"Imagine a World Full of Drones"

Recommended Reading

February 20, 2011 "Do cameras stop crime?"
February 22, 2012 "Despite Being The Most Watched City In The World, London Is No Safer For All Its CCTV"
March 15, 2012 "President Obama Signs 'Anti-Protest' Bill H.R. 347"
May 14, 2012 "Bomb Plot Raises Questions About Airport Security"
May 17, 2012 "London's Amazingly Explicit Surveillance State Mascot For The 2012 Olympics Has a Huge Camera Eye That 'Records Everything'"
June 24, 2012 "A Cruel and Unusual Record"
June 29, 2012 "A New Standard for Oxymoronic Newspeak"
July 2, 2012 "Striking Back at Drone Attacks"
July 5, 2012 "The Military Solution: The Lessons Washington Can't Draw From the Failure of the Military Option"
July 8, 2012 "Wireless Firms Are Flooded by Requests to Aid Surveillance"
July 9, 2012 "The Lethal Presidency of Barack Obama"
July 10, 2012 "White House order on emergency communications riles privacy group"
July 11, 2012 "Making Obama's Kill List"
July 16, 2012 "Obama's 'Global Jail' in Afghanistan"
July 16, 2012 "TSA Fails to Comply With Year-Old 'Nude' Body-Scanner Court Order"
July 18, 2012 "Senator questions Facebook exec about facial-recognition feature"
July 18, 2012 "Personal info tapped with an app"
July 19, 2012 "That Makes No Sense!: Your Security's a Joke (and You're the Butt of It)"
July 23, 2012 "The Public Is Left in the Dark When Courts Allow Electronic Surveillance"
July 24, 2012 "Millions of Americans now fall within government's digital dragnet"
July 25, 2012 "NYPD 'consistently violated basic rights' during Occupy protests - study"
July 27, 2012 "Don't believe the Skype: it may not be as private as you might think"
July 29, 2012 "Former NSA Official Disputes Claims by NSA Chief"
July 29, 2012 "Police Shootings Echo Nationwide: Aurora Gets the Attention, But Guns Are Going Off Everywhere"
July 31, 2012 "Congress Wants to See Obama's 'License to Kill'"
August 1, 2012 "F-15s scrambled as United flight diverts on unclaimed camera"
August 9, 2012 "US Attorneys Refuse to Assure Judge That They Are Not Already Detaining Citizens Under NDAA"
August 14, 2012 "Nobel Laureates Protest NBC's Warmongering Reality Show"
August 22, 2012 "The National Security Agency's Domestic Spying Program"
August 22, 2012 "Giving In to the Surveillance State"
August 23, 2012 "NYPD: Muslims' Conversations About Anti-Muslim Bias Justify Spying on Muslims"
August 29, 2012 "All the Pentagon's Lawyers"
September 4, 2012 "Democrats Retreat on Civil Liberties in 2012 Platform"
September 6, 2012 "Obama Finally Talks Drone War, But It's Almost Impossible to Believe Him"
September 6, 2012 "Dumb and Dumber: Obama's 'Smart Power' Foreign Policy Not Smart at All"
September 7, 2012 "Big Brother In Your Car"
September 10, 2012 "9/11 at 11: the lost United States of 10 September 2001"
September 11, 2012 "The Persecution of John Kiriakou: Torture and the Myth of Never Again"
September 11, 2012 "Another Guantanamo prisoner death highlights Democrats' hypocrisy"
September 13, 2012 "Monopolizing War?: What America Knows How to Do Best"
September 13, 2012 "How the Gov't Talks About a Drone Program it Won't Acknowledge Exists"
September 17, 2012 "The Bush Administration's Oft-Repeated (and Now Challenged) Waterboarding Claims"
September 19, 2012 "Drone warfare's deadly civilian toll: a very personal view"
September 21-23, 2012 "Medical Professionals Who Torture"
September 25, 2012 "New Standford/NYU study documents the civilian terror from Obama's drones"
September 26, 2012 "Our Bipartisan Apathy Toward Civilian Drone Deaths"
September 27, 2012 "New Justice Department Documents Show Huge Increase in Warrantless Electronic Surveillance"
September 30, 2012 "Obama risks handing 'loaded gun' drone programme to Romney"
October 1, 2012 "Supreme Court Dismisses Airport Scanners Challenge"
October 3, 2012 "Inside Pakistan's drone country"
October 4, 2012 "Gitmo Detainee's Body Being Held in Secure, Undisclosed Location"
October 7, 2012 "Overwrought Empire: The Discrediting of U.S. Military Power"
October 10, 2012 "Still Classified: Terror Suspects' Own Accounts of Their Abuse"
October 18, 2012 "Groups Fault Boston Police For Surveillance"

Mission Statement

If any article sums up the philosophy of this blog and my feelings about the War on Terror, it's this excellent one by Spencer Ackerman, published on the tenth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. It's called "How to Beat Terrorism: Refuse to Be Terrorized."

