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Page: Profile: Wren's Nest News Local
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Article: 15612
[Civil]
Date Posted:
6/12/2006
10:50:19 am EDT
Wvox Stats
Views: 7,279
RSS: 14,107
Comments: 7
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Rhode Island Police Seek Open Access To Internet, Phone Records
Author: Boston Globe Source: Boston Globe (MA)
Title: RHODE ISLAND POLICE SEEK OPEN ACCESS TO INTERNET, PHONE RECORDS
Rhode Island General Assembly is considering legislation that could give police access to Internet and phone records and credit card and bank information without a warrant or other court review, civil libertarians said.
The state police said the legislation would help track down the increasing instances of Internet-based crime, including fraud and child exploitation. They say they are only seeking expanded access to Internet records, not phone or banking records.
But lawyers familiar with this area of law say the bills as crafted would give Rhode island police the right to obtain the same information that some of the nation's major communication companies have been accused of giving to the National Security Agency illegally.
Additional Article Link: [Click HERE]
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Community Thoughts: There are 7 comments posted | Reverse Sort |
| Too Bad So Sad | Jun 12th. at 9:04:47 pm EDT
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Opus the Poet (Garland, Texas) - Email Me
I really feel for the difficulty the police have in Rhode Island in getting a warrant to seize records or perform searches, but that's the law, to wit:
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.
That's the 4th Amendment, verbatim. As I understand the proposed legislation it would violate this Constitutional Right all to Hell and back. so what if it takes 4 hours to get a warrant? I made an oath to defend the Constitution from all detractors, foreign and domestic. This sure sounds like detraction to me.
Opus
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| Reportable To Public | Jun 12th. at 12:01:09 pm EDT
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Terry (Irvington, Virginia) - Email Me
With a slight amendment, this Bill could be very interesting and useful to the public.
Police, politicians, judges, and bureaucrats often act arrogant and as if they're exempt from the law, and as if not reportable to voters other than via ad agency produced commercials at election time.
Making internet records of all public officials in Rhode Island available to the public could be quite interesting.
What medical information was researched, online consultations held, or drugs purchased? Were those pills for an STD picked up from the Dominatrix with whom that politician was engaging in Webcam pay service sex chats billed to a government account?
It's really overdue for PayPal to be regulated as a bank, since it functions as one, but records of such net services wouldn't invade privacy, nor would information on what banks or brokerage house accounts were managed online, as after all, it's only about Internet use to track predators, not about financial records.
It would certainly serve the public interest to know which two cops were making selective arrests in lieu of paying off their online bookie. Or, which legislative aide booked the strippers and hookers for the secret party with elite campaign donors? Who campaigned on a platform at odds with the real life choices of himself or family?
For the rest of us, who use the internet for communications related to nearly every aspect of our lives, and recognize some of those communications deserve protections beyond ordinary privacy, for finances, medical issues, etc, strict laws holding dangerous predators with badges and guns in check, as well as their mob bosses exempt from prosecution by archaic artifacts of sovereign immunity, could be very useful. Other than in those few states with citizen ballot initiatives, how do we enact corrupt politician and gun toting mercenary protection acts, requiring full disclosure of every last detail of how those often corrupt public employees operate for citizen oversight?
The average cop is already an unindicted felon, if one considers the many rightfully void laws intended for discriminatory enforcement which routinely violates civil rights of targets, and doesn't treat mercenary thugs as legitimately above the law. We need more effective means to lock up such dangerous predators when they almost predictably engage in violent crimes abridging civil rights, not more loopholes to enable them to claim legitimacy for yet more extensive and egregious violations of our enumerated rights.
For the rest of us, there are some very important reasons why the Constitution establishes protections which by careful design do make it inconvenient for cops at times, as cops often function very much like armed criminal predators. Their only legitimacy comes from a mix of legislatures and courts ensuring that statutes and regulations meet Constitutional tests, and that the armed thugs we hire obey those laws, even if other thugs without badges don't.
This proposed law cannot give legitimacy to cops violating citizen rights, as regardless of any state statute, or state Constitutional problems, any law violating US Constitution defined rights is void, and any actions under it legally wrongful even if not generally prosecuted as the serious crimes they would likely be.
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| My Oh My | Jun 12th. at 11:52:08 am EDT
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Dennis Deal (Nazareth, Pennsylvania) - Email Me
I had been wondering when states would start to wake up to the fact that all they have to do is show that it was in tracking a bad guys like a pedophiles ( nasty people anyways) to open up all records.
Yes, we should all be thankfull that such concern for our security is being looked after by such concern law enforcment and legistation.
after all as in the the words of Cpl. John Killian, the state police's computer crime specialist " "There's a balance between privacy and police authority," Killian said. "The current situation is weighted too far on the side of privacy." "
We shouldn't slow down the process in anyway. so lets just forget due process and rights under the law that benefit us all.
We shouldn't hold up the process of obtaining a search warrent that could take up to three or four hours obtain.
Our hard working law enforcement officials have to be out catching bad guys.
Not be worrying about such legal nicties of of actually obtaining a warrant. We should be gratefull that such standup people like a police chief "assertion" that it is necessary for an investigation.
Yes, it is a little time-consuming and cumbersome for the state police going before a judge to get a warrant.
So let sacrifice our freedom so that the state can look after us. Wont the good people of Rhode Island sleep a little better knowing this? HMM??
I hope this piece of "legislation" dies a nasty miserable death. It so not right. Even with the hysteria of lets catch the very real bad guys added on. It's still bad law.
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