Surveillance
Via Steve Benen, I’m shocked to learn that police surveillance power is sometimes abused:
The Maryland State Police surveillance of advocacy groups was far more extensive than previously acknowledged, with records showing that troopers monitored — and labeled as terrorists — activists devoted to such wide-ranging causes as promoting human rights and establishing bike lanes.
Intelligence officers created a voluminous file on Norfolk-based People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, calling the group a “security threat” because of concerns that members would disrupt the circus. Angry consumers fighting a 72 percent electricity rate increase in 2006 were targeted. The DC Anti-War Network, which opposes the Iraq war, was designated a white supremacist group, without explanation.
See, I’d been soundly informed by everyone in the conservative movement plus many leading Democratic Party politicians and all manner of sensible centrists that allowing unlimited government surveillance power is the only reasonable response to terrorism. Obviously, anyone raising concerns about this sort of thing just doesn’t understand that it would be bad if there were to be a successful terrorist attack. And folks concerned about abuse of this kind of power clearly belong to some kind of tinfoil hat cult. Or something.
It seems Amnesty International was among the targeted groups, perhaps out of an impish sense of irony.
29 Responses to “Surveillance”
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January 4th, 2009 at 10:29 am
Maybe my cinical meter is off
January 4th, 2009 at 10:31 am
Yeah, I want some nearly illiterate, overgrown hall monitor watching over me.
Law enforcement is welfare for those too dumb to be honest criminals.
January 4th, 2009 at 10:42 am
You don’t see the existential threat to the American way of life from bicyclists?
January 4th, 2009 at 10:43 am
It seems Amnesty International was among the targeted groups, perhaps out of an impish sense of irony.
I don’t think cops do impish irony. But you were probably being sarcastic.
January 4th, 2009 at 11:16 am
Shit, I often think my comments are clever, now I see they are merely based upon my impish sense of irony. I resolve to raise my sense of irony to the non-impish level.
January 4th, 2009 at 11:17 am
Why do bicyclists hate America so much?
January 4th, 2009 at 11:40 am
Man, I figured Sunday would have a little less snark.
But I think over the next 4-8 years, we’ll see more of these cases disclosed
January 4th, 2009 at 11:42 am
But Matthew! Don’t you like being spied on? I like being spied on, just like I am right now! It makes me feel all cuddly.
max
['Remember, if you really want to live in a secure enviroment, you really need to turn the world into a prison camp.']
January 4th, 2009 at 12:10 pm
Is this a funding thing? Do the police departments get Homeland Security funds for watching over terrorist organizations vs. having to use their normal budgets? Couldn’t that be why they are so creative in their use of labels? Outside of a full moon influenced impish irony, that is…
January 4th, 2009 at 12:44 pm
Matt: “It seems Amnesty International was among the targeted groups, perhaps out of an impish sense of irony.”
There’s nothing impish about cops – they’re fucking assholes who put on a badge because it allows them to fuck people over and even shoot them for no reason.
Always has been, always will be – until we Transhumans exterminate their asses, along with prison guards, politicians and priests.
January 4th, 2009 at 1:00 pm
Re Richard Steven Hack
There’s nothing impish about cops – they’re fucking assholes who put on a badge because it allows them to fuck people over and even shoot them for no reason.
Especially the cops that arrested bank robber Hack as he tried to board a bus with his ill-gotten loot.
January 4th, 2009 at 2:05 pm
Another great, CAP-level post from MattY, substituting snark for anything remotely approaching a balanced analysis. If MattY wants to try to go beyond a CAP-level of thinking, try rolling in things like LynneStewart, BlackBloc, this, etc. I don’t think MattY can do that, because he’s shown time and time again that CAP is right at his level.
January 4th, 2009 at 4:19 pm
Oh hell, baited by a troll again. Can’t help myself, like a doggie on a hamburger…
@ 24ahead
What, pray tell, would a “balanced analysis” be of the kind of blatantly stupid surveillance and listing of groups like the one in the story? ::snark alert:: We all know that terrorists need cheap electricity in order to plot their crimes, right? And they’ll get there by bike?
jeesus H.
January 5th, 2009 at 12:06 am
Being outside of the beltway, and thus shielded from the standard idiocy, I have no idea what 24AheadDotCom is trying to say. None.
I’m at a disadvantage, of course, as my first language is English, not gibberish.
January 5th, 2009 at 1:50 am
Millions of Americans are regularly hurt by adverse (& incorrect) data without their knowledge in employment decisions in hiring, retaining and promoting. This is done with the tacit support of government entities protecting “investigative” systems and records. As an individual you will not be able to obtain any records, FOIA and PA requests notwithstanding. However, if you’re a corporation or business entity as defined in tier 1 or 2 of federal acquisition regulations, you should be able to obtain a “suitability” finding in minutes. – A Do Not Work (Non-suitable) List. It is kind of like a “NO FLY” list except for the number of suicides. – shock n’ awe – Govt and Corp Attorneys working in partnership
January 5th, 2009 at 8:29 am
It occurred to me reading this article that on top of the obvious, utter wrongness and laziness of this, maybe there was more than just a touch of self-aggrandizement in it. That one called Lucy McDonald was doing what one said was “low-risk training exercise” – maybe she just wanted to make what she was doing look really important.
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