Ten years ago today, 2,996 people were murdered, unleashing a pair of destructive, mutually reinforcing trends. To prove their relevance, terrorists keep trying to attack the United States at home. And the media and politicians react to it with hysteria, running in fear of getting blamed for a successful attack and perpetuating the gigantic, expensive, counterproductive National Security State. As awful as the snuffing of so many souls on 9/11 was, the second trend has often proved more dangerous than the first.

In case you haven't noticed, hysteria is what the terrorists want. In fact, it's the only win a decapitated, weakened al-Qaida can get these days. The only hope that these eschatological conspiracy theorists possess for success lies in compelling the U.S. to spend its way into oblivion and pursue ill-conceived wars. That's how Osama bin Laden transforms from a cave-dwelling psycho into a world-historical figure--not because of what he was, but because of how we reacted to him.

And that points to the only way out of a trap that's lasted a decade. It has nothing to do with national security and everything to do with politics. The U.S. has to embrace the reality that terrorism is not anything remotely like the existential threat we make it out to be. We can honor those 2,996 without being permanently haunted by them.

Another great article, written by David Shipler and published just a few days before Ackerman's, includes a lot of specific details and historical context.

"All men having power ought to be distrusted to a certain degree," James Madison told the Constitutional Convention. We should depend not on officials' goodwill, he was saying, but on a system of restraints. This is what the Patriot Act has damaged, alarming those who believe with Madison that government will do whatever it is allowed to do....

The erosions of constitutional rights have to be clear and obvious enough to mobilize the public. Violations committed in secret are hard to get mad about, especially when you're scanned, frisked, and searched whenever you get on a plane. We mutter complaints, then go along because we are persuaded that we have to relinquish privacy and dignity for security. This sets us up to accept other intimate intrusions. Once people let their bodies be probed and patted and rendered naked by the TSA, they have trouble generating outrage when their bank accounts, e-mails, and phone records are examined by the NSA--especially since they don't know it's happening.

I especially like this: "Having an open society entails some risk. Perfect security, after all, is an aspiration of the police state."

Big Brother Comes to Boston

August 31, 2012

Paul MacMillan
Chief of Police
MBTA Transit Police Department

Dear Police Chief MacMillan:

I'm writing to complain about the new surveillance cameras on the MBTA and to protest against their extension to commuter rail cars, subway cars, and buses. These cameras are an unnecessary and offensive invasion of the privacy of law-abiding passengers.

I have used the MBTA to commute to work five days a week for the last nine years and have had to contend with daily delays, broken-down trains, overstuffed cars, fare increases, rude employees, and every other imaginable frustration. The situation has only gotten worse each year. If the T truly cared about its customers, it would work to improve these basic operations. Instead, it wastes our money on random bag searches, Big Brother surveillance cameras, and "See Something, Say Something" campaigns--little more than security theater designed to address problems that don't actually exist. The empirical data does not support the need for or the effectiveness of these measures. (I will discuss the data in a moment.)

Until last month, I was still willing to cut the MBTA some slack. It is a frustrating but nevertheless convenient way to get to work every day. However, the new cameras are the final push I needed. I will be buying a bicycle and will not give any more money to the T until the cameras are removed.

Why does the MBTA feel these cameras are necessary? The Boston subway has been operating for 115 years without them, a full 11 of those years after 9/11. Are we supposed to believe that now the subway has become so dangerous as to require the constant surveillance of one million innocent people every day? It's telling, I think, that the cameras were installed so surreptitiously, without input from the public. Maybe the T knew the move would be unpopular.

Actually, I don't doubt that I'm in the minority and that most of your customers consent to being monitored and recorded. That's because they've been convinced that 1) they are in imminent danger, and 2) surveillance cameras will keep them safe. But neither of these things is true.

