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Monday, September 19, 2016

Cops are watching you – even if you’re not a criminal

New investigation reveals extent of police data collection and surveillance

All across America, police are stockpiling massive amounts of intimate data on people they meet. In most cases they are holding onto the information indefinitely, even though there was no reason for any charges to result from their encounter.

And many of the police departments are keeping the information hidden from the public, making oversight difficult.

Those were some of the findings of a year-long examination of the field contact practices of the nation’s 50 largest police departments, along with some of the top law enforcement agencies in South Carolina. The investigation was conducted by The Post and Courier newspaper of Charleston, South Carolina.

Award-winning journalist Cheryl Chumley reported on the data collection practice in her 2014 book “Police State USA: How Orwell’s Nightmare Is Becoming Our Reality.” She warned that collecting data on Americans who aren’t charged with a crime – or in some cases, even suspected of a crime – flips the Constitution on its head and twists the standard “innocent until proven guilty” into “there is no such thing as innocence.”

“Watering down the Constitution this way sets the stage for the coming generations to see the government as their boss – an entity to not only respect, but fear,” Chumley told WND this week. “The Founding Fathers, on the other hand, wanted a government that was beholden to its citizens – a government that was kept at bay from encroaching on the God-given rights of its citizens by, say, the Second Amendment’s guarantee to bear arms, or the Fourth Amendment’s promise to be safe and secure in private property and possessions.”

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5 comments:

Anonymous said...

I guess so much for that old saying, "if you aren't doing anything wrong, you have nothing to worry about" ?

Sad.

Anonymous said...

You can blame obama and the democrats on this. LE isn't allowed to profile so they have to gather intelligence on everyone. The biggest threat to the US is islam terrorism but LE can't exclusively focus in on muslim communities and mosques. It a complete waste of resources and it one of the reasons these US terrorists can operate under the radar and then strike. If LE didn't have their hands tied things may very well and probably would be different. Again be sure to thank a democrat today for all the chaos this weekend.

Anonymous said...

1150
So they have to spy on us?
You are a sheep.
Accept whatever they throw at you.

Anonymous said...

We used to be free.

Anonymous said...

In the 20s and 30s the German government done the same, O nothing will come from it!