Using your cab to dust off protesters
 

Lots of images/video doing the rounds of what is reportedly a Customs/Border Patrol Squirrel using rotor wash to move on protesters in MN, USA.

Not a comment on the protest as I've no info on that one way or another, but not sure I'd be comfortable hovering at that height over a crowd in what looks like a single Squirrel? Seems like DC last year all over again!

To be fair he isn't actually over the top of the people and a gentle forward and down following a power loss would keep him clear of them.

Downwash can be a useful tool - I have done similar to discourage a stone throwing mob of youths in Northern Ireland many years ago.

He did for $200, what acouple of patrol car can do for $20

Same as crab, sandblasted a couple of kids slinging rocks at my 412 in Mog. Never saw them again. Once more at a chippy golfer that drove one over top of my landing helicopter at a driving range - I mean, there just happened to be a convenient sand trap in front of him. Fool.

my question is when did it become Border Patrols jurisdiction in a pipeline dispute?
I didn't see any violence from that group of protestors so whats the end game here?
I get using mutual aid resources if that's what it was here...but that's well over the accepted line if you ask me.


just typical US law enforcement flexing??

It also used to work a treat moving on an illegal “travellers” site just outside Merryfield. Allegedly. That and M84 grenades. Again all apocryphal. Possibly.

It didn’t seem to move anyone on.
A water cannon is much more effective, and provides bunny huggers with a much needed bath :E

Wonder what starting up a Thunderscreech would do amongst the protesters...

It seems to work against the right of US people under their constitution to protest peacefully.

It is insinuated that protesters had entered a facility and attached themselves to machinery. Were they in the centre of that whirlwind of dust behind the hoardings? Not yet proven but I will not be surprised if images emerge proving that they were.

low over BLM crowds in Washington turned out to be an embarrassment for the National Guard and there is a danger that this might go a similar way unless they get the law enforcement defence story out first. This could damage airborne law enforcement across the USA unless it is rebuffed pretty damn quick.

Well, last winter similar activities to get people of icy lake in Berlin.
Evenso, it works, as a pilot you have to consider, that you are responsible for the safe operation of the helicopter without damaging or injuring either passengers or people and property on the ground.
What would you say in court, if debris was blown into an eye of somebody on the ground and the eye went blind?

What would you say if it did?

If they had been told it was an unlawful assembly, they were protesting without a Permit, that they were trespassing....and were ordered to leave...what would you say then?

The First Amendment does have limits.

Dust blown by a helicopter is far less noxious than Tear Gas.

Besides....the Perps would be identifiable from a mile away as they would look like dust bowl refugees from Oklahoma!

Hi sasless,

thats what the Nazis said also, we had orders….
It might be legal in the US - but it also shows a mindset.
As a pilot I check the risks via the benefits - and that not only for me and the crew but also for the people on the ground.
If they dont move and its just anoying for them, is the risk of blowing particels into unprotected eyes acceptable?

The pilot is also a police officer responsible for enforcing the law.
Rubber bullets, tear gas and water cannons are not exactly painless either.
As far as brutal interventions go, this seems quite low down on the US can-do list.

Isn't there a Rule on Internet decorum....the first to call someone else a Nazi....loses the argument?

I would suggest you doth protest too much.....dusting off a crowd of protesters is a very far cry from murdering Millions of people as the Nazi's did.

The dusting was done once...and no one was killed....if that was an act of a Nazi....it was a gross failure by the standards set by the German variety.

Hi folks,
You might have had only eyes for the helicopter
to get things into perspectice - watch the video again - no rioters but mainly women with short trousers and so on
and - not only dust blown but finger long parts.
would you park your car there, if you would know the helicopter is coming?
Would you like your wife or daughter treated like that?
Arent that the questions, the pilot should ask himself beforehand?
And isnt of saying no one of the things a pilot should be able to?

Gee, I only saw one woman in short trousers...and a hippie pointing his finger long parts into the sky.

You are right though,..I would not park my car on that road.:\

One look at the US based Facebook helicopter pilot groups shows US helicopter pilots were almost universally in favor of that operation. The cultural differences between Euro and US pilots are interesting.

"One look".....gee...now that is sure a definitive analysis of the totality of the responses.

Care to tell us what the difference is....why that is interesting to you?

Lay it out for us will you?

There is nothing more definitive than a facebook group. There you have it.
That 7 & 8's is only now working out that the US is different from the rest of the world is definitely interesting, everyone else got that memo ages ago.