Let's look at the data. My objections to the cameras (aside from the creepy voyeurism) are twofold:

1. Riding the MBTA is, for the most part, perfectly safe, therefore the cameras are unnecessary.
2. Security cameras do nothing to reduce crime (not to mention terrorism), therefore the cameras are ineffective.

To address the first point, I consulted the statistics on your very own website. According to Transit Police reports, in 2010, there were 602 larcenies, 226 robberies, 121 aggravated assaults, 32 vehicle thefts, etc., with the worst crimes, murder and rape, at one each. Larcenies went up a little in 2011, but the other crime rates held steady. Across the entire MBTA transportation system! This does not constitute a crime wave, and to claim otherwise is fearmongering and alarmism. Other crimes, including trespassing, disorderly conduct, vandalism, etc., are also comparatively rare, no more frequent on T property than anywhere else in Boston. As for fare evasion--by far the most common offense, at 3,246 incidents in 2010 and 3,536 in 2011--there are simple and cost-effective solutions that do not involve spying on passengers: for example, better training for T staff and more employees stationed at turnstiles. Instead, the Transit Police, like the TSA, apparently believe that if they can just institute enough expensive and intrusive security measures, they can get those numbers down to zero. But perfect security is impossible, and we have to decide where to draw the line. Will the T be installing full-body scanners next?

I calculate that I've ridden the subway approximately 5,000 times in the nine years I've lived in Boston. In all that time, I've never been so much as robbed. And now, the T says, my commute just isn't safe enough and cameras will make it even safer--that is, in the very unlikely possibility that, say, sometime during the next 5,000 rides, I am the victim of a crime, and on the off chance that crime is caught on tape and the perpetrator is visible and identifiable. All I have to do is consent to being monitored and recorded each of the other 4,999 times. Unlike my fellow passengers, that's not a trade-off I'm willing to make.

As for my second objection, the Surveillance Studies Centre and many other groups have shown that surveillance cameras do nothing to deter crime. And the idea that these cameras and bag searches will deter terrorists--individuals by definition willing to murder numbers of innocent people, not to mention themselves--is too ludicrous to need refuting. Of course, the T has never, in all of its 115 years, been the target of a terrorist attack or even, as far as I know, a terrorist threat. But why let facts get in the way?

So, as long as the cameras were installed without public input, how about a little transparency now? What happens to the video footage? How long is it stored? Who will have access to it? Have any specific policies been put in place to protect the privacy of passengers? Will the MBTA be releasing more humiliating footage to the local news of disabled people falling down escalators, as it did last month? If I have no expectation of privacy on the subway, do I at least have an expectation that a video of me, taken against my will, won't end up going viral on YouTube?

The MBTA likes to pretend that commuters have a choice about riding the subway, but this argument is disingenuous. In fact, there are very few options for those of us who can't afford a car or an apartment downtown. And with ridership at record highs, the T certainly won't miss one passenger. But I felt compelled to write this letter and voice my concerns, even if it changes nothing. I'm just sorry the MBTA has decided to sell out our privacy for millions of dollars in federal grant money.

Thank you for your time.

Thank You, Cenk!

