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Patriot act sees Americans abused.

 


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The government is using the Patriot act to abuse americans daily.

Read an excerpt from an article about a man from Wichita whose home was searched illegally and unconstitutionally:

In a recent motion to suppress any evidence from the search, defense lawyer Charles O'Hara argued that the Patriot Act was meant for "serious matters involving national security," not drug cases like the one involving his client, Tyrone Andrews.

"I thought that this Patriot Act was something passed to protect us all from these terrorist acts, and it would be used very judiciously," O'Hara said Monday. "This doesn't seem to be one where these secret searches would be used."

Jim Cross, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's Office in Wichita, said the office "believes the evidence in this case was legally obtained."

"I think our legal arguments are clearly stated in the documents we have filed," Cross said. He said he couldn't comment further because the case is before a federal court.

and then later in the article:

O'Hara said: "I don't know that I've seen a warrant like this before."
MaxStirner
Although here in Germany we can't match the likes of a Patriot Act or of Guantanamo, we do though have a hawk at the head of the Ministry of the Interior who does not tire in his attempts to enact laws allowing the state more freedom in areas such as surveillance, due process and especially information gathering. His suggestions always begin with the explanation that these laws are for the very few, for special cases, for hardened criminals or, the biggie that allows most laws to pass: THE TERRORIST (yikes!). Somehow most citizens have too short a memory and fail to recognize that the state will always attempt to increase its leverage and exhaust all possibilities in applying enacted laws and statutes as broadly as we will allow it. The personal information and biometric data I had to relinquish when I applied for my last passport is by now stored in snarl of replicated databases around the globe and well outside anyone's control. I'll expect it to turn up at the local supermarket some time so it can be linked to my shopping habits (... hmm, I better not buy that shish-kebab, I need to fly overseas next week ...).
LumberJack
Increased surveillance does not do anything to deter crime or terrorist, just look at England and their wretched CCTV system. If anything, all it might do is provide some evidence after the fact. Better to spend your time and resources elsewhere...
MaxStirner
LumberJack wrote:
Increased surveillance does not do anything to deter crime or terrorist, just look at England and their wretched CCTV system. If anything, all it might do is provide some evidence after the fact. Better to spend your time and resources elsewhere...


Although you are correct, quite a few of our beloved political representatives over here do not tire of pointing to the U.K. as the paradigm of what should be done. I'm afraid that, besides simple actionism, they harbor (perhaps warranted) hopes that technologies such as face recognition* will come of age and allow authorities to link this live data to databases already in place. Together with the tracking of cell phones, credit cards, vehicle plates, flight booking, DNA-databases, ... this can become truly dangerous, especially if the data is linked and cross-referenced correctly.

* = Face Recognition: as far as I'm informed, this technology is still less than completely reliable, but is slowly reaching a point where sufficient processing power and memory will allow the construction of a reliable mass-recognition-system in real-time.

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George needs to write a sequel, call it "2084"
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