If war is the health of the state…then scaring the hell out of people is the health of the security state. – J.D. Tuccille
Since practical limits on surveillance are vanishing, legal limits are more important than ever:
It sounds like science fiction, but researchers are getting better and better at retrieving tiny traces of human genetic material called environmental DNA…that we leave floating in the air or water, and mining it for genetic info. The technique has…[already] been used for…detecting the…COVID-19 [virus] in wastewater, [and] tracking endangered or invasive species. But now, a team of scientists has attempted to see how much information it could glean from human eDNA specifically…analyzing samples for genetic markers related to genealogy and even ethnicity. As detailed in a new paper published in the journal Nature Ecology & Evolution, a team led by University of Florida wildlife geneticist David Duffy found that they could trace back medical and ancestry information from these minute traces of human DNA. And that has privacy experts deeply worried…[because cops] already…[ab]use…flawed and controversial DNA tools to [persecute people]…
The people the government empowers to police your sexuality:
A TikTok-famous small-town police chief traded incest videos via a secret Twitter account…Joel Justice Womochil…[was] police chief in Burns, Kansas…[from] February 2022…until his sudden resignation in early August…A little over a week later, Womochil was arrested [for child porn]…[after] Synchronoss Technologies, which provides cloud storage for Verizon Wireless customers, [reported] that [Womochil] had backed up a dozen video and image files of hardcore child abuse…
Incidentally, the ass-backward fantasy that Pedobear, a character created to mock people behaving creepily about young girls online, is actually some sort of symbol for pedophiles is a product of cops’ sick, warped minds, and was the topic of the very first “The Clueless Leading the Hysterical” in December 2011.
Conditioning kids to accept constant, intrusive surveillance:
…”Research demonstrates the damaging effect of surveillance on children’s ability to develop in healthy ways,” [wrote law professor Barbara] Fedders…”[they] cannot develop the ability to evaluate and manage risk…in order to function effectively.” Notably, school surveillance normalizes the idea that constant monitoring is good and necessary for preserving safety…”3 in 10…Americans under 30 favor ‘the government installing surveillance cameras in every household’ in order to ‘reduce domestic violence, abuse, and other illegal activity,'” the Cato Institute…[reported] in June…and…A survey of college students by the Foundation for Individuals Rights and Expression (FIRE) found “forty-five percent said blocking other students from attending a speech may be acceptable in some situations”…If young Americans ultimately reject liberty, it may result from trapping them in miniature surveillance states that defy every premise of a free society. Kids will grow up to value freedom only if they’re raised in an environment where privacy and liberty are treated as normal and good…
Because this kind of prohibition will surely be different!
People in England born on or after January 1, 2009, will be [criminalized if they] ever buy…cigarettes under [a “monkey see, monkey do” law] announced…by British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak [which would ape New Zealand’s scheme right down to the date of prohibition]…The prime minister [lied that] smokers put “huge pressures” on the country’s National Health Service despite the fact smokers in the U.K. pay far more in taxes than they cost in terms of health care…”Not only is this prohibitionist wheeze hideously illiberal and unconservative, it is full of holes,” says Christopher Snowdon…of…the Institute of Economic Affairs…”adults [will] buy cigarettes informally from slightly older adults and will inflate the black market in general”…But cigarettes aren’t alone in Sunak’s war on nicotine—disposable e-cigarettes, which have been blamed for an uptick in youth vaping, could also be banned…
Nobody will be safe until this odious, contemptible practice is recognized as unconstitutional:
A North Carolina teenager was hoping to get her life back on track after a state judge ordered a man who sexually abused her to pay her $69,000. Instead, she got a nasty surprise. The local [cops] had already s[tolen] the cash through civil asset forfeiture, and it was already [spent]. Despite a judge’s order, she will get nothing…Mario Alberto Gomez-Saldana II…pleaded guilty…and is currently serving a prison sentence…[but the cops claimed to have found plant leaves when they ransacked his house, and used that as a pretext to steal money] Saldana [had] won [in] the lottery in 2018…[an after-tax total of] $70,507…North Carolina…is one of four states that only allows forfeiture after a criminal conviction…But under the Justice Department’s equitable sharing [scheme], federal authorities may “adopt” state and local civil asset forfeiture cases and…local [cop shops who collaborate in the racket get a kickback of]…up to 80 percent of the [loot]…the sheer injustice of th[is] case ha[s] led to calls from Congress to pass federal legislation to stop cases like this from happening in the future…
When it comes to surveillance, fascism beats communism hands down:
…ICE…CBP…and the Secret Service all broke the law while using location data harvested from ordinary apps installed on smartphones. In one instance, a CBP official also inappropriately used the technology to…[stalk] coworkers…For years U.S. government agencies have been buying access to location data through commercial vendors, a practice which…skirts the Fourth Amendment requirement of a warrant. During that time, the agencies have typically refused to publicly explain the legal basis on which they based their purchase and use of the data. Now, [a DHS] report shows that three of the main customers of commercial location data broke the law while doing so…ICE [has refused to] stop…use of such data [despite lack of warrant or supervisory] approval…
A handful of independent pharmacies across the [US] have quietly begun dispensing the abortion pill mifepristone under new rules created by the Biden administration earlier this year…Thousands of branches of major pharmacy chains are poised to join them — making the drugs more accessible to millions of people nationwide and kicking off a new phase of the legal and political battle over the most popular method of ending a pregnancy…
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