Warrantless Surveillance Is An Unalloyed Evil, And Cannot Be Justified By Claiming A Reduction In Crime

This is an absolutely moronic take on a massive degradation of our civil liberties. It's difficult to underestimate the stupidity of this author, who seems to think that there is some balanced equation between our God-given, natural rights, and the destruction of those rights on the altar of safety.

Do Flock Cameras Actually Work?

It’s been a tough summer for automatic license plate readers (ALPRs). Earlier this month, the Washington Post reported that at least 50 police officers have been charged with or accused of misusing plate-reader networks, including for stalking wives, ex-girlfriends, and other women. One small-town Georgia police chief ran his ex-girlfriend’s plates roughly 600 times. California legislators took up the technology in hearings titled “Don’t Flock me,” a jab at Flock, the Atlanta company whose ALPRs now scan roads in more than 6,000 American communities. A backlash that began among left-leaning civil libertarians has spread to the populist Right, and city councils now face packed hearings on whether to keep the cameras.

The debate has become more heat than light. Both sides fixate on anecdotes, with supporters pointing to abducted children recovered after a timely plate hit, while critics list stories of rogue officers and plate data shared far beyond the agencies that collected this information. Neither answers a question that policymakers face: Does the technology produce enough public safety to justify its costs, in dollars and in privacy?

The list is long how we can make ourselves "safer." But as some very wise men understood, safety is a temporary condition that leads inexorably to totalitarianism.

Does that sound histrionic? Maybe, but provide a counter example please!

If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude than the animated contest of freedom - go home from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains sit lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen!

Those who would give up essential liberty, to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.

Government is fundamentally evil, and the expansion of its surveillance capacity simply makes it worse, and gives it more power over us. If anyone thinks that government is expanding its surveillance capacity because it will make us safer, then I have a bridge to sell you. They expand it, and all of its power, for one reason: control over the people.

We have to push back whenever we can, and Flock cameras are an excellent place to take a stand. And it's easy! Agitate against them in every public forum, starting with your local government council. And if you ever end up on a jury for a trial of someone who destroyed a Flock camera or any other onerous surveillance technology...you know what to do.

posted by CBD at 12:00 PM

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