A columnist at the Tennessean writes about privacy: 

How intrusive are we going to allow our government to be? While Big Brother expands his scope and power on the national level there are those who want to help him do the same on the state level. Can you imagine even as recently as 10 years ago that anyone would’ve suggested that it would be fine to fingerprint a motorist just for a speeding ticket? That’s what state Sen. Joe Haynes’ bill would do.

Let’s say you’re pulled over for going 40 in a 30 mile-per-hour zone. Under the Haynes law you would be fingerprinted. Am I the only one who finds this incredibly frightening?

The intent of the bill is to allow police to instantly crosscheck fingerprints with arrest warrants. It seems to me they have the ability to do that already by cross-referencing names, license numbers and mug shots. Metro police spokesman Don Aaron tells The Tennessean that the department would not keep a database of collected fingerprints. I’m sure he means well but what assurance do we have that this information will remain in the hands of benevolent bureaucrats?

I’m continually amazed at how much of our privacy individuals are willing to give up under the guise of keeping us safe. To paraphrase Benjamin Franklin, those who would sacrifice liberty for security deserve neither. But far too many these days are choosing the path of acquiescence. [...]

More intrusion into our lives equals less freedom for us as individuals. A government with the power to spy at will is a government with the power to control.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 26th, 2009 and is filed under Anonymity, Civil liberties, Fourth Amendment, Identification, Security, Technology. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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