Recommended Reading

January 24, 2012 "TSA: Fail"
February 2012 "2013 Federal Budget Limits Body Scanners, But Expands Domestic Surveillance"
February 2, 2012 "U.S. Press Freedom Fell 27 Places Last Year to 47th in the World"
February 9, 2012 "Silent State: The Campaign Against Whistleblowers in Washington"
February 23, 2012 "Groups Protest CIA's Covert Attack on Public Access"
March 5, 2012 "A Broken Writ, a Kangaroo Court"
March 6, 2012 "How To Get Anything Through TSA Nude Body Scanners"
March 9, 2012 "Sealing Loose Lips: Charting Obama's Crackdown on Leaks"
March 23, 2012 "Documents Show NYPD Spied on Liberal Political Groups"
April 19, 2012 "FAA Releases Lists of Drone Certificates--Many Questions Left Unanswered"
April 26, 2012 "Is CISPA SOPA 2.0? We Explain the Cybersecurity Bill"
April 28, 2012 "You Are All Suspects Now. What Are You Going to Do About It?"
April 29, 2012 "The Obama Contradiction: Weakling at Home, Imperial President Abroad"
April 30, 2012 "What happens when government is no longer by the people"
April 30, 2012 "Imperialism didn't end. These days it's known as international law"
May 1, 2012 "Since bin Laden's death"
May 1, 2012 "Osama bin Laden's death has had zero impact on America's security"
May 2, 2012 "Police Warrant Squads Were Used to Monitor Wall Street Protestors, Suspects Say"
May 2, 2012 "Police Adapts Tactics, Use 'Snatch and Grab' Arrests During May Day"
May 2, 2012 "Violence, USA: The Warfare State and the Brutalizing of Everyday Life"
May 4, 2012 "The real threats the government ignores"
May 4, 2012 "TSA Reveals Passenger Complaints ... Four Years Later"
May 4, 2012 "FBI: We need wiretap-ready Web sites - now"
May 6, 2012 "Fareed's Take: U.S. has made war on terror a war without end"
May 7, 2012 "Media silent when administration targets sources"
May 8, 2012 "The Trouble with Profiling"
May 9, 2012 "An Enduring Condition: On War Time"
May 10, 2012 "Obama's predilection for military force"
May 10, 2012 "Timeline: How Obama Compares to Bush on Torture, Surveillance and Detention"
May 11, 2012 "Americans want to slash defense spending, but Washington isn't listening"
May 15, 2012 "The National Security State Wins (Again): Why the Real Victor in Campaign 2012 Won't Be Obama or Romney"
May 15, 2012 "How FBI Entrapment Is Inventing 'Terrorists' - and Letting Bad Guys Off the Hook"
May 16, 2012 "Ninth Circuit Presses Government Lawyer on Watch Lists: 'What Would You Do?'"
May 18, 2012 "Congressmen Seek To Lift Propaganda Ban"
May 20, 2012 "Welcome, Nato, to Chicago's police state"
May 22, 2012 "FBI quietly forms secretive Net-surveillance unit"
June 6, 2012 "Muslims sue to stop NYPD spying program"
June 8, 2012 "The War on Whistleblowers"
June 10, 2012 "Daniel Klaidman's love affair with drones"
June 11, 2012 "Obama's drone wars and the normalisation of extrajudicial murder"
June 13, 2012 "U.S. drones deeply unpopular around the world"
June 13, 2012 "U.S. expands secret intelligence operations in Africa"
June 18, 2012 "NSA: It Would Violate Your Privacy to Say if We Spied on You"
June 19, 2012 "House Committee Approves Sweeping, Warrantless Electronic Spy Powers"
June 21, 2012 "Poland shaken by case alleging an illicit CIA prison there"
June 21, 2012 "Obama Administration: It's Totally Possible a Yemeni Drone Killed Anwar al-Awlaki"
June 21, 2012 "Drone strikes threaten 50 years of international law, says UN rapporteur"
July 11, 2012 "How Many Millions of Cellphones Are Police Watching?"
June 13, 2012 "That's No Phone. That's My Tracker"
July 13, 2012 "White House gives Homeland Security control of all communications systems"
July 17, 2012 "MBTA adding thousands of security cameras, thanks to federal grants"

Recommended Reading: Drones Edition

March 1, 2012 "How Obama's drone war is backfiring"
April 16, 2012 "The Rise of the Killer Drones: How America Goes to War in Secret"
May 1, 2012 "'Targeted Killing' Policy Disregards Human Rights Law"
May 2, 2012 "Why the Obama Administration's Drone War May Soon Reach a Tipping Point"
May 11, 2012 "Why is the New York Times enabling a U.S. government smear campaign against reporters exposing the drone wars?"
May 13, 2012 "America as a Shining Drone Upon a Hill: On Staring Death in the Face and Not Noticing"
May 21, 2012 "Drones, missiles and gunships: Welcome to the 2012 London Olympics"
May 22, 2012 "Drones' new weapon: P.R."
May 29, 2012 "Under Obama, Men Killed by Drones Are Presumed to Be Terrorists"
May 29, 2012 "Obama set to arm Italy's drones in milestone move"
May 29, 2012 "America's murderous drone campaign is fuelling terror"
May 30, 2012 "How Obama is helping al Qaeda"
June 2, 2012 "Journalism in the service of killing"
June 2, 2012 "We are sleepwalking into the Drone Age, unaware of the consequences"
June 5, 2012 "Praying at the Church of St. Drone: The President and His Apostles"
June 6, 2012 "U.S. Attacks, Online and From the Air, Fuel Secrecy Debate"
June 8, 2012 "What We Misunderstand About Drones"

