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A Law to Spy Back on Government Surveillance Cameras?

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on from the who's-gonna-monitor-the-monitors-of-the-monitors. dept.

mattnyc99 writes "As the Senate begins debate today on wider new surveillance legislation, Instapundit blogger and University of Tennessee law professor Glenn Reynolds has an interesting op-ed as part of Popular Mechanics' cover story on the looming power of spy cameras in America. He cites numerous court cases to argue that our privacy concerns may be backwards, and that there should be a new law for citizen rights — that if Big Brother can keep an eye on us in public spaces, we ought to be able to look back. From the accompanying podcast: 'Realistically I don't think we're going to get much in the way of limits on government and business surveillance. So I think we should be focusing more on making it safe, on making it a double-edged sword.'"

6 of 229 comments (clear)

  1. Don't worry by elrous0 · · Score: 5, Funny

    I'm sure our brave Democrats will hold hearings on it just as soon as they cave to the President's latest totalitarian demands once again.

    --
    SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
  2. Two wrongs don't make a right by jockeys · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Us doing it to them doesn't really make them doing it to us and less wrong.

    The medicine is still nasty underneath all that sugar.

    --

    In Soviet Russia jokes are formulaic and decidedly non-humorous.
    1. Re:Two wrongs don't make a right by 0xdeadbeef · · Score: 5, Insightful

      The ability to monitor the government is a necessary foundation for free and open society. It is not a second "wrong", it's a fundamental right that has been increasingly trampled upon.

  3. noooo by dotpavan · · Score: 5, Funny

    that would kill the "in Soviet Russia.." meme

  4. I agree by gurps_npc · · Score: 5, Interesting
    We need the following laws: 1. It it NEVER illegal to make any audio recording of an on-duty government employee

    2. It is never illegal to make a video or other recording og a clothed on-duty government employee.

    3. It is illegal for any government employee to request or insist that such a device be deactivated. Attempting to do so results in a fine equal to one day's pay. If violence was used, they are too be dismissed immediately, even if it was 'justified' by other actions. I.E. If you tell them to stop filming and they hit you, then you hit them back, you get fired even though 'they started it.'

    4. If a government employee takes possesion of a a recording device that is not theirs and a recording is damaged, it must be returned in 100% working condition, with a copy of any recordings on it, within 2 days. Failure results in an investigation by Police, or by Internal Affairs if they are police. If a court case finds that there is a preponderous evidence that the employee intentionally damaged the device or the recording, than that employee will be dismissed from their government position. If the court find they did it beyond a shadow of a doubt, they are to be arrested and tried for grand theft.

    --
    excitingthingstodo.blogspot.com
  5. Paging David Brin by StarEmperor · · Score: 5, Informative

    The Transparent Society