WHERE HAVE OUR FOURTH AMENDMENT RIGHTS GONE

BIG BROTHER'S EYE IN THE SKY part 1

Is Government herding us into a police state?

Big brother's eye-in-the-sky is getting bigger and is peering deeper into our supposedly private lives. We are as frightened cattle crammed into shuts leading from feedlots to the slaughterhouse hurried along by electric prods poking our backsides. Resistance is futile. The uncooperative are beaten down and dragged onward kicking and screaming.

To make matters worse, we fat cows foot the bill with our hard-earned income squeezed from us by our executioners.

Recycle, recycle, recycle

What happens to all the high tech snooping devices originally developed as efficient tools for our troops to use in foreign lands defending our freedom, liberty and way of life, commonly known these days as WAR ON TERROR?

Why, they use them on us fat cows, whose tax contributions, not only paid for the research and development of these costly items, but we continue to give these developing companies bountiful tax breaks and incentives year after year, or until they declare bankruptcy, upon which we give them more of our monies. To add insult to injury, our illustrious leaders continue to kick us in the teeth by using these obsolete tools; we paid for, to spy on us.

Drones that once searched for terrorist in foreign lands, now searches our homeland. Its vigilant, bloodshot eye seeks out terrorist among us. These drones range from full sized airplanes to miniature copters not much larger than a big mosquito, all equipped with cameras and tracking devices. They patrol our borders and our back yards with blatant disregard of our privacy rights. They search for criminals or signs of criminal activity.

"What's wrong with that," you may ask? While search warrants are required to search us, or our homes, nothing says they cannot look through our windows, and they do. If they see anything suspicious, many things appear suspicious to most law-enforcement officials and of course, everyone is a criminal until proven innocent. They can and will break down your door, i.e., nothing pisses them off more than a suspect/criminal lingering too long in following their orders.

Search and seizure

Has a police officer ever stopped you while you were driving, that he did not first look in your car before he spoke to you? Do you think he was simply admiring your car? Has one ever asked you if he could inspect your car? Did you submit to his request? Of course, you did. "What's the big deal," you say. "I have nothing to hide." That is probably true. However, let us look at this scene

What if, while he searched, he found a marijuana roach in your car? "No! Not in my car, he wouldn't." Think about this scenario. Suppose you were walking down the street and steeped on the roach in question. You know, when freshly used, they may be gooey and soggy with saliva, an ideal situation for something to stick to a shoe sole. You step into your car and, plop, it falls to the floor mat. Do you think that officer is going to believe you when you say, "That's not mine, officer (BTW, this is the most popular response from a guilty criminal) I don't know where that nasty thing came from." Or, maybe he is not such a good or fair police officer. Maybe he just does not like something about you, so he decides to plant a small portion of weed he happens to have in his possession or kept it just for that purpose. Watch this video. Notice the second officer drop something in the car than picks it up as though he made a big discovery. There are hundreds of such videos out there.

♪ Ring-Ring ♪

Ah yes, the ubiquitous cell phone, the bane of present day society. There is rumor they will soon be issued at birth. These contraptions are far from being private. Everyone has at least one or more of the blasted things. My wife has two plus a couple walky-talkies, and we have a land phone. She uses them all in her work, often at the same time. Multi tasked women, aren't they such precious oddities? They amaze me. It's difficult for me to write down a message while using a phone. She leaves home in the morning with one clamped between her shoulder and ear and returns home still contorted in the same manner. I stand at the door as the sun slowly slips over the horizon waiting to give her a welcome-home kiss. I refuse to own one of the intrusive things. One has no privacy any longer. I seldom answer our landline monster anymore. When I do, it usually ends up being some anal person selling something, asking for a donation, taking a survey or some retrieval company searching for a ne'er-do-well who is dodging loan payments of some kind. Someone who had our phone number decades ago, i.e., that is how long the collection agents have been disturbing my quietude searching for a woman who owes someone money. One retrieval company after another disturbs me in search of the evasive woman who I wish I had my hands around her throat. I no longer pick up the phone from an unknown number or an unidentified caller. If something is not important enough to leave a message, that's tough. I seldom initiate a phone call either. I only call my wife in an emergency and then only if I can find her number. I have it stuck away somewhere. When and if I find it, there is no longer an emergency or I forgot why I needed to call her. Besides, my hearing has degraded to the point that I no longer understand anyone, especial a woman, even on my special phone.

I think I got carried away on this cell phone thing. What I'm trying to get across is, you cannot get away from one unless you turn it off, stomp it to smithereens or throw it into the lake. Anyone with the proper equipment can locate and track your every move down to where and what you had stopped for breakfast to where and what you bought from Wal-Mart. Your whole life recorded there waiting to be gathered. Later on I'' show you the how what and where our government is collecting information about us.

Smile, you're on Candid Camera

Surveillance cameras, ubiquitous as cell phones, are collecting our images 24/7. Our mugs are forever showing up on them everywhere we go. Of course, they take these mug shots with hopes of catching someone in illegal acts. One cannot scratch their butt or pick their nose in privacy anymore. However, no one does these nasty things, does one? Only when I'm taking a shower with the door locked and the light out.

One cannot go to the store without turning up on at least a dozen or more of the sneaky things. We have grown so used to their presence; we forget they are watching us. They take photos of us speeding through red lights; they catch us leaving a store without paying. They catch us doing forbidden things in parking lots or on street corners. You would think crime would be almost non-existent. Criminals are either ignorant, stupid or just do not give a damn. Yet some still manage to evade them. I am self-conscious whenever I get out in the public anymore. I constantly check for surveillance cameras. I am sure I appear as a guilty person looking over my shoulder and up at the ceiling. One gets a crick in his neck walking around in Wal-Mart. Just think how much more they could lower their prices if they did not have to invest in cameras and observers to monitor them.

We are no longer free in our own back yards or the front ones either

I'm a loaner and a country boy. I cherish my privacy. If I wanted to talk to my neighbor, I'd go knock on his door. I am not one to gossip over the fence. I go to great lengths to discourage it. I live in as subdivision to pacify my city-reared wife. I keep my back yard hidden from my neighbors prying eyes by a six-foot-high privacy fence augmented by tall bushes and trees. The only way anyone can see into my yard is if one is looking through a knothole, standing on a rooftop or sitting in a tree. I wish my front yard had these features. I do not want nor need any snoopy-officials hovering toy flying cameras over my private space. They claim the air space above private property is fair game. When I swim in my pool, I do so in the nude. Anyone observing me is blatantly snooping and deserves to get an eyeful. However, I live in fear that one day the cops will bust down my door and drag me off to the hoosegow for indecent exposure.

The phrase "you can't fight city hall," keeps resounding through my addled mind. The police are operating illegally, and will continue to do so until someone sues and takes it to the Supreme Court. The same goes for our government leaders in Washington. The mystical THEY say, we are to blame because we voted them in. We, the people, did not! The big-money fellows, the ones who run those conglomerations, the ones that hold us by the short hairs, are the goofballs who put our illustrious representatives in office. It is rare when a candidate with empty pockets and/or lacks a string of flagrant lies gets elected. I have nothing to back me up on this, but I would wager these rarities do not last long. Money rules and lies lubricate its wheels.

Looks like I got carried away again. I'll have to make this a 2 or 3 part series. So until next we meet, happy trails to you. Have a pleasant day. Ray