Just a Reminder

Backscatter scanner:














Millimeter wave scanner:

Recommended Reading

April 28, 2010 "Drone Pilots Could Be Tried for 'War Crimes,' Law Prof Says"
September 11, 2011 "The 9/11 Decade and the Decline of U.S. Democracy"
October 2, 2011 "Will drone strikes become Obama's Guantanamo?"
November 7, 2011 "The CIA's unaccountable drone war claims another casualty"
December 1, 2011 "He was 22...She was 12...: Lessons From the Dead in a No-Learning-Curve World"
December 8, 2011 "Fighting 1% Wars: Why Our Wars of Choice May Prove Fatal"
December 16, 2011 "The Defense Bill Passed. So What Does It Do?"
December 19, 2011 "Sweating Bullets: Body Scanners Can See Perspiration as a Potential Weapon"
December 20, 2011 "The Drone That Fell From the Sky: What a Busted Robot Airplane Tells Us About the American Empire in 2012 and Beyond"
December 20, 2011 "Smoke Screening"
December 21, 2011 "Did Congress Just Endorse Rendition for Americans?"
December 30, 2011 "Was Teen Killed By CIA Drone a Militant--or Innocent Victim?"
January 4, 2012 "Speeding Up Security: The TSA Wants to Screen Before They Scan"
January 9, 2012 "The TSA Proves its Own Irrelevance"
January 10, 2012 "WaPo Censors Iran Sanctions' Regime Change Intent"
January 16, 2012 "DHS media monitoring could chill public dissent, EPIC warns"
February 4, 2012 "Obama terror drones: CIA tactics in Pakistan include targeting rescuers and funerals"
February 8, 2012 "Democrat balks over secrecy on Awlaki killing"
February 9, 2012 "Suit challenges new Guantanamo mail rule"
February 11, 2012 "Righteous indignation rant of the day"
February 28, 2012 "Exclusive: Homeland Security Kept Tabs on Occupy Wall Street"
March 2012 "EPIC v. Department of Homeland Security: Media Monitoring"
March 5, 2012 "When the US Government Can Kill You, Explained"
March 8, 2012 "Rogers' 'Cybersecurity' Bill Is Broad Enough to Use Against WikiLeaks and The Pirate Bay"
March 13, 2012 "Trumpeting the Superpower Status Quo"
March 15, 2012 "Occupy Miami Raided, SWAT Team Draws Weapons on Children"
March 16, 2012 "Democratic Senators Issue Strong Warning About Use of the Patriot Act"
March 18, 2012 "Ever More and Ever Less: The Unstoppable Legacy of the War on Terror"
March 21, 2012 "NSA Chief Denies Domestic Spying But Whistleblowers Say Otherwise"
March 22, 2012 "Will Democrats Strip Civil Liberties from Their 2012 Platform?"
March 22, 2012 "Repress U, Class of 2012: Seven Steps to a Homeland Security Campus"
March 22, 2012 "Govt to keep info on Americans with no terror ties"
March 29, 2012 "Secrets and Lies"
March 29, 2012 "US anti-terrorism law curbs free speech and activist work, court told"
March 30, 2012 "Fighting Terrorism, French-Style"
April 3, 2012 "Data Mining You: How the Intelligence Community Is Creating a New American World"
April 8, 2012 "U.S. filmmaker repeatedly detained at border"
April 8, 2012 "Special report: Rendition ordeal that raises new questions about secret trials"
April 11, 2012 "The Maddow Doctrine: We Need to Make War Hard Again"
April 16, 2012 "Personalizing civil liberties abuses"
April 18, 2012 "Why I'm suing the US government to protect internet freedom"
April 20, 2012 "CIA wants to expand campaign to kill men with guns and beards"
May 1, 2012 "Charts: The Real Cost of Killing Bin Laden"
May 8, 2012 "Could airport scanners detect latest Al Qaeda non-metal bomb?"
May 8, 2012 "Plot Shows War On Terror Failure"

The Uses of Sexual Humiliation

Naomi Wolf has written a terrific article in The Guardian that sums up the truly scary Florence ruling and all its implications:

The political use of forced nudity by anti-democratic regimes is long established. Forcing people to undress is the first step in breaking down their sense of individuality and dignity and reinforcing their powerlessness....

