enforcement to work on this issue, I am now calling on Congress to pass the Counter-UAS Authority Security, Safety, and Reauthorization Act, first introduced back in June by Rep. Mark Green (R-TN).

“This bill would reform legal authorities to counter-UAS and strengthen the FAA’s oversight of drones, and would extend counter-UAS activities to select state and local law enforcement agencies,” she wrote in her statement. Counter-UAS stands for “counter unmanned aircraft system.”

“Extending these powers to New York State and our peers is essential. Until those powers are granted to state and local officials, the Biden Administration must step in by directing additional federal law enforcement to New York and the surrounding region to ensure the safety of our critical infrastructure and our people.”
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Have there been any pictures that aren't either other stuff or blurry lights? Has there been any information on the altitude of the drones? Does anyone know anything other than "there are drone in the sky"?
I found this article, but it contradicts itself.
Federal and state authorities have also categorically denied that the sightings over New Jersey have been of craft operated by government entities at any level, Michael Melham, Mayor of Belleville Township, said in a video he posted on Facebook about the “mayors-only” briefing he had attended. Whether or not they might be carrying any particular payload is currently unknown, he added.

“They operate in a coordinated manner. The lights are usually on and they’re blinking … but they do turn off at times, making it very difficult to detect. They appear to actually avoid detection by traditional methods,” according to Melham. “So when our helicopter, our state police helicopter, has gotten close, lights go off, and they go away. Makes it very, very difficult. We do not know and make and model. We don’t know anything else about them.”

“NJSP deployed helicopters … but could not detect drones, even with infrared cameras,” Assemblywoman Fantasia also wrote on X. “Suspended helicopter flights to investigate drones over safety concerns.”
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Did the lights of the drones go off when NJSP helicopters went right next to it, or did the NJSP not detect drones? If the helicopters saw a drone, why didn't they take a picture of it? I know that it would be dark and blurry, but a dark and blurry picture would be better than anything available now you stupid fucking trannycopter. Am I retarded and read this article wrong? What is happening?
 
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clipartfan92 said:
Don't worry citizen. There is nothing going on. The government would never lie to you. The government has your best interests at heart. Trust the government.
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My IoT 5G Bluetooth Smart Assistant AI tootbrush told me the exact same thing earlier today, but it feels reassuring to hear it again.
 
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The Gene Genie said:
Crossposting from other threads:

On today's episode of "The Shifting Script," John Kirby now says that the drones are actually aircraft and drones operated by law enforcement and the military, as well as hobbyists, and it's all perfectly legal and lawful.

If anyone believes this retard, turn in your brain card.
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This is literally what any sane person, especially people living inthe area had been saying since the news of these "drones" broke lmao. Guess the fear monger script about iranians failed to get adequate results of hysteria.
 
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