Shot in the Dark

And To The Banana Republic For Which It Stands

While our professional ninny class was jabbering about the Second Amendment (almost entirely to try to gin up enthusiasm for a geriatric white woman this November), America actually, quietly, and with the nodding approval of an ignorant majority, became an actual police state.

The Supreme Court ruled on Monday that evidence found by police officers after illegal stops may be used in court if the officers conducted their searches after learning that the defendants had outstanding arrest warrants.

The Fourth Amendment is as near-death today as the Second was thirty years ago, and for pretty much the same reasons; political expediency.

We, the people, brought the Second back to life. Who’s going to do it for the Fourth?

UPDATE:  The more I read about the actual case, Utah v. Strieff, the more nuance I see in the majority decision.

Which doesn’t change the fact that the Fourth Amendment has been beaten to a pulp this past 50 years.

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Mitch Berg

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5 responses to “And To The Banana Republic For Which It Stands”

  1. swiftee Avatar
    swiftee

    I saw that, and my jaw dropped.

    What is to stop a copper from pulling you over for a fishing expedition now? I have always scolded people who allow cops to search their cars without a warrant, but now they can just go ahead whether you agree or not.

    We are fucked, my friends. The federal government has been inching towards a police state for twenty years, and now it’s going to start making real strides.

    I’d like to say more, but my file in DC is probably thick enough as it is.

  2. swiftee Avatar
    swiftee

    ps: May all of you assholes that ever said “If you’re not a criminal, you have nothing to worry about” rot in hell.

  3. DMA Avatar
    DMA

    If you go to Duluth you are being watched:

    Contracting with a company called Securonet out of Minneapolis, the Greater Downtown Council announced a campaign requesting as many downtown Duluth businesses as possible to enroll their security cameras into a grid shared with the Duluth Police Department.
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    “To make your city safer — that is the goal,” said Justin Williams, president and founder of Securonet, who is banking on rapid expansion of enrollments in the company’s mapping software for what the Greater Downtown Council is calling its Virtual Safety Net. The program drew the support of the Duluth Transit Authority, Minnesota Power, Maurices, A&L Properties, Oneida Realty Company and Bowman Properties, Stokes said, promising others would follow as enrollees — adding that “a lot of our property owners have surveillance.”
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    Asked if the police could remotely watch any part of Duluth, Nagorski said, “We don’t have the manpower” to dedicate to the task.

    http://www.duluthnewstribune.com/news/4059413-downtown-businesses-enrolling-their-cameras-police-map

  4. kel Avatar
    kel

    “Asked if the police could remotely watch any part of Duluth, Nagorski said, “We don’t have the manpower” to dedicate to the task.”

    dont need the manpower, just the facial recognition software and a small server farm to record everything. Anything older than 90 days is scanned by the facial recognition software and ALL faces are codified and stored in a indexer database before the images are stored offline. In the future if you have a DMV photo you should be able to scan it and say when the person was last in the city. Eventually should be able to keep searchable images for 5 or more years. Sound expensive, not so much any more, especially when its taxpayers money.

  5. DMA Avatar
    DMA

    The chief’s non-answer jumped out at me too.

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