I interviewed the equivalent of TSA workers in Britain and found that the genital groping that is obligatory in the US is illegal in Britain. I believe that the genital groping policy in America, too, is designed to psychologically habituate US citizens to a condition in which they are demeaned and sexually intruded upon by the state--at any moment.

I am so grateful for Wolf's article. More people need to be saying things like this.

Why No One Cares

I've been trying to figure out why so few people in this country care about civil liberties. (I was going to add "anymore," but that's assuming they ever did, and I'm not convinced that's true.) Almost every day, it seems, there's a new law, executive order, policy shift, or Supreme Court decision that violates our ostensibly sacred Constitutional rights or the dictates of international law, all in the name of national security or law enforcement. Police officers spy on law-abiding Muslim students, pepper-spray non-violent protesters, conduct stop-and-frisk and "suspicionless" searches (talk about an Orwellian phrase), and Taser people at traffic stops. The no-fly list is so monstrous as to be useless, and electronic strip-searches have become ubiquitous. The DHS monitors social-networking sites for criticism of its policies. (Hi, guys!) The FAA is changing its rules to allow unmanned drones in U.S. airspace. The NSA is building a "spy center" in the Utah desert five times the size of the U.S. Capitol. Nowadays, even indefinite detention and targeted assassination elicit responses ranging from vociferous support to an apathetic shrug. Not to worry, though: apparently a private meeting in the Oval Office qualifies as "due process." Of course, government officials would prefer to keep their Constitution-shredding policies as quiet as possible and will relentlessly pursue anyone who tries to tell the American people what their own public servants are doing. But at least we still have the right to free speech...as long as we stay within the confines of the "free speech zones" the authorities so graciously provide for us.

What's happening here? I wait for the outrage, but it never comes. Some of the above items made it into the headlines of major news outlets for a day or two before they disappeared. Each story follows a predictable pattern:

1. The administration enacts the policy quietly, usually on a Friday afternoon to avoid press scrutiny.
2. Civil libertarians react with an angry and/or bewildered: "Say, what?"
3. Supporters of the policy (wealthy defense contractors, politicians angling for re-election, etc.) fear-monger about terrorism, opine that "everything changed on 9/11," and marginalize said civil libertarians as radical, unhinged, anti-government whack-jobs or long-haired hippie Occupyers who can't face reality.
4. The story vanishes from the headlines and the public consciousness, quickly normalized and incorporated into the National Security State.

Not a peep of protest from anyone in a position to do anything, Democrat or Republican. The halls of Congress resound with the usual chest-pounding and saber-rattling by politicians eager to shore up their anti-terrorism bona fides. Cite the Constitution and discuss implications as much as you like, your words will fall on deaf ears. Sometimes a lawsuit works its way through the courts, only to be quashed by the uber-conservative judiciary. Maybe a celebrity or other public figure comes up against the policy, makes a YouTube video detailing their experiences, and it briefly makes headlines again. But read the articles closely: most of the People on the Street^TM interviewed for the article have already accepted the new normal. They are quoted saying things like: "Well, as long as it keeps us safe..." or "I'm not doing anything wrong, so what's the big deal?" The blind trust boggles my mind.

I was thinking about this pattern again recently when I read about the Supreme Court's 5-4 ruling in Florence v. Board of Chosen Freeholders that a person arrested, even for a minor offense, may be strip-searched at will, regardless of whether prisons officials "suspect the presence of contraband." Justice Anthony Kennedy, once again the deciding vote, apparently thinks courts shouldn't "second-guess" the decisions of corrections officers. I'd love the opportunity to ask Justice Kennedy and the other four pro-strip-search justices of that illustrious body a series of questions:

1. Who should second-guess the decisions of corrections officers, if not you? What the hell are courts for, anyway?
2. Do you believe corrections officers should be given the same free rein we've given to law-enforcement officers, national security agencies, private military companies, etc.?
3. How can I get in on that action?
4. Are there any government entities which should be subject to oversight?
5. Have you ever been strip-searched? Would you consent to a strip-search before deciding to inflict the procedure on other people, many of them innocent?

