In one more of countless such examples, the police have been caught spying on ordinary citizens engaged in peaceful civil liberties. This story, from the Washington Post, shows the erosion of civil society into a post 9/11 police state, and demonstrates the very narrow degree of actual liberty in the disciplined social order of capitalism. New media will enable counter-surveillence strategies.
The petty and pernicious spying operation of Maryland’s state police
American governments have an inglorious history of spying on domestic dissidents; compared with FBI operations during the Red Scare, the Maryland State Police seem like Keystone Kops. But it’s a mistake to dismiss Maryland’s police espionage against its own residents as the work of hapless bunglers. In fact, it is pernicious and symptomatic of a post-Sept. 11 erosion of respect for fundamental civil liberties…
Justice Department regulations explicitly prohibit police from gathering information on groups and individuals unless “there is reasonable suspicion that the subject of the information is or may be involved in criminal conduct or activity.” But with state and local law enforcement agencies awash in federal money meant to root out domestic terrorist plots, civil libertarians have warned that police will start seeing potential terrorists and plots everywhere, “reasonable suspicion” be damned. The Maryland episode and other recent cases in Colorado and Massachusetts suggest their concerns are justified.
If the authorities equate dissent with criminal intent, they undermine the impulse for free speech and political activity itself. The specter of police infiltration can sow suspicion and paranoia and prompt people to keep their mouths shut. Could anything be more anti-American than that?
The police, invoking the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, suggest that any operation undertaken for any reason is legitimate. “In a post-9/11 world,” said Col. Terrence B. Sheridan, superintendent of the Maryland State Police, officers are duty-bound “to protect the citizens of Maryland from threats foreign and domestic.” But if they cannot distinguish five middle-aged peaceniks from criminals, the police themselves become the real threat to American society.
