This Is Scary

[LansingAreaCaregiver]

Original Source: http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,2013150,00.html

 

Government agents can sneak onto your property in the middle of the night, put a GPS device on the bottom of your car and keep track of everywhere you go. This doesn't violate your Fourth Amendment rights, because you do not have any reasonable expectation of privacy in your own driveway — and no reasonable expectation that the government isn't tracking your movements.

 

That is the bizarre — and scary — rule that now applies in California and eight other Western states. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, which covers this vast jurisdiction, recently decided the government can monitor you in this way virtually anytime it wants — with no need for a search warrant. (See a TIME photoessay on Cannabis Culture.)

 

It is a dangerous decision — one that, as the dissenting judges warned, could turn America into the sort of totalitarian state imagined by George Orwell. It is particularly offensive because the judges added insult to injury with some shocking class bias: the little personal privacy that still exists, the court suggested, should belong mainly to the rich.

 

This case began in 2007, when Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agents decided to monitor Juan Pineda-Moreno, an Oregon resident who they suspected was growing marijuana. They snuck onto his property in the middle of the night and found his Jeep in his driveway, a few feet from his trailer home. Then they attached a GPS tracking device to the vehicle's underside.

 

After Pineda-Moreno challenged the DEA's actions, a three-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit ruled in January that it was all perfectly legal. More disturbingly, a larger group of judges on the circuit, who were subsequently asked to reconsider the ruling, decided this month to let it stand. (Pineda-Moreno has pleaded guilty conditionally to conspiracy to manufacture marijuana and manufacturing marijuana while appealing the denial of his motion to suppress evidence obtained with the help of GPS.)

 

In fact, the government violated Pineda-Moreno's privacy rights in two different ways. For starters, the invasion of his driveway was wrong. The courts have long held that people have a reasonable expectation of privacy in their homes and in the "curtilage," a fancy legal term for the area around the home. The government's intrusion on property just a few feet away was clearly in this zone of privacy.

 

The judges veered into offensiveness when they explained why Pineda-Moreno's driveway was not private. It was open to strangers, they said, such as delivery people and neighborhood children, who could wander across it uninvited. (See the misadventures of the CIA.)

 

Chief Judge Alex Kozinski, who dissented from this month's decision refusing to reconsider the case, pointed out whose homes are not open to strangers: rich people's. The court's ruling, he said, means that people who protect their homes with electric gates, fences and security booths have a large protected zone of privacy around their homes. People who cannot afford such barriers have to put up with the government sneaking around at night.

 

Judge Kozinski is a leading conservative, appointed by President Ronald Reagan, but in his dissent he came across as a raging liberal. "There's been much talk about diversity on the bench, but there's one kind of diversity that doesn't exist," he wrote. "No truly poor people are appointed as federal judges, or as state judges for that matter." The judges in the majority, he charged, were guilty of "cultural elitism." (Read about one man's efforts to escape the surveillance state.)

 

The court went on to make a second terrible decision about privacy: that once a GPS device has been planted, the government is free to use it to track people without getting a warrant. There is a major battle under way in the federal and state courts over this issue, and the stakes are high. After all, if government agents can track people with secretly planted GPS devices virtually anytime they want, without having to go to a court for a warrant, we are one step closer to a classic police state — with technology taking on the role of the KGB or the East German Stasi.

 

Fortunately, other courts are coming to a different conclusion from the Ninth Circuit's — including the influential U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. That court ruled, also this month, that tracking for an extended period of time with GPS is an invasion of privacy that requires a warrant. The issue is likely to end up in the Supreme Court.

 

In these highly partisan times, GPS monitoring is a subject that has both conservatives and liberals worried. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit's pro-privacy ruling was unanimous — decided by judges appointed by Presidents Ronald Reagan, George W. Bush and Bill Clinton. (Comment on this story.)

 

Plenty of liberals have objected to this kind of spying, but it is the conservative Chief Judge Kozinski who has done so most passionately. "1984 may have come a bit later than predicted, but it's here at last," he lamented in his dissent. And invoking Orwell's totalitarian dystopia where privacy is essentially nonexistent, he warned: "Some day, soon, we may wake up and find we're living in Oceania."

 

 

Read more: http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,2013150,00.html#ixzz0xj1nQDMt

 

[welj31]

This is an old tatic used for years. Now days anyone can get a apt on their cell phone or pc to track any ones cell phone. It works while the cell is powered on.

Also almost all newer autos have the same function built in along with a small data recorder.

 

If you dont want to be tracked better leave the cell and car at home. On foot or horse back might work....wait I almost forgot most high end pets can have a microchip implanted in them.

