H01762
Headlines : Civil LibertiesSpying On Citizens
The recent rise in government surveillance of constitutionally protected freedom of expression is reminiscent of one of the ugliest times in our history: The 1950s McCarthy era, when random witch hunts by Sen. Joe McCarthy ruined decent people’s lives on false or flimsy accusations that they had spoken favorably of communism, or knew people who had. Whatever their politics, Americans today should be appalled that law enforcement agencies are — at the Bush administration’s urging — creating files on people simply for expressing their views. Such spying on citizens can only undermine our democracy, not strengthen it. Patriotic voices everywhere should rise to stop this abomination, for the sake of all our freedoms.
[Posted By ShiftShapers]Republished from FloridaToday.com
The American tradition of free speech is under attack across the country, as law enforcement agencies — under the guise of the war on terror — intimidate ordinary citizens into silence.
The videotaping by Melbourne police of 36 demonstrators outside City Hall protesting President Bush’s inauguration is just one more in a series of such intolerable incidents nationwide.
Similar surveillance has been reported in Washington, D.C., Philadelphia, New York, San Francisco and in small and large cities across America — and it must end.
“I can’t believe this is happening in our country,” said Rebecca Boettcher, one of the Melbourne protesters and the mother of a former Marine who served in Iraq.
Boettcher, 57, was near tears as she and five others named in a Brevard County Sheriff’s Office report on the Jan. 20 demonstration went to the sheriff’s Melbourne office Monday.
They were seeking the files deputies had secretly collected on them — files the department must deliver, completely and promptly.
And they wanted to know why the sheriff’s report tagged them as “persons of interest.”
Of interest for what?
“Protesting in an anti-government assembly,” says sheriff’s spokesman Sgt. Andrew Walters.
In other words, the sheriff’s department calls a peaceful expression of opinion about Bush’s policy on Iraq…
Posted by ShiftShapers
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wow crazy. i remember the cops video taping us at the austin anti-bush protests….i didnt think anything of it till now.
Yeah, this is pretty fucked up, but I do have a problem with this part –
So, if they were truly an anti-government (ie. “anarchists”) assembly, and were all strapping young folks people would say this is fine?
I suggest doing an inventory in your home and remove anything that can be considered illegal, such as video recordings of movies aired on television or other, maybe that cannabis cigarette butt, the rifle, shotgun, or hunting knife you either used to use or was handed down to you as the result of a death of a family member.
I would also include removing all anti-gov./activist literature like that magazine, flyer, underground newspaper. I would remove any confederate flag or other flag that could be interpted as supporting the opposition or as I like to think, “ The contrary to the to the positive ray.”
And… lets not forget that computer hard drive, memory chips, processor and any disc’s floppy or CD. You might want to rig these items to burn rapidly. A fireplace would be handy, but one could set up their computer to have the hard drive attached on the outside of your computer chassis/tower and when the Fed’s come beating on the door…. You could quickly pull out the hard drive and destroy it.
Here’s a tip… Use a 5 to 8 pund sled hammer and hammer the hard drive on a concrete subfloor or garage floor. The metal disc in the hard drive are very hard and the hard drive case is built for strength.
My point is this. The police state inwhich we live under these days will hack your computer online silently, watch your activities, and invade your castle and use anything they can find against you to prove their case that you are a terrorist or person of interest.
But don’t worry, they (the gov.) will manufacture evidence to incriminate you so they can take all that you have auction it off and place you in jail as a felon.
That’s what they do… take you liberties, money, freedom, and destroy your reputation.
US_Dissident
Sis, but of course, “freedom of expression” in America has always actually meant of “tolerated” expression; often it is less obvious, or the range of “tolerated” expression more broad, so it was often less noticed. But the mentality has ALWAYS been there.
This really isn’t anything new.
The highway patrol here in Missouri has been doing it for years at all kinds of places and events to monitor who’s where and what they’re doing.
Oh yeah – if you’re wanting to get rid of a harddrive or any other computer component- Harddrive platters can be read after almost anything you can do to it. The FAT retains almost all data that’s ever been written to a disk – the only way to REALLY get rid of it is to format the drive about eight times. You CAN stick a large magnet to it (make sure it’s a really strong one) and that MIGHT get rid of the data that you want to get rid of (be sure if you do this to move the magnet very close to the drive in circular motions), but you’re probably not going to have time to do that if the man comes to your door. About the best thing you can do if you’re wanting to get rid of computer components involves magnesium or thermate.
If there is a terrorist attack, and the cops need to tie evidence found at the scene with these groups, the cops need to identify these people. If a bomb goes off in DC killing hundreds of commuters or something, don’t you think that they should start looking at these far left groups. Like the filth that hands around Cindy Sheehan.
Often video survaillance experts may match a person who left a suitcase bomb with one the people at a sheehan event.
But I do strongly believe that the cops mustn’t use the surveillance to harrass innocent people. There is nothing wrong with just attending a far left event. We need hoevere, to be vigiliant against potential terrorists.