The balance between the police and the policed is getting way out of whack — and we better restore it now.
I speak of a spate of new technologies — high-tech cameras, satellites and now, drones being flown over U.S. soil — that are giving police and government way too much power over the average Joe.
Our country was founded by people who were wary of government power, you see. They were wary of government do-gooders attaining too much control, as they knew that absolute power always corrupts absolutely.
So they implemented checks and balances to limit that power.
They knew, too, however, that human nature is imperfect — that there will always be crooks, murderers and con men and that government must provide average, law-abiding citizens with basic protections against those who seek to do them harm.
Thus, our Constitution was designed to strike a proper balance between police and government agencies and the citizens they police.
The Fourth Amendment in the Bill of Rights, for instance, guards against unreasonable searches and seizures. It requires probable cause and a judicially sanctioned warrant before the police are permitted to enter one’s home.
The idea was to protect the liberties of the average Joe by putting the burden on police and government agencies. Better that 10 guilty men go free than to convict a single innocent man.
This proper balance between the police and the policed worked well for many years. But technology is upending that balance.
Consider: Back in the ’50s and ’60s, when my father was a young man, there were speed traps, just as there are now.
When one driver saw a police car hiding behind shrubs, he flashed his high beams at oncoming drivers to warn them to slow down. The policed collaborated against the police and all was well.
The police had it tough back then. To gauge a driver’s speed, an officer had to work a manual stopwatch, then do math. The process was so imprecise, the odds weren’t bad that the ticket would be tossed out in court or reduced to a lesser charge.
Now the police have precise VASCAR and radar technologies. Hidden speed cameras are popping up all over the place. New technologies are even making it possible to monitor speeds using satellites!
While such technologies may benefit drivers by slowing traffic at dangerous intersections, there is a downside: The average Joe will soon be helpless in the face of small-town police who use such technologies to establish lucrative, high-tech speed traps.
But as technology upends the balance between the police and the policed, that is the least of the average Joe’s worries.
Did you know our federal government is using unmanned aerial vehicles (drones) — much like the drones it uses to monitor and kill enemies overseas — to monitor U.S. citizens?
Did you know, says Investor’s Business Daily, that the EPA is conducting surveillance on farmers in Nebraska and Iowa, looking for violations of the Clean Water Act?
Did you know that the Federal Aviation Administration has loosened restrictions on the use of drones by the nation’s 18,000 local police departments?
How long will it be before quiet little planes monitor our speed and everything else we do?
How long before illegal searches, forbidden by the Fourth Amendment, are commonplace?
We must stop the drones now.
Flashing our high beams won’t matter a whit once the balance between the police and the policed gets that far out of whack.
Copyright 2012 Tom Purcell. Tom Purcell, a freelance writer is also a humor columnist for the Pittsburgh Tribune- Review, and is nationally syndicated exclusively by Cagle Cartoons newspaper syndicate. Email Tom at Purcell@caglecartoons.com.
mnjcpa posted at 11:53 am on Fri, Jun 15, 2012.
Folks, it's real simple to understand.
Under Bush - in 8 years - 2001-2008
Receipts: $2.2 trillion
Spending: $2.5 trillion
Deficit: $309 billion
Obama - in 3 years 2009-2011
Receipts: $2.1 trillion
Spending: $3.4 trillion
Deficit: $1.311 trillion
Even if you track back the first stimulus and auto bailout to Bush - he didn't hold a candle to Obama the big spender. And he's flat lying to you on television when he tells you he didn't cause this deficit.
mnjcpa posted at 9:37 am on Fri, Jun 15, 2012.
You certainly have a grudge against Bush, but if you really believe that Obama will be a good steward of America - then you've seriously been in a coma the last four years.
He's backed by every rich radical liberal possible (George Soros, Hollywood), makes executive decisions without due process, and has driven America to a financial cliff. Obama flat lies to public about the deficit adding over $5 trillion dollars to our debt which had NOTHING to do with Bush.
I don't know what the answer is to the outside money, but it's just as bad - if not worse - under Obama.
REG in AZ posted at 8:24 am on Fri, Jun 15, 2012.
It isn’t what they say or what they spend, as that is just the con; it is what they do that exposes the truth. We need to remember what returning to “more of the same”, Bush-Cheney style, would mean.
