Posted 30 May 2011
The San Diego Police Department has finally done it! They get their shot at having the highest incarceration rate in the world. But not among the residents of San Diego, among the ranks of the SDPD itself.
The SDPD currently has 11 officers out of 1,100 patrol officers under criminal or internal investigation.
The alleged police corruption ranges from drunk driving and harassment, all the way to domestic violence, sexual assault and rape. That is a solid 1% of the police. If they play their cards right and all 11 get locked up, the SDPD will have about the same incarceration rate as the general US population! That gives the SDPD a solid chance to take sole possession of first place very soon.
Having a higher incarceration rate than the general US population is quite an accomplishment. But, given the fact that the US has the highest incarceration rate in the world, the SDPD has a solid chance of taking sole possession of first place very soon.
The closest competitor is Russia with a .6% rate, a mark that the SDPD are very likely to beat, even if all the criminal officers aren't incarcerated.
So what are innocent people to do when the boys in blue are just as likely to be a criminal as anyone else off the street. Is your information really protected when access is limited to law enforcement riddled with police corruption? Your internet activity, phone records, phone location, bank records and lots of other information are searchable by law enforcement.
And what about the information that you are required to give law enforcement, like your name, address, drivers license, etc.?
There are lots of ways to limit or protect your information from falling into criminal hands, no matter what uniform they are wearing. Proxy servers or VPNs based in another country keep your internet searches out of the jurisdiction of domestic authorities. VoIP phone services based in a foreign country can minimize the phone records available to law enforcement without a warrant.
Removing the battery of your cell phone keeps your location from being tracked. You could also bank in a foreign jurisdiction to increase the costs to law enforcement of searching your bank records. You could even go so far as getting a foreign drivers license so that you reveal less of your sensitive information, like the address where you stay in the US, to the 1% of the police officers that are criminals.
It is also important to note how modest the record breaking police are about having their picture taken by admiring fans. Sometimes amateur camera men are arrested and charged with a crime, usually for recording a cop without their consent under wire tapping laws. CopBlock.org is full of these kinds of encounters. Getting charged with a crime has a huge affect on your personal privacy.
A few states require you to get consent from everyone involved before you can record a conversation. Through some extreme distortions of these wire tapping laws, and with the help of prosecutors and judges who possibly aid and abet police misconduct, prosecutions for filming cops are possible, although relatively rare.
It cannot be helped that some people, like Rosa Parks, will violate unjust laws in protest. Others who do not want to risk prosecution can avoid breaking the law and still contribute to protecting liberty.
To help prevent violation of a grossly distorted understanding of wire tapping laws, don't forget to take your special Cop Cam that does not record sound. Since most wire tapping statutes require you to record a conversation to violate the law, if you don't record the sounds of a conversation, you probably won't be guilty of a crime. The individual facts of each situation will be important for your attorney before they can give you legal advice on the matter.
When the authorities are more likely than anyone else in the world to be a criminal, it is important to protect as many of your rights as possible. It is your right to protect as much of your information as you legally can. Using these tips, and others in the book How To Vanish, you can legally prevent the police from gathering more information than you are legally required to provide. And you can prevent violating any laws when you are trying to contribute to helping the police set a record for the number of criminals in their ranks.
If you know of great offshore VoIP services, countries where it is easy to get a drivers license without sharing a lot of information, or other helpful tips to share with other readers, leave a comment about it!
