Loss of Privacy

Three small-town eighth-graders in Minnesota were suspended by their principal for not standing Thursday morning for the Pledge of Allegiance, violating a district policy that the principal now says may soon be reworded to protect free speech rights.

The school’s handbook says all students are required to stand but are not required to recite the pledge. The same is true for all four schools in the district, a school official said.

“These three [students] didn’t, and they got caught,” said Mel Olson, the district’s community education director. He said he backs the punishment, “being a veteran and a United States of America citizen, absolutely.” Olson served in the Marines in Japan during the Vietnam War.

Oh, so just because you’re a veteran means that you have the right to judge who should stand for the pledge? Have you forgotten that little piece of paper that says they don’t have to stand?

The head of the Minnesota American Civil Liberties Union said that the school’s actions against the students are unconstitutional, and his office informed the district of that today in a strongly worded letter.

“The school can’t do that; that’s illegal,” said Chuck Samuelson, the civil liberties group’s executive director. “Wow.”

Samuelson said that numerous U.S. Supreme Court rulings dating to the 1940s say in “well-settled constitutional law” that “students who refuse to participate in the pledge cannot be punished for refusing to participate.”

Not happy with catching just terrorists (which they don’t) with CCTV, the UK government has now turned against pooping dogs and their owners. This was bound to happen since only 3% of all crimes are solved using CCTV. This is the perfect way to boost those figures.

Recent reports in the U.K. media indicate that the laws are being used for everything but terrorism investigations:

Derby City Council, Bolton, Gateshead, and Hartlepool used surveillance to investigate dog fouling.

Bolton Council also used the act to investigate littering.

The London borough of Kensington and Chelsea conducted surveillance on the misuse of a disabled parking pass.

Liverpool City Council used Ripa to identify a false claim for damages.

Conwy Council used the law to spy on a person who was working while off sick.

Is this surprising? Not really. Just as we’ve seen in the U.S., once law enforcement and intelligence agencies are given new unchecked powers, abuse tends to happen. The more secretive and unchecked the powers, the more widespread the abuse.

I swear, I’m not making this up.  Stupid law enforcement officials actually told a woman without any hands that she needed to produce her fingerprints in order to replace her lost ID.

Since the US Appeals Court ruled that the Customs and Border Protection agents can rifle through your computers, they have been permanently storing the information that they have found.

Not only are they free to view the files during passage; they are also permitted to copy the entire contents of a device. There are no stated policies about what can and can’t be done with the data.

There are already stories about people being forced to give up their personal data for no other reason than a hunch.

The EFF has also issued some advice on what you should do before crossing the border.

Welcome to Stasi America.