The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department uses surveillance equipment to collect information from cell phones and other wireless devices when investigating crimes, but also collects information from innocent people. Councilman John Autry spoke to the obvious breach of the Constitution. “The thought of police or another agency collecting data on communications devices is troubling. I understand the balance between security and privacy, but I think we should honor the privacy protection in the Constitution. … What happens to the data? Who sees it? Who has access to it?”
The future of the Bojangles Arena is still up in the air. The company in talks with the city for over a year to redevelop the arena is still trying to secure financing. GoodSports has had issues with financing redevelopments in other states, but it says it’s having no such problems here.
Some good news in the fight against Ebola: Nigeria has been declared free of the disease after six weeks of no new cases. The illness is still ravaging Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea.
Hong Kong leaders are blaming recent pro-democracy protests in the area on “external forces.” “Chief executive CY Leung’s comments came after violent clashes in Mong Kok at the weekend where police used batons and pepper spray to disperse protestors. At least 20 were injured.” He refused to name the external forces.
This article appears in Oct 15-21, 2014.
The only thing in the Constitution that anyone is passionate about is the obsolete Second Amendment.
We all thought that George Orwell was a sci-fi novelist. It turns out he was a prophet. 1984 is upon us.
Now let’s wait and see how long it is before some moron says “I don’t care if the government listens to my phone calls. I’m not doing anything wrong.”
DLP, those morons would be people like John Autry, who with the rest of City Council voted UNANIMOUSLY AND WITHOUT DEBATE to fund this program.
In 1970, Congress passed the RICO Act. (Racketeering Influenced Corrupt Organizations.) It streamlined to rules for government prosecutions and allowed preemptive seizure of the assets of organized crime. No one, including the courts, cared that it bent the Constitution because it was for the war against organized crime.
Since then it has been used against the Catholic Church, The Louisiana Commissioner of Agriculture, the Key West Police Department, Major League Baseball, Operation Rescue, and President Obama.
The reason that the ACLU is always fighting for criminals is that bad laws and procedures are always begun there and are well established and accepted when they are turned on everyone. Sure it seems like a good idea to allow the government great freedom to look for bag guys without having to comply with the 4th and 14th Amendments, but it is not. It is dangerous.