 

I think we have traded our freedom for ???????????

[DT61]

We have traded our freedoms for an Illusion of security to be protected from an element that those who sought to take those freedoms away created and continue to do so.

Order out of Chaos

..........and these days it's not just high end pets, people willingly get the RFID implant.

[welj31]

We have traded our freedoms for an Illusion of security to be protected from an element that those who sought to take those freedoms away created and continue to do so.

Order out of Chaos

..........and these days it's not just high end pets, people willingly get the RFID implant.

Well put.

[lkline300]

Its a new world. Remember that we know how these things work too. It can be turned around & used to misinform if you use your imagination.

 

Adapt & improvise.........

[boroboro]

I think that crazy old francophile Ben Franklin saw this coming a while ago:

Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.

 

I'm a bit cynical, but the only silver lining I see to this cloud is the hope that more people will come to realize that the police, courts, legislatures, and general government of this country are not really our friend and ally.

 

Thanks for the story, LansingAreaCaregiver, depressing as it is...

[+RevThad]

I can't see this ruling standing when it gets to the big court. If anything the current majority on the big court has been leaning towards more traditional understandings of what the Constitution says about personal rights. Here's hoping anyways.

[Mr. Wilson]

I can't see this ruling standing when it gets to the big court. If anything the current majority on the big court has been leaning towards more traditional understandings of what the Constitution says about personal rights. Here's hoping anyways.

 

I agree. This one gets reversed. If not, it goes Supreme and Kennedy gets to decide another case.

 

Meantime. Put your car in the garage. OR, get a GPS signal blocker, that way even your wife can't find you.

[+RevThad]

I have been thinking about this case and the consequences it brings with it. As there is really no need to dwell on the negatives, as those are quite obvious, I would like to look at a possible silver lining to it.

 

There is at least one that I can think of, and possibly more. Installing GPS tracking devices on all publicly opened, leased, or operated vehicles. I am talking about an openly accessible tracking device that shows the exact location of every one of those vehicles at any given moment. After all, these vehicles are owned by "we the people", and we have every right to know where our property is at any given time. Also, there should be no assumption of privacy while using public property by these "civil" servants. If they want privacy they can drive their own vehicles as long as they don't leave them in areas that are accessible by the general public.

 

Now, I do understand that it will be hard to convince these folks to spring for the cost of such a system, especially since it may or may not interfere with their privacy. So I suggest that we find some caring folks that have a bit of extra cash around to start investing in picking up these devices and installing them randomly on said vehicles. If questioned about while installing said device simply direct them to this ruling.

 

Just something to think about.

[Guest Marywanna]

Remember 15 years ago,how people talked about covert groups and the New World Order? And maybe you thought they were nuts? Microchips,anybody?

[greenbuddha]

I have been thinking about this case and the consequences it brings with it. As there is really no need to dwell on the negatives, as those are quite obvious, I would like to look at a possible silver lining to it.

 

There is at least one that I can think of, and possibly more. Installing GPS tracking devices on all publicly opened, leased, or operated vehicles. I am talking about an openly accessible tracking device that shows the exact location of every one of those vehicles at any given moment. After all, these vehicles are owned by "we the people", and we have every right to know where our property is at any given time. Also, there should be no assumption of privacy while using public property by these "civil" servants. If they want privacy they can drive their own vehicles as long as they don't leave them in areas that are accessible by the general public.

 

Now, I do understand that it will be hard to convince these folks to spring for the cost of such a system, especially since it may or may not interfere with their privacy. So I suggest that we find some caring folks that have a bit of extra cash around to start investing in picking up these devices and installing them randomly on said vehicles. If questioned about while installing said device simply direct them to this ruling.

 

Just something to think about.

 

 

Rev, Those 'tracking devices' are already on at least the LEO cars...

 

It's just that YOU and I and ALL the REST OF US aren't allowed to see the records they produce.

 

After all... when I stop for a 'doughnut'... I don't WANT anyone to know about it, except for my other buddies that are also addicted to doughnuts.

[+RevThad]

Rev, Those 'tracking devices' are already on at least the LEO cars...

 

It's just that YOU and I and ALL the REST OF US aren't allowed to see the records they produce.

 

After all... when I stop for a 'doughnut'... I don't WANT anyone to know about it, except for my other buddies that are also addicted to doughnuts.

That is why I am suggesting we take the matter into our own hands, and make that information available to the public. The LEO cars should be a given for being tracked openly, they might see it differently but they deserve no more privacy than the rest of us, especially when using public property. I am even recommending that judges, municipal leaders, persecutors and any other "civil" servants using publicly owned vehicles be subject to this tracking.

