---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Mon, 21 Apr 2003 20:00:45 -0500 From: Adina Levin <alevin@alevin.com> To: eff-austin@effaustin.org Subject: [eff-austin] [Fwd: Action Alert : Say No To Government Video Surveillance] -------- Original Message -------- Subject: Action Alert : Say No To Government Video Surveillance Date: Mon, 21 Apr 2003 16:46:57 -0700 From: ACLU of Texas <webmaster@aclutx.org> To: List Member <alevin@alevin.com> ACLU of Texas Legislative Action Alert * /Oppose HB 901/* / *Say No To Total Government Video Surveillance*/ April 21, 2003 Dear ACLU supporter, I need your help today to oppose a bill in the Texas Legislature that's poised to be voted on in the Texas House of Representatives this week. HB 901 authorizes up to 20,000 linked government digital surveillance cameras to spy on Texans as we move about in public throughout the state. The bill's supporters justify this expansive surveillance system by the need to limit cars running red lights. But once in place, the system could be used for any security purpose. In Tiananmen Square during the pro-democracy uprising in 1989, cameras originally installed to regulate traffic were used to identify individual protesters for retribution b hundreds received imprisonment or worse because they were identified from the surveillance cameras hanging from traffic signals. *I need you to call your State Representative in the Texas House of Representatives today!* Let them know you oppose HB 901 installing cameras at intersections for traffic enforcement. Ibve provided some background information below my signature that will help you prepare to make your call. *If you donbt know who represents you in the Legislature, use the search engine on the Texas capitol web site to quickly figure it out at http://www.capitol.state.tx.us/fyi/fyi.htm. * Please make the call. This is really important b once theybre in place, surveillance cameras powerful enough to distinguish a license plate number can conceivably be used for any purpose, both aboveboard and nefarious. Itbs important to stop this bad idea now before the cameras are in place and they become a lot more difficult to regulate. These are trying times, and itbs important that those of us who care about liberty and freedom continue speak out. Thanks for calling your State Representative as soon as possible, and thank you for your support for civil liberties in Texas. Sincerely, Will Harrell Executive Director ACLU of Texas Donbt be surprised if the person who answers the phone asks a question or two about the bill. Herebs some background to read before you make your phone call: * * *Current Law:* Traffic tickets are issued in person by law enforcement officers. *Privacy: One Nation Under Surveillance* Developments in digital video, infrared, x-ray, wireless, GPS, biometrics, image scanning, voice recognition, DNA, and brain wave fingerprinting provide government with new ways to "search" individuals and collect vast databases of information on law-abiding Texans. The proliferation of government and private databases with our personal information in it is a real cause for concern. *Big Brother is possible today*. Personal information about Texans that is captured by our government is typically sold and frequently ends up on television or the internet. *Government already sells embarrassing personal scenes* involving Texans to TV shows like b Copsb . Government can use digital cameras to enforce criminal laws against Texans. Texas Attorney General John Cornyn (Opinion JC-0460) held that government can use surveillance cameras to enforce criminal laws against Texans. This practice has been banned in the European union to limit privacy abuses by law enforcement. After these 20,000 cameras are installed, government can arrest individual Texans for any criminal violations committed in public, including failure-to-wear-a-seatbelt and jay-walking. The sponsor of the bill hasnbt even considered all the consequences. Asked whether there will be a privacy problem when rental car companies must provide all of our private rental information to the government, Representative Phil King (R-Weatherford) replied: *b I hadnbt thought about it from that standpoint.b * * * * * *Due Process: No Actual Notice Required . . . Car Impounded* * B7*The proposed citations will not punish the driver -- a citation will be mailed to the owner of the car no matter who was driving. HB901 will have little or no effect on commercial drivers, teenage drivers, car thieves, and other non-owner drivers. There is *no requirement that the owner actually receive notice* of any violation. Nonetheless, the punishment for repeated failure to respond is *the government can impound your vehicle.* * * * * *Government Abuse: Yes, Even In Texas* Even the very best governments are burdened by some abuse. In this case, the potential for abuse will increase with the surveillance powers b exponentially. In Washington DC police were caught using police surveillance databases to gather information on certain paramours the then blackmailing citizens who were married. In Detroit police used their police surveillance databases to help their friends or themselves stalk women, threaten motorists, and track estranged spouses. *Ineffective: No Heinous Deaths Prevented By Mailed Citation* The proposed camera system will not fulfill its purported function. The camera system is being proposed to decrease the number of traffic fatalities caused by drivers who run red lights. Drivers who commit the senseless and irrational act of driving so fast and late through a red light that they can cause a fatality or serious wreck will not be stopped by the notion that the owner of the vehicle might later have to pay a small civil fine. Such a heinous act is so perilous and life-endangering that it defies reason. Unfortunately, HB901 will have no effect on this type of irrational crime. *Say NO to Total Government Video Surveillance* Please do not redistribute after April 30th, 2003 Visit our website for updates ------------------------------------------------------------------------ ACLU of Texas PO Box 3629 Austin,TX 78764-3629 Phone:(512) 478-7309 Web site: http://www.aclutx.org E-mail: info@aclutx.org <mailto:info@aclutx.org> ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Powered by List Builder Click here to change or remove your subscription <http://lb.bcentral.com/ex/sp?c=2382&s=59D694000490B3EF&m=101>