NY, NJ lawmakers demand feds stop gaslighting, start shooting down drones: Gone too far
Shoot to kill.A growing chorus of local officials in New Jersey and New York are demanding the feds stop gaslighting locals and finally shoot down a drone.Rep.Chris Smith (R-NJ) demanded Saturday the Pentagon open fire on one of the nearly 1,000 drones that’ve been spotted above the Garden State since Nov.
18, so answers can be had.“Why can’t we bag at least one drone and get to the bottom of this?” Smith wondered aloud during a press conference in Seaside Heights.“Why can’t we even track a suspect drone to its origin? Have we so little control over our airspace?”His demand came just hours after New York Gov.
Hochul declared it’s time to take action.“This has gone too far,” she said in a terse statement Saturday announcing that she asked federal authorities to authorize local police departments to shoot down drones.They echoed sentiments already expressed by concerned citizens and even President-elect Donald Trump, who said he wants the feds to shoot a drone out of the sky.
“Let the public know, and now,” Trump urged.“Otherwise, shoot them down!” The rising rhetoric comes on the heels of more alarming sightings.
Stewart International Airport in upstate Newburgh closed its runways for an hour Friday night after two drones were seen overhead.The commercial airport is adjacent to a New York Air National Guard base, where the 105th Airlift Wing is stationed.New Jersey’s largest utility, PSE&G, petitioned the FAA to halt all air traffic over two of its nuclear power plants — after drones were recently spotted over the sensitive sites.
It is the first time the company has made such an appeal.Most disturbing of all were accounts out of the Jersey Shore, where the military provided credible reports.In one, a 47-foot Coast Guard cutter was tailed by 13 to 30 drones on Dec.
9, the military branch confirmed.They were alerted to the drones over the Atlantic by the Ocean County Sheriff’s Office, which actually deployed its own dro...