Rising Hegemon
In a secret test of mass surveillance technology, the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department sent a civilian aircraft* over Compton, California, capturing high-resolution video of everything that happened inside that 10-square-mile municipality. Compton residents weren't told about the spying, which happened in 2012. "We literally watched all of Compton during the times that we were flying, so we could zoom in anywhere within the city of Compton and follow cars and see people," Ross McNutt of Persistence Surveillance Systems told the Center for Investigative Reporting, which unearthed and did the first reporting on this important story. The technology he's trying to sell to police departments all over America can stay aloft for up to six hours.And I'm sure there's a profit to be made in undercutting a civil right. Sorry, soon there will be profit to be made in the essential governmental function of insuring no one has an expectation of privacy, which is no longer one of those important rights. [cross-posted at Firedoglake]
Thursday, April 24, 2014
The Creeping National Security State...getting even creepier
Behold your benevolent dictated future (oh those hip California trend setters)
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4 comments:
The security state expects us to justify our right to privacy with the tagline - if you have nothing to hide. . . . watching isn't an intrusion. . . . think of all the bad people we will catch.
But it IS bullshit. Unfortunately the Bush courts gave them all a pass, established precedence and put us on the defensive - where we have to justify our "right" to privacy.
The 4th Amendment has gone the way of the 1st, the 5th . . . .
"He later explains that while the public may think its against this, we'll get used to it"... will they justify their spying by saying how many crimes were prevented?I wonder if all involved are still receiving public paychecks?
The Security State will be very rigorous in defending privacy -- of its own operations, that is. Any request for information about what the government is doing will be met with the latest "national security" excuses, and the catchphrase "Why would you want to know, unless you've got something to hide."
Cheap nostalgia for Cold War McCarthyist paranoia.
We are ruled by thugs. Heavy, Cheney-esque thugs under Repukes, and slightly lighter-touch thugs under the Dems, but the Thug State continues unabated.
And somewhere Antonin Scalia is growing a giant boner and thinking, Goddam, I can't wait to give this one my blessing in court."
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