Show Me the Man and I'll Find You the Crime
"Show me the man and I'll find you the crime."
-- Lavrentiy Beria
http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2012/12/gov-dossiers-on-us-citizens/
"Earlier this year, Attorney General Eric Holder granted the center the ability to copy entire government databases ... even without suspicion that someone in the database has committed a crime ...
... the new powers give the center the ability to not only collect ... information but also to ... analyze it for suspicious patterns ... in order to uncover activity that could launch an investigation."
The definition of "police state" is not that police, soldiers or gov't agents are arresting you left and right or barging into your house all the time to search it. It's when police, soldiers, or gov't agents *could* arrest you or barge into your house anytime on whatever pretext and there wouldn't be much in terms of legal redress or protection left available to you, either because your basic rights to these things have been vacated (for all practical purposes) or anyone who might not be in jail who could or wants to rise to your defense is understandably afraid to do so over concerns the same thing'll happen to them.
Are we there yet? I'm not ready to say we are. But is the infrastructure in place for it? Yes. And as I have said before, rarely in history is a tool or weapon invented that does not get used, eventually, even if it's fundamentally wicked in its nature.
-- Lavrentiy Beria
http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2012/12/gov-dossiers-on-us-citizens/
"Earlier this year, Attorney General Eric Holder granted the center the ability to copy entire government databases ... even without suspicion that someone in the database has committed a crime ...
... the new powers give the center the ability to not only collect ... information but also to ... analyze it for suspicious patterns ... in order to uncover activity that could launch an investigation."
The definition of "police state" is not that police, soldiers or gov't agents are arresting you left and right or barging into your house all the time to search it. It's when police, soldiers, or gov't agents *could* arrest you or barge into your house anytime on whatever pretext and there wouldn't be much in terms of legal redress or protection left available to you, either because your basic rights to these things have been vacated (for all practical purposes) or anyone who might not be in jail who could or wants to rise to your defense is understandably afraid to do so over concerns the same thing'll happen to them.
Are we there yet? I'm not ready to say we are. But is the infrastructure in place for it? Yes. And as I have said before, rarely in history is a tool or weapon invented that does not get used, eventually, even if it's fundamentally wicked in its nature.
posted by Matt Campbell at 9:21 PM
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