Christie: Without Federal Information ‘Drone Vigilantes’ Are Going to ‘Start Taking them Down’

Former Gov. Chris Christie (R-NJ) said Sunday on ABC’s “This Week” that given the absence of government information on the drone sightings in New Jersey, individuals will soon become “drone vigilantes” and “they’ll start taking them down.”

Christie said, “I lived in New Jersey my whole life. This is the first time that I’ve noticed drones over my house, and I was in a restaurant in Monmouth County on Friday night. I had people at the bar coming up to me and saying, Governor Murphy won’t tell me anything. The president won’t tell me anything. Do you know? Well, I don’t know, but I will tell you this. I think this is what happens in our society now, George, when because we’re used to having things so rapidly, if you don’t fill that vacuum, then all the conspiracy theories get filled in there.”

He continued, “You can’t have conspiracy theories filling the space, but the Biden Administration and state authorities have to be more vocal and let people know exactly what they’re doing.”

Christie added, “I would want our state police to be able to have the authority to bring those drones down and find out why they’re doing what they’re doin. Of course, you would have to coordinate with the FAA, but we do that kind of coordination both when I was U.S. attorney as a law enforcement officer, and as governor all the time to be able to have shared authority, but the states do not have enough authority now to do what they need to do. What we’re going to find, George, is you’re going to have individuals acting as drone vigilantes and they’ll start taking them down. That’s not what they want, because they’re now an important part of commerce and law enforcement uses them frequently for surveillance and other things. We need to be able to operate in a safe way and we’re not doing that.”

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