Loss of Privacy

This is an absolutely incredulous story. The TSA is now herding people into waiting areas after they have completed their train journey. Where does this even make sense to anyone? If you refuse, do they put you back on the train and send you back from whence you came?

The only bad thing on our trip was TSA was at the Savannah train station. There were about 14 agents pulling people inside the building and coralling everyone in a roped area AFTER you got OFF THE TRAIN! This made no sense!!! Poor family in front of us! 9 year old getting patted down and wanded. They groped our people too and were very unprofessional. I am all about security, but when have you ever been harassed and felt up getting OFF a plane? Shouldnt they be doing that getting ON??? And they wonder why so many people are mad at them.

Everyday citizens need to fight back against this sort of behavior. Every single person should refuse these pat downs and notify the media immediately. There is no point to these searches other than to harass everyday citizens and continue to push their agenda of fear. By patting down children, they are merely grooming them to accept this behavior as normal so that they will never question it when they get older. I cannot repeat this enough, do not consent to a search. They have no legal right to search you or detain you after getting off a train.

EDIT:

The TSA has responded to this incident on their blog. Apparently, their VIPR operation was supposed to be over by the time this train arrived and none of the screenings should have ever happened.

Minnie Carey, then 61, was with three friends discussing funeral arrangements when police asked her to move. When Minnie asked why, she was arrested, handcuffed, and held by police for nine hours.

“I was blown away,” Carey told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “I had heard about people in the community being harassed by the police … It really didn’t shock me as much as it probably would have if I had not heard of people going to jail for no reason. I figured I was just another one.

“But I had the right to ask ‘why’ I had to move,” she said.

The Citizen Review Board found that Atlanta Police officer Brandy Dolson had violated APD policies and had falsely arrested Carey.

In the meantime, Minnie had to go three times because the first time, there was no prosecutor, and the second time, the officer wasn’t there. This case should have been dropped the first time due to dereliction of duty on the part of the prosecutor.

Still, the board held back on its punishment recommendation to APD until the board’s investigator could gather more information about Dolson’s history with the department, how many public complaints had been filed against him, what kind of complaints have been brought and the outcome of those cases.

Kirschenbaum said in a hearing last week at least 18 complaints had been filed against Dolson since 2001, but only three – all those traffic issues – had been sustained while three other complaints are pending.

Currently, Dolson has 3 “sustained” complaints against him, 3 “under investigation” complaints against him and a dozen more incidents where someone filed a complaint which later were dropped because there was not enough evidence. He is presently suspended without pay for another unrelated incident. Yet, the APD wants more information before they can make a punishment recommendation?

I’m going to go ahead and ask WHY? It’s clear that this officer has a pattern of abuse, yet has been allowed to remain in the job. Why? Dolson willingly arrests people for no reason. Dolson skipped court so they judge couldn’t make a ruling, something Joe Citizen would have been found in contempt of court for. It is clear that Dolson cannot be trusted to perform the duties of a police officer correctly and should have already been dismissed.

Due to draconian laws regarding where sex offenders can live, 9 men are now living in tents in the woods in Marietta, Georgia.  The office park/woods is one of the few places the men can live without violating the law.

The Georgia law bans the state’s 16,000 sex offenders from living, working or loitering within 1,000 feet of schools, churches, child-care facilities and other areas where children gather.

Ahmed Holt, manager of the state’s sex offender administration unit, told The Associated Press that the camp is a “last resort” for homeless offenders who can’t find another place to live that complies with the law.

He said probation officers direct them to the outpost if other options fail, such as transferring to another county or state or sending them to a relative’s place that meets the requirements. Homeless shelters and halfway houses are often not an option, he said, because of the restrictions that bar them from being near children.

Since the story broke, the sex offenders have been evicted from the woods.  Is it any wonder that some of these men might re-offend or commit other offenses as the state of Georgia has left them little other choice?  Normal people would think forcing sex offenders to live in the woods is far scarier than providing free half-way houses for them to live in.

A Georgia law, set to take effect today, aggressively targets sex offenders, forcing them to hand over their online passwords.  This includes passwords, screen names, and e-mail addresses.  Georgia now joins a few other states that are complying with a 2006 federal law that requires authorities to track sex offenders’ IP addresses.  The main difference with Georgia is that it has added the extra step of forcing sex offenders to turn over more than is required by federal law.

“There’s certainly a privacy concern,” said Sara Totonchi of the Atlanta-based Southern Center for Human Rights. “This essentially will give law enforcement the ability to read e-mails between family members, between employers.”

Staton said although the measure may violate the privacy of sex offenders, the need to protect children “outweighs a lot of the rights of these individuals.”

Oh, it’s for the children.  Alrighty then.  That makes it all okay, right?  I mean, it’s not like the whole world isn’t safe for children.

“We limit where they can live, we make their information available on the Internet. To some degree, we do invade their privacy,” said Staton, a Republican from Macon. “But the feeling is, they have forfeited, to some degree, some privacy rights.”

If you’ve done your time and allowed to leave prison, you were deemed not a threat to society.  Otherwise, there really is no equality under the law.  No one, ever, should be punished in perpetuity for their crimes.

So, if you live in Georgia and you’ve been convicted of urinating in public, this law applies to you.  If you live in Georgia and have been convicted of having oral sex with your girlfriend/boyfriend because she/he was under the age of consent, this law applies to you.  If you live in Georgia and take naked photos of yourself and put them online, this law applies to you.  If you live in Georgia and go streaking, only to be arrested for indecent exposure, this law applies to you.

If you are a violent felon, such as a pedophile or rapist, I don’t have a problem with the government making sure you don’t continue to commit your crimes, but only for a certain time.  After that, much like a car thief or embezzler, you should be free to go.  The law must change to reflect the severity of your crime.  Those who are required to be on the list, but are in no way going to re-offend, should not be required to follow this law.

If the people allow this “inch” the government will take a “mile” and soon, even though you think you’re innocent, you will have to turn over this information as well.  It starts with “save the children” and ends with “do it for your own good.”

Remember, everyone in America has the right to the Fifth Amendment and Ex Post Facto.  These laws violate both.  The Courts will continue [pdf] to have opinions on this matter, but, hopefully, the laws will be overturned as unconstitutional.