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GPS-Enabled Criminals In Massachusetts
Fun at LinuxWorld writes "Following on the heels of California's plan to put GPS receivers in cars, Massachusetts wants to fit criminals who violation restraining orders with GPS devices. Wearing the device would be a condition of probation (meaning you can refuse, but then you get to serve your time in jail), and fines and punishments would be imposed if the person entered "restricted zones" (under the terms of the restraining order). With all the reports of GPS being used to restrict the rights of innocent people, is this any better? Will it fix the problem?"
Two days in a row of trolling from you.
Not trolling, but if you want to think it, go ahead.
All your posts are the same crap rehashed.
One might say the same thing about yours...
I'm sorry I have positions that you disagree with.
You propose a trollish question (calling slashdotters "latent luddites in the normally pro-tech slashdot community")
Trollish, but true. People who are ordinarily proponents of technology, who pretend that things like P2P are just the nature of things, and content providers will have to find a way to deal with it because it's just an "innocent technology" that can be used for anything come out full force AGAINST, e.g., RFID in the California school district, which is just really a glorified way of keeping track of the students, which the school is charged with doing anyway, albeit using technological means. But oooh, let's call it a "tracking beacon" and throw in some 1984 and Ben Franklin quotes, and maybe a little Bush bashing to boot, and we've got ourselves a slashdot thread! Yes, I'm being a little sarcastic here, but you think *my* fucking posts are "the same crap rehashed"? Take a look at the majority of groupthink posts to pretty much any politically oriented article here, and then we can talk about "crap rehashed".
and then you give some stupid opinion under the guise of you standing back and having nothing to do w/the argument that will ensue.
Huh? I had 14 replies in my own UTSA thread yesterday. Don't know how that's "standing back", exactly.
Especially considering I'm, you know, responding to you right now.
In the future state and opinion or a fact.
I did. And have. Thank you.
Do not state your boring and open-ended questions that are only there for the amusement you apparently receive out of watching people state their case while you get modded up over asking people to answer your questions more than once.
*Sigh*
First of all, I posted both of those questions within minutes of each other, before NEITHER had been answered, in separate subthreads. Secondly, they were both modded DOWN, one to "0, Flamebait", so my goal isn't to "get modded up". But thanks for your concern. Speaking of posting crap, why don't you actually respond to my fucking post instead of trolling me simply because you (apparently) disagree with some of my views.
Awesome plan except not everyone drives a landyacht gas guzzling SUPER car...
... obvious to people. Wanna save money? Buy an auto that's suitable to your task. If you're not driving up mountainside with 7 people you don't need an SUV. It's really that simple.
So my 50 km and your 50 km may not use the same gas and therefore won't pollute the same.
If only they had a way to measure this based on the gas consumed... hmmm... maybe tax the gasoline itself?
No, that's too obvious....
I don't know why such obvious ideas are not
If you're not hauling lumber or soil you don't need a shiny F150 truck.
Get a fucking compact or mid-size and save yourself the money and wear on the environment.
Tom
Someday, I'll have a real sig.
OOhh! Ohh! I have my own personal troll! Are you really following me around from post to post? Fuck yeah!
It's beena plesure!
94% of Repubs and 21% of Dems voted to renew the Patriot Act
That said, I don't approve of an odometer-based tax system, and I disagree that there is a need to do any more tracking of highway usage than we do already. Making highways into tollways is perfectly adequate.
I used to live in MA and judges hand restrainng orders out like candy there. My ex wife got one on me when we got divorced, which kept me out of my own house for almost 4 years. My crime?
NOTHING!!By the time I got back in to get my stuff, most of it was gone, including many family heirlooms and photographs she threw in the dumpster. Not to mention that I was forbidden to even go to my neighbor's house who is a long time friend. She even got to keep the restraining order in place for two years AFTER I moved to California.
Do not trust the Comm. of Massachusetts as far as you can throw them. Once you open this door a crack, next thing you know it'll be completely off its hinges and thrown in the street!Already there is precedence within the law for restriction or elimination of certain personal freedoms and rights, especially if felonies have been committed. Felons are not allowed to own guns I believe as well as give up the right to vote. Especially given the violent nature behind many restraining order allocations, this is a good implementation of GPS tracking technology.
There are several important points here to consider. First, a minor clarification; Felons do not have the right to vote in some states, which I believe is a very bad law. After all, if you can't vote to change the laws that put you in prison, how can change occur? Imagine if all the people who were convicted of drinking during prohibition could no longer vote to have it repealed. All laws of that sort do is remove democracy from a portion of our society, a portion that is downtrodden.
Next, restraining order laws are very weak in many places. Often a restraining order can be obtained with no proof of wrongdoing. In some of these cases removing the order can drag out in the courts for years. This has already been abused in divorce proceedings to keep a soon to be ex-spouse from getting to personal possessions owned jointly. Basically, many restraining order laws need to be fixed before we have iron-clad enforcement of them.
In a place where all the laws are just, and are constantly fit to the morals of society, I think lawbreakers should be held accountable for their actions. It is a perfectly reasonable cost-cutting measure to parole prisoners and electronically track their movements to prevent them from committing any more crimes. This is not that place.
The vast majority of people who are arrested, imprisoned, and paroled are their because of the new prohibition, the one on drugs. A large portion of our society is addicted to drugs, involved in violence because of drugs and organized crime, or selling drugs in an attempt to escape poverty. Our prisons are overflowing with poor and poorly educated people. It is a huge, sucking, social wound, and this is the band-aid.
The authorities can't really lock up the lower class, and the users because their are just too many of them. Instead of fixing the laws and fixing the social problems, however, they will use this to remove the rights of the lower class, making them unequal participants in society. As you mentioned many felons no longer have the right to vote. This will effectively remove from them the right to move freely within our society. Do you think this will reduce the number of felons, or increase it?
If you forget everything you know about America and everything you have been taught, then look at our country with a fresh perspective you will see a place where the lower class is routinely arrested and their rights removed. You will see a huge racial problem. You will see fully a quarter of young black men with no right to vote and with electronic surveillance equipment permanently attached to them. You will see laws that do not reflect the will of many of the people, but do reflect the will of the wealthy upper classes. You will see little opportunity or bravery. You will see fear and oppression. Watch the television show cops for a while and imagine every black to be a christian and every cop as a roman soldier.
When laws are unjust, they must be fought against. Slavery, suffrage, prohibition, and just about every other great social reform has been the result of law breakers standing up and the people in power being unable to lock them all up. This is an alternative to locking them all up, we just take away their rights, and set them loose, knowing that we can find and arrest any of them any time. If GPS devices are used to track felons on a regular basis, I can almost guarantee it will become a tool of oppression at some point. Such is the nature of our society.