Posted on 10/24/2009 12:58:00 PM PDT by reaganaut1
POOLE, England — It has become commonplace to call Britain a “surveillance society,” a place where security cameras lurk at every corner, giant databases keep track of intimate personal details and the government has extraordinary powers to intrude into citizens’ lives.
A report in 2007 by the lobbying group Privacy International placed Britain in the bottom five countries for its record on privacy and surveillance, on a par with Singapore.
But the intrusions visited on Jenny Paton, a 40-year-old mother of three, were startling just the same.
Suspecting Ms. Paton of falsifying her address to get her daughter into the neighborhood school, local officials here began a covert surveillance operation. They obtained her telephone billing records. And for more than three weeks in 2008, an officer from the Poole education department secretly followed her, noting on a log the movements of the “female and three children” and the “target vehicle” (that would be Ms. Paton, her daughters and their car).
It turned out that Ms. Paton had broken no rules. Her daughter was admitted to the school. But she has not let the matter rest. Her case, now scheduled to be heard by a regulatory tribunal, has become emblematic of the struggle between personal privacy and the ever more powerful state here.
The Poole Borough Council, which governs the area of Dorset where Ms. Paton lives with her partner and their children, says it has done nothing wrong.
In a way, that is true: under a law enacted in 2000 to regulate surveillance powers, it is legal for localities to follow residents secretly. Local governments regularly use these surveillance powers — which they “self-authorize,” without oversight from judges or law enforcement officers — to investigate malfeasance like illegally dumping industrial waste, loan-sharking and falsely claiming welfare benefits.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Which is better —to control your borders, and have no subsequent need to monitor ALL, or to throw them open wide, and live in 1984...?
GREAT LESSON FOR THE USA.
UK = window on the future.
The US needs a privacy amendment to the Constitution to provide extreme privacy to the private citizens and none to the politicians in their everyday conduct of the gov’t’s businesses.
Communism cannot work without coercion and control!
“If parents paid to educate their children with their own money (supplemented by vouchers for the poor), there would be no need to investigate where they lived.”
Couldn’t agree more. The last time that I went to Walmart, nobody cared where I lived - and whether I was shopping at the ‘right’ Walmart for my address, they just cared that I paid. Think about the analogy - we would NEVER allow ourselves to be told where to shop, but we gladly allow the schools to tell us which one we MUST use. It really does sound silly, and it’s very sad that people simply accept it.
That's it. A "multi-cultural society" requires a police state to enforce it. At some point, even that will fail as the numbers of the aliens allow them to become dominant. At that point it can safely be said to be a successful invasion.
That said, the Council surveillance described here almost certainly would violate U.S. Fourth Amendment warrant requirements for searches, and probably does so with English Common Law.
It proves that even beyond changing the ethnic character of a nation, mass immigration into an established country subverts and destroys the institutions bitterly won over hundreds of years that define a free society.
I was in London a while back and was having trouble with my subway card. I went to ask someone whether it needed to be replaced. They checked and said it was working fine. They were also able to read back to me every place I had gotten on and off the Tube that day. I found that pretty creepy.
From the article: “They said my privacy wasn’t intruded on because the surveillance was covert,” ...
So if the surveillance is covert, does that mean it’s ok if the government films you taking a shower, getting dressed or undressed, and making love to your spouse?
Gee, government Peeping Toms - who’d o’ thunk it.
(1984, anyone?)
Simple -— Smash the cameras.
Remember taggers paint graffiti faster then property owners can paint it over.
The people can rip down Big Brothers cameras faster thsan Big Brother’s pigs can replace them!
We have an advantage in the USA. The people have fire arms to take on the usurpers!
Yeah, we could call it the 4th Amendment.
Electronics have greatly enhanced the gov't capability to invade.
That’s 1984 scary (and just b4 Halloween).
Are they keeping “an eye” on the Muslim animal terrorists and their supporters/sympathizers?
It sure doesn’t seem so.
“The US needs a privacy amendment to the Constitution to provide extreme privacy to the private citizens and none to the politicians in their everyday conduct of the gov’t’s businesses.”
When is the last time you saw the government obeying the Constitution?
I used to miss England, and wanted to return there for a very long time, but over the last several years, the news coming out of there has changed my mind completely. I don’t know that I’d even want to visit, now.
I tried to use the 4th in a dispute with my betters in the city gov't. I won the battle, but I'm not sure how much effect my argument regarding the 4th had on the Judge. It sure felt good to be able to point to it though.
Wow, that is creepy.
Without the constant surveillance, her innocence would have required work and active time and effort on her part.
One of my recurring nightmares is to be arrested one day and asked, "What were you doing at 9:30 pm on April 8, 2004?"
I don't need to think more than 3 seconds to realize that I am screwed by default; if failure to come up with an answer is assumed to be proof of guilt. Bottom line, unless something truly unusual happened that day (Assassination of Kennedy, the loss of the Challenger, or 911) there is no chance I can remember; nor can the authorities questioning me either.
If cameras were following my every move, I would no longer have that nightmare.
Note to the IQ challenged: this refers to public cameras on public streets and other public areas; it is not an open invitation to erase the 4th Amendment.
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