Re: Off Topic: Basic Assumptions

["Laura Walker" <LJW6626@worldnet.att.net>]

Margaret --

I read that NYC was going to institute this law beginning in January; I
wondered, at the time, about how far we are moving to a police state.  Given
some of the recent articles I've read (e.g., cops in Florida are adding
sophisticated "James Bond" like technology to their state patrol cars to
apprehend automobiles and drivers suspected of running drug rings).
Apparently, drug thugs are using this new tech-nology to alert/signal their
dealers on the highway, in order to transfer the product, so cops are
stepping up their efforts in this regard.

I've also read and heard about new driver's license laws (D.C. for one) that
require every person who must take the written and driver's exam to answer
specific questions about a) their previous history of mental health (e.g.,
do they take antidepressants or other such drugs), and b) questions about
former problems with alcohol and/or drugs.  That people just go along with
this -- either lying or answering without questioning -- boggles the mind!

I said to a friend the other day that the biggest challenge we are facing
well into the next century is the entire magilla of privacy.  Every-time I
turn around, there are new technologies being developed (e.g., the cop/drug
thugs "Bond" cars) that have the potential for such abuse by the
companies/agencies developing and using it, that it's truly Orwellian  in
nature.

My feeling is that what we read and hear about is simply the tip of a VERY
BIG iceberg.  My guess is that corporations and government agencies have
been involved in developing such technology for years (witness the CIA's
covert use of national driver's license registration programs).

I hope to spend more time on some of these issues soon, especially since
they just keep cropping up -- like bushels of bad apples...

Laura
-----Original Message-----
From: Margaret Tarbet <tarbet@swaa.com>
To: Multiple recipients of list NOPRIVACY <noprivacy@essential.org>
Date: Monday, February 22, 1999 2:13 PM
Subject: Re: Off Topic: Basic Assumptions


>       NEW YORK (CNN) -- Two suspected drunken drivers are the first
>to have their cars seized by New York City police under a tough new
>policy aimed at reducing traffic deaths.  New York is the first
>municipality in the nation to seize the vehicles of motorists
>arrested for driving while intoxicated.
>
>The New York Civil Liberties Union has attacked the crackdown as
>excessive and vows to challenge it in court, arguing you can't
>punish someone without a conviction.
>
>http://www.cnn.com/US/9902/22/dwi.auto.seizures/
>
>
>Fourth Amendment, anyone?   One more proto-fascist nibble.
>
>Anyone on this list not a member of the ACLU wants their head read.
>