Remember the deceptions, recognizing their stubborn and arrogant focus always on benefit for only “the few” (1%) while insultingly taking the majority (99%) for granted. Remember: the multiple tax cuts heavily weighted for the wealthy; Global Warming stated as not a problem; private accounts recommended for Social Security; the actual minimized/ignored warnings before 9/11 while concentrating on Iraq; trumped up justification for attacking Iraq; abandoned efforts in Afghanistan; Afghanistan presented as secure; the false coalition with America paying 95%+; Iraqi oil money never paying for the war as was proposed; executive pressures put on the intelligence community to create justification; including the authorized departure from Geneva Convention rules; frequent misrepresentations to manipulate public opinion; no bid contracts ($100B’s) to favored vendors; responsibility for port security offered to Dubai Ports; the always excusing the growing deficit and unfavorable trade deficit; the apathetic reaction to the hurricane Katrina aftermath; blocking bringing less costly American drugs back into the US; vengefully exposing the CIA agent's identity; squelching the “wiretapping without court order” story; falsely raising the security threat level before 2004 election; the excessive deregulation and the lack of any responsible oversight, favoring the few and resulting in unchecked greed, gross dishonesty and criminal self-indulgence eventually bringing down the financial industry; encouraging the exportation of American jobs and taxes; the sociopathic GWBush falsely presented as a “born again Christian”; ... on and on.
And then since Bush-Cheney: the Republican’s continual belligerent concentration on their political ambitions at any cost to the people; stubbornly obstructing and faulting all efforts to address problems; irresponsibly withholding any bipartisan cooperation; implementing, directing and financing the Tea Party movement with their constant screams for “more”; the ‘Swift-boat” propaganda and the manipulation of the Christian block, all aimed to deceptively excite and sway public opinion; their insultingly offering “puppet” candidates ready to perform as their “strings are pulled”; Cheney’s, Rove’s, Norquist’s, SuperPacs and other groups, using “the money’s” unlimited funds to first, coerce and intimidate their own to insure strict unity, and second, to con the people and manipulate public opinion ... on and on, without any conscience, with complete disregard for responsibility and always aimed to just benefit “the few”, their supporters and controllers, while insultingly just taking the people for granted as “pawns” to be conned, used and abused.
It is said the current Republican / Tea Party is owned and controlled by “the money” and that they are now incapable of honestly and responsibly governing; the last twelve years have clearly substantiated that. To get the Grande Ole Party back, once again with a sincere concern for the people, the stranglehold “the money” has on them has to be broken. The only way to accomplish that is to firmly and totally reject what they have become.
mnjcpa posted at 2:35 pm on Thu, Jun 14, 2012.
In 1978 America was very different. We had an ineffective, one-term president. The economy was in a tail spin. Gas prices were through the roof. We were in a stand-off with Iran.
I'm glad those dark days are over.
VofReason posted at 12:10 pm on Thu, Jun 14, 2012.
Yes Samkat, we all would have to agree that people with money who start businesses have no impact in employement, the economy or anything else. Only what the Government divies out or overpromises in salary and benefits allows the economy to thrive. All small business owners are just greedy, born with a silver spoon in their mouth, 1% ers. Let's leave it to Harry Reid and President Obama to sort all this out. I am pretty sure if we give him another 4 years it couldn't be worse then the first 3.5- could it?
mnjcpa posted at 9:12 am on Thu, Jun 14, 2012.
REG - you may want to read this article regarding the money that's backing Obama.
Team OBlamo has every rich, radical liberal possible backing his campaign:
http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/302733/obama-listens-rich-liberals-his-peril-michael-barone#
mnjcpa posted at 8:05 am on Thu, Jun 14, 2012.
I guess REG conveniently forgot that for two years the Democrats had unfettered ability to invoke their vision without restraint. And as usual, because their policies failed and NOTHING was done to stop the runaway debt that is crippling the country the blame has to be targeted to the Republicans. Yawn.....
samkat posted at 6:47 pm on Wed, Jun 13, 2012.
conservative: I am still looking for a plan, any plan other than the idiotic cut taxes for the rich ideology from the right wing. Apparently, the art of statesmanship is eluding both parties and we all are paying for it.
mrconservative posted at 6:12 pm on Wed, Jun 13, 2012.
