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posted by takyon on Friday April 17 2015, @12:30AM   Printer-friendly
from the unrestricted-protestspace dept.

A protester landed a one-man gyrocopter on the Capitol lawn in Washington D.C. to deliver letters to Congress urging real campaign finance reform:

A 61-year-old Florida mailman was arrested Wednesday after he landed a gyrocopter on the US Capitol west lawn. The gyrocopter was carrying the pilot and 535 stamped letters for members of Congress urging "real reform" to campaign finance laws.

Doug Hughes told the Tampa Bay Times ahead of the afternoon stunt that he notified authorities "well over an hour in advance of getting to the no-fly zone, so they know who I am and what I'm doing."

Bloomberg has this analysis of the aftermath, and Tampa Bay Times has video of the incident from multiple angles. Hughes live streamed his flight on a blog entitled The Democracy Club. Ben Montgomery, a reporter from the Tampa Bay Times, knew about the planned flight for months and traveled to D.C. to witness it, but only informed the Capitol Police and Secret Service after Hughes was in the air. Hughes contacted Montgomery after Secret Service questioned him in 2014. The FAA is investigating the incident.

How long before copycats start doing the same at the personal addresses of Congressmen, Supreme Court Justices, and others?

Update: Doug Hughes has been charged with knowingly operating an unregistered aircraft (a felony punishable by up to three years in prison) and violating national defense airspace (punishable by up to one year in prison).

Hughes was released after the hearing, on condition that he observe home detention until his next court date in the capital city, on 8 May.

He was ordered to surrender his passport and banned from flying any aircraft, and must report to the authorities once a week. He was also charged with operating an unregistered aircraft.

 
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  • (Score: 5, Insightful) by tathra on Friday April 17 2015, @01:42AM

    by tathra (3367) on Friday April 17 2015, @01:42AM (#171834)

    pretty sad that the only way a citizen can get their representative's attention is either with large sums of money or stunts like this that get you locked up, and we all know that only the former will actually have any kind of effect.

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  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by takyon on Friday April 17 2015, @01:53AM

    by takyon (881) <reversethis-{gro ... s} {ta} {noykat}> on Friday April 17 2015, @01:53AM (#171839) Journal

    They will pass a bill with tougher penalties for violating airspace.

    There will be no talk of campaign finance reform [npr.org].

    --
    [SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
  • (Score: 2) by PartTimeZombie on Friday April 17 2015, @03:27AM

    by PartTimeZombie (4827) on Friday April 17 2015, @03:27AM (#171870)

    It seems to me that our leaders are frightened of us, and seek to keep the ordinary people as far away from them as possible.
    This is not only an American thing, I don't live in The US, and yet I recently saw our Prime Minister in public. He was surrounded by armed Police, (they are called the Diplomatic Protection Squad, and they are about the only Police that routinely carry firearms here). There was no way any member of the general public could get within about 10 metres of him.
    Later that night I saw a news report about his day out, and it was presented as if he was surrounded by smiling happy folk. That's not what I saw.
     

    • (Score: 3, Insightful) by tathra on Friday April 17 2015, @04:29AM

      by tathra (3367) on Friday April 17 2015, @04:29AM (#171880)

      government should be afraid of its citizens, rather than citizens afraid of their government, however this shouldn't apply to individuals - there's no reason for a politician to be afraid of the people he represents. this feels like the 'lords' don't want to mingle with the peons and don't want the filthy poor getting them dirty.

    • (Score: 2) by kaszz on Friday April 17 2015, @10:15AM

      by kaszz (4211) on Friday April 17 2015, @10:15AM (#171965) Journal

      The problem is that there's always a very real threat to people in position of power regardless of them doing good or bad. So they have to surround themselves with guards and keep the distance. But one could always pat people down and allow them to be near.

      Some big figures actually went on to handshake with ordinary people in foreign countries to the horror of the security services. So if there's a will there will be contact.