None of us are perfect. All of us bend the rules occasionally. Even before the age of overcriminalization, when the most upstanding citizen could be counted on to break at least three laws a day without knowing it, most of us have knowingly flouted the law from time to time.
Today, however, there's little room for indiscretions, imperfections, or acts of independence--especially not when the government can listen in on your phone calls, monitor your driving habits, track your movements, scrutinize your purchases and peer through the walls of your home. That's because technology--specifically the technology employed by the government against the American citizenry--has upped the stakes dramatically so that there's little we do that is not known by the government.
In such an environment, you're either a paragon of virtue, or you're a criminal.
If you haven't figured it out yet, we're all criminals. This is the creepy, calculating yet diabolical genius of the American police state: the very technology we hailed as revolutionary and liberating has become our prison, jailer, probation officer, Big Brother and Father Knows Best all rolled into one.
As I point out in my book, A Government of Wolves: The Emerging American Police State, on any given day, the average American going about his daily business will be monitored, surveilled, spied on and tracked in more than 20 different ways, by both government and corporate eyes and ears.
For example, police have been using Stingray devices mounted on their cruisers to intercept cell phone calls and text messages without court-issued search warrants.
Doppler radar devices, which can detect human breathing and movement within in a home, are already being employed by the police to deliver arrest warrants.
License plate readers can record up to 1800 license plates per minute. However, it seems these surveillance cameras can also photograph those inside a moving car. The DEA has been using the cameras in conjunction with facial recognition software to build a "vehicle surveillance database" of the nation's cars, drivers and passengers.
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