Police in Pedwood City, California recently began using sophisticated hidden listening devices to patrol high-crime areas where gunfire has become all too common. They're so sensitive that gunfire can be traced to within 10 yards of its place of origin. In Addition, authorities are installing cameras capable of monitoring areas as large as 16 city blocks on a 24-hour-a-day basis high above the streets.
Similar setups are being considered in other cities and may soon appear in the nation's capital -- a notorious center of violence and illicit drug activity.
If the devices enhance police effectiveness, other cities may be outfitted with similar equipment. Imagine a seeing-eye camera looming overhead every day on the streets of your town - Through the use of such audio and video devices. police will be able to compile a round-the-clock record of nearly every event that transpires on the streets, on the sidewalks and in the alleys in a wired neighborhood. Some equipment is capabl e of peeking inside windows and detecting such things as small marijuana "farms" flourishing under artificial lights.
Many citizens believe their lives will be safer as a result of the surveillance cameras and listening devices. But their use inevitably raises privacy issues. especially if the authorities probe outside a public space. Police concede, for example, that they would have the capability to listen in on conversations in private homes.
Already. the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit in Denver has ventured into the legal quagmire that may result. It ruled that police can't use an imager to scan homes without first obtaining search warrants - Other courts, howeve r, have held that using the imagers does not infringe upon Fourth Amendment protection against unreasonable search and seizure.
Randle Coyne, a professor of law at the university of Oklahoma and a specialist in privacy issues, told me in an interview that such devices "in and of themselves constitute an illegal search."
Placing cameras and listening devices in high-crime areas "won' t resolve problems of violence and drugs" he said. "Dealers will simply scatter to less-crowded areas away from hangouts known to police."
An Upper Chichester, PA housewife said she thinks the equipment represents an invasion of her privacy. "If I lived in a high-crime area, I think I would look at it differently. I don't think I'd want to be monitored every time I walked out of my house. The all-seeing camera would see me whether I liked it or not . I 'm not sure I could yet used to that sort of thing."
In Camden, NJ, 23-year-old Carlos Rodriguez, who works in a fast-food restaurant, looked at the surveillance equipment in a different way. I'm glad to hear about it. It sounds just like what we need in Camden. Guys are shooting up the place every day. Drug deals go down day and night. Nobody's safe here. The police can't solve our problems. So we need something like cameras on the street. Then the law would see just who's perpetrating these crimes that leave our people dead. I hope they bring the equipment to Camden. And I hope they do it soon.
In Redwood City, a commission made up of citizens of the area has been established to determine whether the surveillance equipment will become permanent. The betting is that people will feel safer having the police looking in on them than having crimi nals roaming freely.
Claude Lewis, Columnist
The News-Sentinel
Divisive: disagreeing with the Establishment position on any issue.
Inclusive: agreeing with the Establishment position on any issue.
Racist; disagreeing with such racist programs as affirmative action and quotas.
Sexist: disagreeing with any part of the feminist agenda.
Homophobic: disagreeing with any part of the homosexual political agenda.
Xenophobic: believing that the American government has the duty to control the borders of the United States.
Extremist: 3 a synonym of divisive disagreeing with the Establishment position on any issue.
Protectionist: anyone who thinks the U.S. trade laws should be fair.
Anti-environment: a belief in property rights.
Anti-Semitic: disagreeing with the Israeli lobby, especially on its claim to the US treasury.
Multi-culturalism; belief in the absolute superiority of all cultures except that of the northern Europeans.
Free speech: any speech directed at agreeing with and supporting an Establishment position, also covers such actions as lap dancing, pornography and flag burning.
Hate speech: any speech disagreeing with an Establishment position; words employed by extremists (see above definition); also. words spoken in explanation of Judeo-Christian morality.
Isolationist: someone who believes American armed forced should defend America and American interests; also someone who believes the United States should remain an independent country.
Tolerance: synonym of inclusive; agreeing with Establishment position on all issues.
Intolerance: disagreeing with Establishment positions.
Bigotry; belief in the Judeo-Christian morality.
Liberalism; belief in paganism, hedonism, internationalism and socialism. Synonyms include progressive and Democrat.
Fascist; anyone disagreeing with socialism.
As you can see, we may all use the same words, but not all mean the same things. The Establishment prefers to use words as weapons rather than as communication tools.
Big Brother in George Orwell's novel "1984" explains how it works:
"The past is whatever the records and the memories agreed upon - And
since the party is in full control of all records. and in equally full
control of the minds of its members, it follows that the past is whatever
the party chooses to make it. Six mea ns 18, two plus two equal five, war
is peace, freedom is slavery, ignorance is strength.
Charlie Reese
Times-Union
March 6, 1996
Police routinely refuse to reveal their source of a rumor about the forfeiture target; some policemen have likely invented anonymous informants to give them a pretext to take private property they covet.
Although the number of asset forfeiture actions has skyrocketed in recent years. Justice department officials apparently believe that the seizure bull market has only just begun. If Congress proposed to forcibly alter all private deeds and titles in t he United States by adding a clause stating that the government acquires automatic ownership rights if any law- enforcement official hears a rumor about a property's possible illicit use, the public backlash would raze Capitol Hill. But, increasingly, that is the law of the land.
James Bovard
The Freeman
The IRS also admits that it files about 3,000 criminal charges per year nationwide. Therefore, at current criminal prosecution rates, it will take the IRS about 500 years to prosecute everyone who stopped filing just last year, and at least 2,000 year s to prosecute the entire backlog of (at least) 10 million non-filers.
Ian H. Marcusson
Anti-Shyster
"Relating to the registration of certain paramilitary organizations, with penalty provisions" begins HP 798, introduced by state Pep Pill Cratz (R - Jefferson City). Gratz claims the new law is needed to "aid law enforcement in tracking militia groups."
Gratz said that while the US and Missouri constitution clearly allow for the formation of citizen militias, these groups -- "if their intentions are honorable" -- should not mind having to announce themselves to state authorities.
However, various militia leaders around the country sharply disagree with Gratz's view that the militia should be required to "register" with any state or federal entity. One leader, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the proposal was a blatant "privacy violation." He added that registration is nothing more than a thinly veiled attempt to identify and later criminalize militia groups.
Gratz said that registering militias would give law enforcement "another group of people to look at" if terrorist bombings occur inside Missouri or elsewhere.
USA Featured Syndicate
An ABC news investigation quoted U.S. officials as saying the bills were so good as to pass inspection through detection machines at Federal Reserve banks. However, because the "0" in "OF" across the top of the bill is somewhat flattened, the bogus cu rrency has been dubbed the "flat-top 0." The right-hand arm of the "T" in "THE" often is severed as well; newer versions of the bills have addressed these deficiencies, the report said.
One unnamed White House official said the "counterfeiting of U S currency could be considered an act of war. Iranian officials denied any involvement in the alleged counterfeiting scheme.
Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin said the alleged counterfeiting is unrelated to the recently announced redesign of the $100 bill. Rubin said there were no plans to recall existing $100 bills.
Media Bypass
EDITOR NOTE: Wait a minute...didn't we read the redesign of the $100 bill was because of the counterfeiting?????
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