Of course, I know the answers to these questions, but I'd love to ask them just the same. What I don't know is what, if anything, will happen next. I certainly don't expect much in the way of checks and balances from either of the other two branches of government. In fact, Barack Obama's Justice Department urged the Court to rule in favor of the strip-search law. Congress, meanwhile, is populated by self-serving politicians desperate to keep their jobs and therefore averse to taking any unpopular stand. And let's face it, civil libertarians are a distinct minority.

The humiliation suffered by Albert Florence, the plaintiff in the case (and innocent of the crime for which he was arrested, by the way!), is heartbreaking. And now all arrestees will be subject to the same treatment, without the requirement of "probable cause" and without any legal recourse. This includes not just men and women charged with murder, rape, assault, or drug offenses, but also those detained for trespassing or protesting or living in this country without legal documentation. The threat of a degrading strip search in front of an audience will no doubt be an effective tool for intimidation, along with the others I've already mentioned. Is there any line that, if crossed, will finally make people sit up and take notice?

Why don't people care? The first and easiest answer is fear. The collective PTSD from which this country has been suffering since the 9/11 attacks clearly hasn't abated. Since that day, the American people have seen existential threats around every corner. But I think the answer is a little more nuanced than that. The truth is, most people's lives will not be affected by the Florence ruling or by the PATRIOT Act, illegal wiretaps, indefinite detention, or any of the other manifestations of the National Security State. The vast majority of People on the Street^TM will never be more than a little inconvenienced by our massive military, intelligence, and law-enforcement apparatus (aside from economically, of course), while those directly affected are, for the most part, powerless to do anything about it. And it's easy to discount the rights of powerless minorities: prisoners, the poor, immigrants, Muslims. Americans who loudly proclaim their love of the Constitution in the abstract often start to equivocate when it comes to specifics. "Free speech!" is soon qualified with "...as long as you don't burn a flag or criticize Israel or join a protest march..." People who soliloquize about freedom and small government and personal liberty aren't always prepared to extend those privileges to everyone. Why do red-light cameras make some people angry enough to join an anti-government militia and fight the coming police state, while extraordinary rendition and extrajudicial assassination barely register? Because those things are happening to somebody else. Somebody who probably deserves it, right?

Albert Florence didn't.

Recommended Reading

January 23, 2011 "Domestic use of aerial drones by law enforcement likely to prompt privacy debate"
April 26, 2011 "Free Bradley Manning"
September 27, 2011 "Even Those Cleared of Crimes Can Stay on F.B.I.'s Watch List"
September 30, 2011 "CIA Drone Slays American Citizen in Yemen"
October 20, 2011 "Is the National Security Complex Too Big to Fail?"
October 21, 2011 "The Iraq War Ain't Over, No Matter What Obama Says"
October 21, 2011 "About that Iraq withdrawal"
October 24, 2011 "Government Could Hide Existence of Records under FOIA Rule Proposal"
October 28, 2011 "Police Disguise Protest Sabotage As Public Safety"
October 29, 2011 "U.S. Planning Troop Buildup in Gulf After Exit From Iraq"
November 3, 2011 "Pakistani civilian victims vent anger over US drones"
November 4, 2011 "CIA Drones Kill Large Groups Without Knowing Who They Are"
November 27, 2011 "Idea of civilians using drone aircraft may soon fly with FAA"
November 29, 2011 "Senate Approves Requiring Military Custody in Terror Cases"
December 1, 2011 "Congress endorsing military detention, a new AUMF"
December 2, 2011 "A Little Straight Talk on National Defense"
December 12, 2011 "The growing menace of domestic drones"
December 15, 2011 "Obama to sign indefinite detention bill into law"
December 20, 2011 "VIPR: TSA extends policy that preys on the innocent"
December 20, 2011 "TSA Seeks to Expand the Airport Experience Into Everyday Life"
December 21, 2011 "Local police stockpile high-tech, combat-ready gear"
December 23, 2011 "2011 in Review: The Year Secrecy Jumped the Shark"
December 27, 2011 "TSA Agents On Patrol at Union Station to Conduct 'Suspicionless' Spot Searches"
December 28, 2011 "Report: Scant Oversight in Obama's Drone War"
December 31, 2011 "With reservations, Obama signs act to allow indefinite detention of U.S. citizens"
January 23, 2012 "Supreme Court: Warrants needed in GPS tracking"