Using GPS to Violate the 4th Amendment
Threats to privacy exist in a number of forms. What is interesting about the following case is that the government is using the prosecution of someone who is probably guilty of breaking drug laws as a vehicle to expand its surveillance powers over law-abiding citizens. This is akin to the story of the motorcyclist in Maryland who was charged with wiretapping the police that pulled him over simply because he had a helmet cam. If the government can’t tolerate being observed, taped, recorded, and tracked, than why should citizens? Is not the citizen supreme? Doesn’t the government exist to serve the citizen, not the other way around?
http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,2013150,00.html?hpt=T2 (Time.com)
It seems like we’ve reached a state in the US where the value proposition of living in a “free” republic has become less meaningful. Four hundred years ago, European settlers were quite willing to live on the frontier, braving the dangers that come with little or no infrastructure in return for the freedom of self-determination. In contrast, modern America seems to have become addicted to too many comforts; in the course of “outsourcing” the maintenance of law and order (so that we can continue ordering Starbucks, sending Tweets, and watching American Idol), we’ve given away extraordinary powers to those “security” institutions.
And here is the irony of it all — these institutions, faced with solving an impossible problem (the security and safety of every citizen) continually request (or seize) even more power, justifying said initiatives by claiming they need yet another power to keep us safe. This gradual process inexorably ends in a police state: there is no other social attractor at the end of this particular road. Only a determined and vigilant effort at reducing the size and scope of government power can combat this tendency. It likely takes civic leaders willing to assume a short, unspectacular political career: they come in, fix the problem, upset some portion of the electorate, and subsequently get voted out.