Obama has NOT accomplished anything, REG. He has raised our national debt by 5 trillion dollars! In just three years! In his eight years in office, Bush raised our debt by $4 trillion. And Obama called Bush unpatriotic! (July 2008)
I'm not calling Obama unpatriotic, but he is a bit of a hypocrite. And he's broken numerous promises, not the least of which is to cut the deficit in half, not to mention that passing the stimulus bill would lower our unemployment rate. Now it's hovering around 9 percent. He hasn't created a single NET new job; there are over 1,000,000 people not working today than when he took office. I could go on, but I think I've made my point. At least, I HOPE I've made my point.
chatmandu002 posted at 2:41 pm on Wed, Jun 13, 2012.
Gee Tom, I thought your commentary was a big rant until I saw those posted by REG in AZ. I am really surprised that REG in AZ's comments aren't stained with koolaide. REG in AZ did a good job of showing us just how whacked out the far-left side of the political spectrum is.
REG in AZ posted at 10:32 am on Wed, Jun 13, 2012.
Romney and the Republicans are trying desperately to label Obama as having “failed” but the reality is that he has accomplished quite a lot ... and had the Republicans responsibly and conscientiously ever offered any bipartisan compromise and cooperation, the way our government is suppose to work, together they could have achieved a lot more. Instead the Republican / Tea Party strategy was to put their political ambitions above all else, no matter what the cost to the people, and just stubbornly and arrogantly fault and block all efforts while protecting only the interests of “the money”, their strong supporters and masters. Then and now, together with the power, influence and money of those very affluent few who greatly benefit, they are insultingly “cocky” confident in assuming they can continue to con the people and manipulate public opinion. They are emboldened by past successes, like with manipulating the conservative Christian (2000), the Swift-boat propaganda (2004), the Tea Party movement (2010) and recently with their mega-millions spent in the Wisconsin recall, all efforts implemented, funded and directed to excite, sway and deceptively keep people from independently thinking.
Now they want to be rewarded for all of that self-serving irresponsibility and to just continue being “puppets” serving only those who “pull their strings”, while still assuming they can simply keep taking the people for granted as “pawns” to be deceived, used and abused. How can they be trusted to ever honestly serve the people? It is up to the voters and if they really want the return of the Grande Ole Party, with a true conscience and concern for the people, then they have to firmly reject what the Republicans have become, they have to completely reject the propaganda that takes for granted the people can be duped ... and instead totally reject the “puppet” politicians who serve only “the money”. To rationalize doing otherwise only perpetuates the stranglehold “the money” has on politics and just facilitates a return to “more of the same” (Bush-Cheney style), or worse, that keeps pushing this country into being a two-class society with “the few” (1%) competing in having it all while the majority (99%) continues to loose more. All of it is crystal clear and fully substantiated when simply refusing to be blinded by the constant barrage of subterfuge, that assumes the people are stupid and easily emotionally manipulated, and instead to objectively look at reality and rationally “stand tall”.
Some fault this as “class warfare” or excuse it as “politics as usual” but it is beyond and different than either and it sure isn’t just “conservative”, the disguise. Not “conservative” v “liberal” nor Republican v Democrat accurately defines it but rather it represents a very aggressive effort for control and self-serving dominance by “the money”, aiming to deceptively control the voters collective will. We saw the costly results with Bush-Cheney as they totally concentrated on serving “the few” and proved beyond any doubt that the “trickle down” theory is a complete fraud only making the wealthy wealthier and soliciting political support. We see it with Norquist, Cheney, Rove, SuperPacs and others who use the abundant millions provided to first, coerce and intimidate their own, to assure complete unity behind “the money’s” interests, then next, to support and promote the “puppet” politicians who will perform as their “strings are pulled, and last to bombard the public with the propaganda aimed to excite and control them. It is totally evident with Boehner, McConnell, Cantor, Ryan, Bachmann and others as they stubbornly and obnoxiously fault and block all efforts, contribute nothing and just protect the interests of “the money”. The Democrats are really far from perfect but what is described here has progressed to total ludicrous insanity for the sole benefit of “the few”. To ever achieve the political reform needed, from all political parties and in the total system, the first requirement is to cut the stranglehold “the money” has on the Republican Party, otherwise the people will just continue to be used and abused while left complaining.