then they came for the reporters

[dilletante]

the most alarming thing i can recall seeing so far related to the "occupy" protests, which i've been following only vaguely, was that police during one of the early evictions-- oakland? seattle? i don't remember where, and can't seem to find references to it now-- told the press to go away... and they didin any case it's nice to see at last (via

Comments

[xuth]

Filtered through lots of crap, there is one specific incident that seems widely reported after lots of updates and corrections. It's that one of the news helicopters was ordered by ATC to move and the pilot "misunderstood" that to mean that they weren't allowed in the area. From what I understand, you pretty much don't question ATC, but on a cursory search I couldn't find the actual exchange with ATC. One can go to http://liveatc.net and listen to live feeds and recordings (up to 50 days old) of many ATC frequencies. But I'm not certain _which_ ATC frequency and specific time to check (I scanned through the half hour/frequency recording that I thought most likely contained the message but found nothing. It's a pain to scan through the audio recordings though).

That aside, there is also aircraft to aircraft communications for coordinating low altitude interactions that aren't necessarily monitored (but if I understand correctly are on a standard frequency nationwide but not specifically recorded by anyone in the vicinity) and who knows what went on there.

But it seems very clear that the news choppers felt that they weren't supposed to be there, mistaken or not.

[wombats]

only 7 airports to filter through for a conversation that i don't yet no the timing ... piece of cake. bleh.

as for obeying ATC, yeah, it's the rules of flying. if you're in the airspace controlled by a specific air traffic control tower, you MUST obey what they say unless you declare an emergency. either not obeying ATC or declaring an emergency will get the attention of the Feds and they have absolute power over the status of your license as a pilot. the FAA is definitely one of those groups that has no discernible sense of humor.