Thursday, October 16, 2008
Preventing Progress
ACLU blog discusses why spying on American citizens by the American government is a serious problem.
While perhaps not a problem for most Americans, who are too lazy or complacent to be targeted by police for taking the duties of citizenship seriously, the social impact of bugging those who do is enormous. The ability of politically-motivated police and financially-motivated communications companies participating in this abuse to destroy the lives of community activists and whistle-blowers is staggering; the fact this abuse is supported by all major politicians of both political parties is alarming.
With the recent preparations to mobilize the U.S. Army against U.S. citizens expressing dissent in the streets, the roundup of those protesting government corruption in advance of the national political conventions this summer looks like a mere warm-up exercise. Under such grandiose betrayal of the U.S. Constitution, defending democracy within the US has now become a crime.
While perhaps not a problem for most Americans, who are too lazy or complacent to be targeted by police for taking the duties of citizenship seriously, the social impact of bugging those who do is enormous. The ability of politically-motivated police and financially-motivated communications companies participating in this abuse to destroy the lives of community activists and whistle-blowers is staggering; the fact this abuse is supported by all major politicians of both political parties is alarming.
With the recent preparations to mobilize the U.S. Army against U.S. citizens expressing dissent in the streets, the roundup of those protesting government corruption in advance of the national political conventions this summer looks like a mere warm-up exercise. Under such grandiose betrayal of the U.S. Constitution, defending democracy within the US has now become a crime.
