The Los Angeles Metro subway system has become the first mass transit system in the United States to subject its riders to involuntary thermal imaging scans.
The Enemies Within? They’re the Boys in Blue
Ted Rall
Ted Rall is a syndicated political cartoonist for Andrews McMeel Syndication and WhoWhatWhy.org and Counterpoint. He is a contributor to Centerclip and co-host of "The TMI Show" talk show. He is a graphic novelist and author of many books of art and prose, and an occasional war correspondent. He is, recently, the author of the graphic novel "2024: Revisited."
10 Comments. Leave new
Surveillance of citizens would be so less intrusive if an ID number were to be tattooed on citizens’ arms, or if a RFID microchip were to be implanted.
The aforementioned privacy stripping intrusions can be altered or removed, unlike scans of unique identifying physical characteristics such as face or iris scans.
So many US authorities have envied and have a soft spot for Nazis.
Herds of humans, for the most part, are as little concerned about the implications of being branded as are herds of cattle; that is until it’s time for a roundup.
American Exceptionalism:
The belief that no matter how many foreign governments and their elections the US subverts; no matter how many baseless wars devastate no matter how many millions; no matter how many are tortured and imprisoned without cause for no matter how long; no matter how many Americans populate the extreme lower economic classes and its prisons: The Government of the USA would NEVER do anything so cruel, underhanded and deceptive to its own “exceptional” people.
I remember seeing lots of pictures while I was growing up. Pictures showing just how terrible it was in [COMMUNIST_COUNTRY] because there were cops with machine guns on every corner. Thank goodness that could never happen here!
Hey, I’ve got a crazy idea, rather than normalize the symptoms, let’s fix the problems!
Yeah, I know “crazy”
I recall the first time I became aware of the “sheeple” meme. The term was used originally to describe someone who simply didn’t see how they were being victimized. It implied heavily that one could stop being a “sheeple” simply by looking at the situation and thinking about it.
I now see that “sheeple” has indeed become a condition from which no amount of alarm-raising can wake the victim. The transformation has completed. It is no longer a condition, it is an inescapable aspect of some people’s biologies.
See this for an interesting perspective on Sheep Logic.
https://www.epsilontheory.com/sheep-logic/
The writer is an investment advisor, so I have problems with his profession (not meaning to disparage him personally), but who could possibly understand better how people get shepherded than those who make a living by fleecing the sheep.
I am severely skeptical about the intentions of stock market players. Nonetheless, I find their perspective interesting and have read much of Nassim Nicholas Taleb, also.
Thermal imaging doesn’t cause cancer. It doesn’t bombard you with anything, unlike an xray or terahertz scanner. Thermal imaging only detects infrared radiation already being emitted by your body. The thing that bothers me most about this strip is that I have a strong suspicion that you understand this and printed the cancer insinuation anyway.
I also doubt the system produces any particularly useful biometric data. Again, unlike the full body scanners used at airports, where the software needs to censor the results to prevent the security guards from getting a peek at your junk, in thermal images, human bodies just kind of look like blobs. The only use for these systems is that any heavy concealed objects you’re carrying can be detected as shadows against your infrared-emitting body.
I’m not saying there isn’t an argument against these scanners. But Americans have already accepted far more invasive and creepy scanners in transportation security at airports, so I doubt the public is going to freak out about this relatively prosaic technology being employed in subway stations.
“The Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that the thermal imaging of Kyllo’s home constituted a search. Since the police did not have a warrant when they used the device, which was not commonly available to the public, the search was presumptively unreasonable and therefore unconstitutional.”
The defense of the machine that it does not see very well hurts the government by underscoring the unreliability of the Agema 210. This defense amounts to saying that if a constable makes a blundering search, it should not really count as a search. The argument is the opposite of that which justified the examinations in United States v. Place, 462 U.S. 696, 707 (1983), and Jacobsen, 466 U.S. at 123, — they revealed only contraband and nothing else. The machine as blind or blundering constable does not pass the criteria of the Fourth Amendment.
The government does not contend that the information provided the magistrate was sufficient to sustain a search warrant without the addition of the Agema readings. As these readings violated the Constitution, they should be suppressed and the conviction reversed.
https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/appellate-courts/F3/190/1041/516609/
“I also doubt the system produces any particularly useful biometric data.”
I agree with your assessment.
This thermal imaging device will only enable some prejudiced or bumbling law enforcement officer to make the claim that a search had probable cause when it did nothing of the sort.
Because some (or many) Americans passively submit to the state’s invasions of privacy does not mean that all those who object to these violations of the Fourth Amendment should be treated as suspects, and then be compelled to submit to further searches.
This passive acceptance also relates to the problem of designating Tasers as non-lethal technology despite the number of deaths resulting from their liberal use as justified by this designation.
It’s educational to spend some time in a Canadian bus terminal.
You can go from the border to Montreal, Toronto, etc. without anyone even looking into let alone scanning your backpack. And btw I’m sure nobody would object to bag searches, I’m sure that there are regulations that you are not supposed to bring weapons or petrol on a public bus, but this is taken very much on trust.
The only people (and not just their bags) that are searched (by 2 men with plastic gloves) are the ones in line to board a bus to the U.S. This is somehow not deemed necessary/cost-effective when traveling within or to Canada.
Btw people being already searched within Canada and not at the border also visibly belies the supposed sovereignty of Canada 😉
Crossing the US border with Canada (if my memory is correct) now requires a passport.
Do border guards now command “Show me your papers” when crossing?