________________________________________ From: Thomas Roach [kodakfilm@gmail.com] Sent: Thursday, January 17, 2008 12:06 AM To: David Farber Cc: Thomas Roach; ip Subject: Re: [IP] Automatic License Plate Recognition in BC I work as a volunteer policeman in Lincoln, CA. The word is we will soon purchase a license plate reading system. The police in the adjoining town already have two cars with devices on the roof of their cars equipped to read license plates on cars moving in both directions. Determining if the plate is not registered [usually means the owner hasn't paid the license fee] or if it is listed as stolen, is done by computer and is almost instantaneous. The system certainly could be used in finding people suspected of crimes or for whom a warrant has been sworn for their arrest. Whether thIs this an invasion of privacy or an "illegal search" is beyond my scope. That won't stop it from happening. I think what I most dislike is not that the government is routinely doing this and a LOT more at the federal level, but the fact that our government [Congress to be exact] doesn't have the balls to declare war. Of course we have a lot of people who think you can't declare war on a "religion". We are effectively declaring war on an evil belief system that honestly believes you have the right to kill hundreds of people based on their not accepting your belief system. That is sort of what war is all about and why it shouldn't be declared solely by the executive branch without the consent, make that a legal declaration, by Congress as I believe is required by the Constitution. I'd have a hard time these days taking the oath of enlistment I swore through my 20 years of service in the USAF, since we swore to protect the Constitution, not the executive branch. Anyway, if a war is won, the belief is that your rights under the Constitution are restored. I think that too is a thing of the past. I'm almost 70 and have more or less, mostly more, given up on the belief that the country of my youth, exists in any meaningful sense anymore. The sexual mores have certainly changed in ways I was so sure was good when I was young and horny. When I hear of the lyrics of the songs sung by hip-hop jive ass scum or read of the escapades of the likes of some of the current "stars", I am fairly sure we would be better of with some restrictions on "free" speech, except in the political arena. As for current societal behavior, there doesn't seem to be any sense that the "stars" are acting improperly, just prurient interest by the public in their unseemly behavior. The public seems to have no sense that "rights" require responsibility. Technology has changed a lot and from my point of view more access to information is always a plus. That assumes the information is used to help you make an informed decision. The current administration has made a joke of the FOIA and almost any "right" to federal documents or decisions. Thanks to the acts of terrorists, most people correctly think it is the job of the government to protect us from terrorists. I think they are right but think from a Constitutional point of view this means we need to declare war. It sure isn't like WW2 or Korea when the enemy was clearly defined and the average American was totally willing to make the sacrifices required to defeat the enemy. Well, maybe we better leave out Korea and certainly every other "war" we have been involved in since then. I guess in the end people will pay a price for giving up their liberties short of having declared a war at which point you basically have almost no rights. In the meanwhile because of the not unjustified fear of terrorists, we have made mince meat of almost all our "rights" and that is probably the sole reason we haven't had another attack within the continental USA. Re our rights under the Constitution, I wouldn't expect them back anytime soon, regardless of what we elect. Thomas Roach thomasbroach@mac.com http://gallery.mac.com/thomasbroach On Jan 16, 2008, at 11:15 AM, David Farber wrote:

________________________________________ From: Kurt Albershardt [kurt@nv.net] Sent: Wednesday, January 16, 2008 2:04 PM To: David Farber Subject: Automatic License Plate Recognition in BC

Mobile multicamera system looks impressive on the promotional video but the implications are a bit unsettling <http://www.freesociety.ca/articles/alpr

...

------------------------------------------- Archives: http://v2.listbox.com/member/archive/247/=now RSS Feed: http://v2.listbox.com/member/archive/rss/247/ Powered by Listbox: http://www.listbox.com ----- End forwarded message ----- -- Eugen* Leitl <a href="http://leitl.org">leitl</a> http://leitl.org ______________________________________________________________ ICBM: 48.07100, 11.36820 http://www.ativel.com http://postbiota.org 8B29F6BE: 099D 78BA 2FD3 B014 B08A 7779 75B0 2443 8B29 F6BE