Law Enforcement

Here’s A Nasty Little Business

This entry was posted in Law Law Enforcement on by

Seems there are a bunch of folks making at least part of their living by selling your cell phone records. Now they can’t be making huge dollars can they? Really, how many folks want someone else’s call records on any given day? Well, it turns out that there are quite a few business out there offering the service. Enough to make you angry if you think about it a bit:

It’s actually obscene what you can find out about people on the Internet.

says Bob Sullivan who goes on to note:

It may be outrageous, but it’s not new. MSNBC.com first wrote about this problem in October 2001, in a story titled “I know who you called last month.”
The problem was exposed years earlier by a private investigator named Rob Douglas. Banking records, home phone long-distance calling, even medical information, were all for sale, he told Congress.

But, isn’t this kind of illegal? Sure, but who’s prosecuting? Joel Winston, associate director of the Federal Trade Commission’s Financial Practices Division,

…said the agency has never taken such a case to court and does not know how widespread the problem is. He said the FTC must focus its resources on the practices of data thieves that can cause the most damage to large numbers of consumers, such as financial fraud.

Why is this just an FCC issue? It appears to often require fraud to implement the theft. So where are the other law enforcement agencies? Likely all the other law enforcement critters are too busy checking out what books we are reading or staking out some pot user to spend time protecting us. As I argued previously:

Federal standards and regulations are invariably broken and generally never written with individual citizens in mind but Ed’s last point hits the nail on the head.
No institution, government or private, can be allowed to collect or distribute, for free or for fee, any information about an individual without that individuals specific consent on a per incident basis and if the distribution is for a fee then that individual must be compensated at a rate agreeable to the individual.

Perhaps it is time to get serious about instituting alternatives to the existing federal, state and local legal systems. You know, put something in place that can stamp out crime that has victims and perhaps obsolete all those law enforcement agencies that are so focused on victimless crimes.
Via fergie’s tech blog.

It’s A Revenue Generator

This entry was posted in Constitution Drug Laws Federal Government Law Enforcement Libertarianism Sex on by

I’d like to think that the us senate respects the people and the constitution enough to toss out crap like the house recently passed on to it but, heck, it is the us senate so we will probably get to see this go all the way to the supreme court before we hopefully are rid of at least some of the more noxious provisions.
Radley in discussing some of representative pence’s (r-ind) additons to the Child Safety Act of 2005 also notes the following:

It gets worse. The bill’s enforcement provisions empower law enforcement with the power to seize the assets of violators, proving that there really is a graveyard of stupid ideas deep in the bowels of the U.S. Capitol Building that Congressmen return to when they’re out of stuff to legislate. Because asset forfeiture has worked so well with the drug war. Idiots.

Actually asset forfeiture has worked very well in the drug wars. See, assest forfeiture is not about stopping some type of alleged criminal activity. Rather, it is about adding another revenue source for government agencies. And they don’t have to call it extortion taxation.
Via Brian Doss at Catallarchy.

Left Lane Campers

This entry was posted in Culture Government Humor Law Enforcement on by

It really is time to exterminate them. You know the ones:

In the course of years of freeway driving, it has become increasingly clear to me that the largest single source of clogging of America’s interstate arterials is not the highway system itself.
It’s pilot stupor.
Somewhere along the line, America either forgot � or failed to learn � how to drive on the freeway. It’s that simple. And that infuriating.
You know exactly what I mean: You’re driving along somewhere outside the normal clog zones, exulting in the rare opportunity to approach the actual speed limit, when you come up on the imbecile in question.
Driving a minivan, an SUV or a vintage K-Car. In the left lane. At or below the speed limit, beady eyes fixed dead ahead, hands at 10 and 2 o’clock. Refusing to move over. Not now. Not ever. Period. End of discussion. Stop flashing your lights � or get a brake-slam return message.

Read the rest and enjoy the chuckles but, remember, these folks need to be taken off the road!

An Administrative Supoena For You

This entry was posted in bush Law Law Enforcement Patriot Act War on Terrorism on by

Congress critters continue to work on spiffing up the patriot act. They have new stuff they’d like to add:

The Patriot Act already gives government too much power to spy on ordinary Americans, but things could get far worse. Congress is considering adding a broad new investigative power, known as the administrative subpoena, that would allow the Federal Bureau of Investigation to gain access to anyone’s financial, medical, employment and even library records without approval from a judge and even without the target knowing about it. Members of Congress should block this disturbing provision from becoming law.
The Senate is at work on a bill to reauthorize parts of the Patriot Act that are scheduled to expire later this year. In addition to extending those provisions, the Senate Intelligence Committee is proposing to add an array of new “investigative tools.” The administrative subpoena is not the only one of the new provisions of the current bill that would endanger civil liberties, but it is the worst.
When the F.B.I. wants access to private records about an individual, it ordinarily needs to get the approval of a judge or a grand jury. The proposed new administrative subpoena power would allow the F.B.I. to call people in and force them to produce records on its own authority, without approval from the judicial branch. This kind of secret, compelled evidence not tied to any court is incompatible with basic American principles of justice.

Hell, it is incompatible with any meaningful concept of justice and it is difficult to understand how the writer can turn around shortly after writing the above words and say:

The bill’s defenders note that administrative subpoenas are already allowed in other kinds of investigations. But these are generally in highly regulated areas, like Medicaid billing.

Sorry, just because an area is highly regulated does not remove the concern or make administrative supoenas any less incompatible with basic principles of justice. Administrative supoenas need to be removed from the legal process.
And the patriot act itself? Eliminate the controversy and toss the the whole thing out. Then draft up a nice short piece of legislation that reauthorizes the information sharing issues that the administration is so excited about.
Via beSpacific.

On the 4th

This entry was posted in Anarchism Domestic Terrorism Federal Government Government Law Enforcement Libertarianism on by

On a day that Americans celebrate Independence Lynn Kiesling reminds us that it is important to know our rights and that:

Governments are institutions that are human artifices that justly exist to protect these natural rights, and when governments fail to protect those natural rights, then citizens have a right to rebel against that government.

Are you ready to go to Arnold, Missouri or stand on Angel Raich’s doorstep to turn back the the minions of an illegitimate government?
If not in Missouri or California then in your own community. There are plenty of places to take a stand and turn back the tide.