The ‘Show Me’ States
by Becky Akers
LewRockwell.com
You might think the New York Police Department, with its notoriety for abusing civilians and a list of scandals so long it requires its own page in Wikipedia, would avoid furnishing us with yet another reason to despise it.
But no. Like many such forces across the country, the NYPD has grown increasingly fond of strip-searches – and not just of suspected criminals. Cops want to denude all of us, all the time, even when we’re merely walking down the street, minding our own business.
The NYPD’s Commissioner, Ray Kelly, recently confessed this stunning ambition during a speech at the New York City Police Foundation. He “said the department was working with the Defense Department to develop gun-scan technology ‘capable of detecting concealed firearms,’” the New York Times reported.
The Defense Department? OK, New York City’s host of bureaucrats could very well collaborate with Al Qaeda, given how badly they gum up the works. But otherwise, does the NYPD really need to sic the Pentagon on the taxpayers who foot its bills?
Uniformed thugs who expect us to divulge everything suddenly turn shy when we demand the same regarding their mechanical Peeping Toms. We know virtually nothing about Tom except his real name: Terahertz Imaging Detection. The photo the Times ran with its article shows something akin to thermal imaging i.e., the subject’s waist glows green thanks to a pistol stuck in his belt.
But this isn’t the only gizmo the NYPD and other cops nationwide focus on us. They’ve also unleashed another, more invasive technology: “whole-body imaging,” or, as the perverts at the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) now prefer to call it, “advanced imaging technology.”
You’re far too familiar with these scanners. They’re the ones at the airport that expose us while also irradiating us – the ones that the European Union banned out of “health and privacy concerns” and that have spawned such groups here as wewon’tfly.com.
The Rest…HERE
