Virginia State Police Surveilled And Recorded License Plates At Routine Political Gatherings
Source: RawStory/ACLU
The American Civil Liberties Union revealed Wednesday that Virginia State Police (VSP) used automatic license plate readers (ALPRs) to record the identities and locations of people attending political events in the state, including President Barack Obama’s 2009 inauguration and 2008 campaign rallies for both Democratic and Republican candidates.
According to a press release at ACLU.org, state law enforcement agencies went on to compile a massive database of Virginians that they used to track the location of citizens throughout the state.
The ACLU obtained information about the program through a series of Freedom of Information Act requests, and says that the findings further illustrate the need for strict oversight of government use of technology to spy on citizens.
The organization said that while ALPRs have a legitimate function in law enforcement — tracking stolen vehicles or those which are frequently involved in crimes — the Virginia program “crossed well over the line from legitimate law enforcement to oppressive surveillance.”
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https://www.aclu.org/blog/technology-and-liberty-national-security/virginia-state-police-used-license-plate-readers
Read more: http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/10/09/virginia-state-police-surveilled-and-recorded-license-plates-at-routine-political-gatherings/
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gopiscrap
(23,761 posts)
daleanime
(17,796 posts)now I just want to know how we stop this shit.
gopiscrap
(23,761 posts)confrontations with the pigs and a disruption of business as usual
dixiegrrrrl
(60,010 posts)by all the agencies which are doing the tracking, it becomes very very hard to deny police state is here.
Mojorabbit
(16,020 posts)tabasco
(22,974 posts)Only way this shit will stop
Squinch
(50,955 posts)AnotherMcIntosh
(11,064 posts)
Fumesucker
(45,851 posts)They are usually all over any sort of story like this.
rhett o rick
(55,981 posts)thread. Thanks for posting.
Dawson Leery
(19,348 posts)
Snake Plissken
(4,103 posts)if a system is setup to record License Plates and automatically destroy data in 24 hours unless an act of terror or a crime has been committed, isn't necessarily a bad thing.
A friend of mine is still recovering from a hit and run that happen six months ago, he was hit almost head on by someone who was either texting or drunk, he was able to swerve away enough to only get sideswiped but ended up hitting a tree and breaking his hip and leg in several places, along with various other minor injuries. The driver was never caught, however if a system was set up to record license plates he would have been.
blkmusclmachine
(16,149 posts)Snake Plissken
(4,103 posts)
Ilsa
(61,695 posts)This is targeted information gathering that can only be used for harassment. This has NOTHING to do with preventing criminal activity.
And 24 hours is plenty of time for data to be sold.
Snake Plissken
(4,103 posts)however if the technology can be used to bring criminals to justice without the data being stored, I don't see a problem with it. I realize 24 hours is plenty of time for the data to be sold, 24 minutes is plenty of time for the data to be sold for that matter, the point being as long as the data is secure and can not be accessed without a court order within a 24 hour period and automatically destroyed afterwards.
blkmusclmachine
(16,149 posts)
davidpdx
(22,000 posts)I know people parked in Virginia and took public transport in because of the crowds. So were they doing surveillance in parking lots like park and rides?
Swede Atlanta
(3,596 posts)I do not suggest they masterminded 9-11 but they created the conditions to allow it to happen including getting a doofus from Texas elected to the White House.
They wanted, they needed something to rile up Americans to surrender their constitutional rights. They hit the jackpot with their "planned" allowance of the 9-11 attacks. I am sorry but those that do not believe that Rummy, Cheney and the like had not planned and prayed for this are deceiving themselves. They were peeing their pants in joy when they saw these things happening. It is actually happening. Now we can take control of the entire country.
And so it began by scaring us into thinking we needed to give up some liberty in the name of "security". And it has never ended. We have the frigging NSA, FBI, CIA, etc. doing all but checking the hair under my nuts. All for what? Not about our security. It is about controlling us.
The actions of the VA state police are the same as the Brownshirts in Nazi Germany. We are a de facto Fascist state. No doubt about that.
Unfortunately we know that the only way we broke the backs of the Nazis was through a world war. Is that the only hope for breaking the Repukes and their fascist mentality? I shudder at the answer to that question. I hope we can resolve this within our system of government but I fear the fascists are so far ahead of us there is no choice. We'll see in the coming weeks and months.
davidpdx
(22,000 posts)I've got to wonder about the timing of it coming out. Now to be clear I disagree with the practice.
The story stated that Cuccinelli was opposed to the surveillance. Cuccinelli is getting killed in the polls right now. You don't suppose someone slipped the ACLU something telling them to investigate this as it would make Cuccinelli look good?
I'm not one for CT, but something smells.
FSogol
(45,488 posts)davidpdx
(22,000 posts)I was about to put on my 
Kablooie
(18,634 posts)ConcernedCanuk
(13,509 posts).
.
.
COINTELPRO, maybe not in name, but in spirit;
is alive and well.
(sigh)
CC
Spitfire of ATJ
(32,723 posts)It's pervasive throughout Law Enforcement. They know the threat is coming from the Right these days but it's almost like a tradition to target us.
Considering half of the country is OBLIVIOUS to politics they probably consider ANYONE who shows an interest as a treat.
Besides,..us dirty hippies have pulled in a lot of revenue in pot busts.
MADem
(135,425 posts)Were the state police asked to provide assistance because of a credible threat against either individual? They are sometimes asked to provide precisely this kind of support when they are looking for a "suspicious character" that some three letter agency has gotten a tip about.
Were they looking for someone who was stalking either politician for nefarious purposes?
They used to do this kind of thing with a pencil, a notepad, and shoe leather--these license plate readers are just "new tech" on an old thing.
We wouldn't necessarily know that they got a federal request for assistance straight out of the gate, without them saying so, and they probably wouldn't say so without the express permission of federal agencies making the request. How key and essential are the public affairs flacks for the federal agencies in question? Are they even processing these sorts of administrative requests for information lately owing to the shutdown?
Now, if the state police hung on to the data just for fun, didn't pass on the information about the individual(s) they were asked to get a location on, that's most assuredly problematic, and then the question is why were they doing this-- was that for (onerous and intrusive) database-building purposes, simply stupid privacy-violating training purposes, or a SOP preventive measure in the event of an "incident" at the rally, where the data should have been dumped as soon as all ended well, and retaining it was just plain old laziness and sloppy bookkeeping?
So, there's that kind of thing as a theory. There's also the possibility that they'd gotten a new toy and were playing/practicing with it.
I'm sure the ACLU will dig down and get to the bottom of it--I do think the "why" question is the most important one of all.