Prying eyes in the desert

Had up to here with airport security, TSA, drones and government data-mining of phone calls and e-mail? Well, the latest device in the government's ongoing war against your right to be left alone are license plate recognition devices in the Arizona desert.

That's right. Clusters of cameras have been placed in the Arizona desert - in some cases quite far from the Mexican border. These clusters include both regular surveillance cameras as well as devices that read license plate numbers and send the data to a site in Virginia for storage. The device also records the date, time and location of the car tracked.

Of course the government claims this is the latest tool needed to fight the scourge of drugs. The information retrieved by the devices can then be shared with local, state and federal law enforcement agencies for whatever purpose they deem necessary.

The DEA has installed the devices in California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas. Next up are plans for installing them further inland.

Writes, G.W. Schultz of the Center for Investigative Reporting:

In their unending battle to deter illegal immigration, drug trafficking and terrorism, U.S. authorities already have beefed up border security with drug-sniffing dogs, aircraft and thousands more agents manning interior checkpoints. 

Now, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration has decided it wants more, and the Justice Department agency doesn't care whether someone has even set foot in Mexico.

Need I go any further?

Bet you didn't know that just by driving down the highway in Arizona, minding your own business, you were under suspicion for illegal activity. The notion is absurd. I'm also surprised that Homeland Security didn't get involved in this and claim that the devices would cut down on terrorist activity in the Southwest.

Oh, no terrorist activity in the Arizona desert? Well, that's just a little detail we don't need to worry about at this time.

This country was founded on the principle that the people have a right to be left alone by the government. The Bill of Rights enshrines that doctrine. But with a judiciary that would rather kowtow to law enforcement than exercise sound judgment, our right to be left alone has withered away to the point of extinction.

The Fourth Amendment is on life support as the result of a thousand paper cuts over the years. Judges are more worried about outcome than they are principle. You know the drill - if the court were to uphold the words of the Fourth Amendment, the bad guys would get away; therefore we must make an exception to the rule in this case... and in that case... and in this other case. You do it enough, there is no doctrine left.

We have the right to be left alone. The police don't have the right to interfere with your daily routine unless they have reasonable suspicion (itself an example of the courts taking liberties with the Fourth Amendment) that you have engaged in some type of criminal activity. These devices in the desert are only the latest method the government has dreamed up to circumvent that basic notion.

Freed five days too late

Daniel Chong thought he was free to go when DEA agents told him he could leave after questioning him. What the agent meant was that he would be free to go after being locked in a cell without food or water for five days.

Mr. Chong was picked up in a drug sweep in San Diego on April 21. Federal agents served a warrant on a house and found some 18,000 ecstasy pills along with marijuana, mushrooms, prescription medications and other paraphernalia.

When asked why he was there, Mr. Chong apparently told the agents he went to his friend's house to get high.

Regardless of why he was there, once DEA agents were through questioning Mr. Chong, he should have been released. Instead he was placed in the cell and forgotten. During his ordeal, Mr. Chong lost about 15 pounds, began hallucinating and was close to suffering kidney failure.

When he was found, Mr Chong was incoherent and close to kidney failure, his lawyer said. He was brought to hospital where he spent three days in an intensive care unit. 

Mr Chong broke shards from his glasses and attempted to carve "Sorry Mom" on his arm.

To survive the ordeal, Mr. Chong reportedly drank his own urine.

Yes, these are our agents in the war on drugs. These are the agents we trust to "keep us safe." Well, do you feel safer now?

DEA San Diego acting agent-in-charge William Sherman said on Wednesday that he was "deeply troubled by the incident that occurred here last week". 

"I extend my deepest apologies to the young man and want to express that this event is not indicative of the high standards that I hold my employees to."

This is the incident we know about. We know about it because Mr. Chong was a college student and his family retained an attorney. What other violations of our basic right to be treated with decency have the DEA committed that we don't know about?

Most of the time we never hear about the abuses suffered by those arrested by the police. We don't hear about them because they aren't deemed newsworthy. We don't hear about them because the person who was abused is one of "them." He found himself on the wrong side of law enforcement and got arrested. Of course he's going to claim he was beaten or abused. Why should we believe the word of a punk instead of that of a police officer?

We rarely have photos. We rarely have video. We almost never have the admission of a law enforcement official that his agents mistreated someone.

The conduct on the part of the DEA is inexcusable. Did Mr. Sherman take responsibility because it was the right thing to do or because it was the only thing he could do? I don't know the answer to that question. I would hope it was the former.