Our Rulers’ interest is us is limitless and creepy: the DEA has been collecting information on our whereabouts for years by reading license plates. That includes our attendance at such events as gun shows:
Federal agencies tried to use vehicle license-plate readers to track the travel patterns of Americans on a much wider scale than previously thought, with new documents showing the technology was proposed for use to monitor public meetings. …
Further documents released by the ACLU on Wednesday show that Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) officials in Phoenix planned on “working closely” with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) to monitor public gun shows with the automatic technology in 2009.
The excuse is the same as always: tracking us protects us. Which is more of a stretch than usual in this case since the “buildup of a vehicle surveillance database ... stemmed from the DEA’s appetite for asset forfeiture, a controversial practice of seizing possessions at traffic stops and vehicle pullovers if agents suspect they are criminal proceeds.” Hey, lots of people die in traffic accidents, so when Our Rulers steal our cars from us, they’re saving our sorry little lives, right? Ditto for those slips in the bathtub: swipe our houses, and we no longer have any cold, hard porcelain on which to clunk our heads.
Thanks to Randy Black for the link.
10:30 am on January 30, 2015
