The Rise of Government 'Privileges"

USA Today ran a story about how some public school districts are trying to enforce year round conduct standards on their students. The current target of these conduct contracts are students involved in extracurricular activities. You can be sure that the rest will soon follow. What bothers me about public schools enforcing conduct standards (some of the prohibited conduct is not illegal, BTW) is that you have to sign one in order to participate in extracurricular activities. School administrators justify this intrusion into students private lives by the "it's a privilege, not a right" mantra. Every adult who drives has no doubt heard that driving is a privilege and not a right. The first time you hear that, it's slightly shocking, since not being able to drive in America is basically a condemnation to poverty (unless you live in Manhattan or have a chauffeur).

However, the privilege argument begins to fall apart when over zealous school administrators try to apply it to public schools which are funded by public taxes. Driving can be seen as a right because as a citizen, I don't have to do it. I could opt to not buy a car, not get a driver's license, not pay insurance, etc. However, as a minor in America, I can't opt out of school attendance. As a property owner in the US, I cannot opt not to pay my property taxes which fund the schools and their extracurricular activities. So what kind of privilege are we talking about where I have to pay for it but the government can require me to give up my constitutional rights in order to take advantage of it? Using this logic, the fire department could tell me that their pumping water on my burning home is a privilege and not a right, and If I really want that privilege, I better sign their contract saying I'll be good 24 hours a day (and they define what 'good' is) and perhaps wax their cars while I'm at it.

It won't be long before an unelected government administrator tries to convince us that corruption free government is a privilege, not a right.

What will you be willing to give up to get it?

Cool Software For Your Cellphone (...that also threatens corruption, evil and oppression everywhere)

Qik is a website and a free application for your cellphone. The application installs on your phone (Blackberry for example) and allows you to one-click record video using your camera's built in video camera. What's cool about Qik is that it simultaneously uploads your video to your own personal Qik web page. Apparently you can also stream live video from your cell phone too, but the part that caught my eye was the fact that it records (saves) your video in real time on a remote server.

Keeping in mind my previous post of the dangers of the police state, Qik is a new threat to the corrupt. One of the problems with being on the scene or being arrested, for example, is that your camera/recorder etc will be seized and then possibly lost/erased etc. Qik renders the physical confiscation of the camera irrelevant. By the time the camera is taken, the video is on the Internet, and the gene is out of the bottle.

You Know It's A Crazy, Mixed Up World

When one of the primary tools of a police state, surveillance, comes back to haunt the police. In the last few weeks, I've seen a couple of stories that highlight the new danger police face: Someone is almost always watching you.

We first really saw its power in the Rodney King case, but now surveillance cameras (aka "security cameras") are becoming ubiquitous. It's getting to the point where a corrupt cop can't even go about his/her business without having to deal with perjury charges. Take for example these two recent cases:

• Drug suspects’ defense against NYPD? Video
• Accused of lying, officer suspended
• Surveillance video shows police beating man in elevator (more on this one "But after seeing the video obtained by Ortiz's defense attorney, Stephen Melnick, prosecutors downgraded the charge to a misdemeanor resisting charge. Upon further review, prosecutors dropped the case entirely". And of course the kicker: "Fort Lauderdale police internal affairs investigators reviewed the incident more than a month ago and found no violations of policy or procedures, said Sgt. Frank Sousa, the department's spokesman."

So how is it going to be fixed? Your guess is as good as mine. For the hand-held camera, we have already seen that police are very willing to arrest the camera-man for interfering with 'police business'. However, stationary cameras present a unique problem. I think maybe we'll see a wave of Security Camera Legislation requiring a lengthy process to get a permit from the police to use a security camera. But until then, I'm sure these stories will just keep on rolling in.