 

We have a right to know how much gas is being wasted by which of these folks, we have a right to know if these vehicles are being used for private uses, and we have a right to know where and when our property is being used. What's good for the goose and all

[greenbuddha]

That is why I am suggesting we take the matter into our own hands, and make that information available to the public. The LEO cars should be a given for being tracked openly, they might see it differently but they deserve no more privacy than the rest of us, especially when using public property. I am even recommending that judges, municipal leaders, persecutors and any other "civil" servants using publicly owned vehicles be subject to this tracking.

 

We have a right to know how much gas is being wasted by which of these folks, we have a right to know if these vehicles are being used for private uses, and we have a right to know where and when our property is being used. What's good for the goose and all

 

 

'Absolutely' affirmative, Rev.

[greenbuddha]

Remember 15 years ago,how people talked about covert groups and the New World Order? And maybe you thought they were nuts? Microchips,anybody?

 

 

I remember reading in a medical journal many years back before computer chips were even available that a number of people had been admitted to mental hospitals after being given the diagnosis of ' paranoid schizophrenia' because they reported fears that someone in the future would put a small disk under their skin so the government and others could follow them.

 

So of course they had to be crazy... right?

 

Perhaps they just suffered from a clear case of 'seeing the future'... an ability that most of don't have... or don't know how to use.

 

'Hello, Mr. Roboto!'

[boroboro]

I have been thinking about this case and the consequences it brings with it. As there is really no need to dwell on the negatives, as those are quite obvious, I would like to look at a possible silver lining to it.

 

There is at least one that I can think of, and possibly more. Installing GPS tracking devices on all publicly opened, leased, or operated vehicles. I am talking about an openly accessible tracking device that shows the exact location of every one of those vehicles at any given moment. After all, these vehicles are owned by "we the people", and we have every right to know where our property is at any given time. Also, there should be no assumption of privacy while using public property by these "civil" servants. If they want privacy they can drive their own vehicles as long as they don't leave them in areas that are accessible by the general public.

 

Now, I do understand that it will be hard to convince these folks to spring for the cost of such a system, especially since it may or may not interfere with their privacy. So I suggest that we find some caring folks that have a bit of extra cash around to start investing in picking up these devices and installing them randomly on said vehicles. If questioned about while installing said device simply direct them to this ruling.

 

Just something to think about.

 

Ha! Thanks RevThad, that is an admirable work of political judo, turning the opponents moves against them. +rep to you.

[DT61]

I was one of those person(s) many labeled as a "nut" but - time has proven that it is even worse that I had thought.

Try googling : smart dust, enhanced individuals (that one is creepy), synchronicity project; the list is endless - RFID journal can give you a glimpse.

[+Silverblue]

We have traded our freedoms for an Illusion of security to be protected from an element that those who sought to take those freedoms away created and continue to do so.

Order out of Chaos

..........and these days it's not just high end pets, people willingly get the RFID implant.

Well said.

 

I think we've been under the illusion of freedom for many years. False sense of security, too. I read somewhere that there may be a time when every newborn will be implanted with those awful chips.

 

This life is hell, they made it that way. IF there's another life after this one I hope I don't come back here, that if there's anything left to come back to, though I doubt there will be. Living in fear every day, knowing they know more about us than we'd ever share voluntarily, they have to do their dirty work sneakily, it's the only way they CAN do it; we're NOT criminals, THEY ARE. I'm so tired of being controlled, turned into slave-robotic zombie sheeple.

 

Sb

 

[Guest Marywanna]

The worst thing about it is that now it could be true. Cellphones,V chips ordered to be put in tvs. It doesn't seemed so far fetched anymore. Or am I just getting crazier?

[+Silverblue]

Tv's may already have hidden cameras, have had 'em for years, can be activated anytime. Many years ago I heard about that, BUT we're not supposed to know.

 

BIG THUMBSDOWN TO THEM and a BIGGER 1 TRILLION to infinity of NEGATIVE REPS! HAHAHA!

 

Sb

[+Silverblue]

OH I was told recently of a case involving tracking device in a rental car, the renter went to somewhere outside the boundaries of the state with it, I think I got this right, and his lawyer found something in VERY FINE PRINT about this device they have, that was never deactivated. Details I forget but I think that was what happened. I don't remember exactly how the case was decided but I think the charges got dropped because they were illegally monitoring, there was no way the renter could've known, though I hope he read the paperwork, the language in the contract cleverly disguised the part about the device, I am sure.

 

Sb