Tuesday, January 29, 2013 by: J. D. Heyes article shared from NATURALNEWS.com
(NaturalNews) It's not enough that the state of New York just doubled
down on its trashing of the Second Amendment with the passage of new gun
control laws. Now the city of New York, with its gun-grabbing mayor, is
set to deploy revealing new x-ray scanners that will violate residents'
Fourth Amendment right to privacy to ensure they're not taking
advantage of their Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms.
According
to local media reports, New York City Police Commissioner Ray Kelly
said his force is currently testing the new technology, which is
designed to hone in on guns without using the department's
well-established "stop-and-frisk" procedure. Now, not only will
suspected criminals be targeted, but so will the vast majority of
law-abiding New Yorkers who, once again, are going to be presumed guilty
until proven innocent.
The New York Daily News said the
department recently took delivery of a machine that reads terahertz, the
"natural energy emitted by people and inanimate objects," which "allows
police to view conceal weapons from a distance."
"If something
is obstructing the flow of that radiation, for example a weapon, the
device will highlight that object," Kelly told reporters.
Fear of false positives
Civil libertarians have plenty to be upset about. So do ordinary New Yorkers.
A
video image that was shown at a Police Foundation breakfast in early
January showed a police officer, who was dressed in a New York Jets NFL
jersey and blue jeans, with the shape of a gun outlined clearly beneath his clothing, when he was observed through the device.
Kelly
says street testing of the device is underway. He said the device is
small enough to be put in a police cruiser or set up on a street corner
"where gunplay has occurred in the past," the Daily News said.
Plans to use the revealing device were in play before the state's latest round of radical new gun control
legislation was passed, apparently. The police chief said his
department has been working with London Metropolitan Police officials
and a contractor "to develop a tool that meets our requirements."
Apparently, a constitutional lawyer isn't on the advisory team.
"We
took delivery of it last week," Kelly said Jan. 25 at the gathering at
the Waldorf Astoria. "One of our requirements was that the technology
must be portable."
He added: "We still have a number of trials to
run before we can determine how best to deploy this technology. We're
also talking to our legal staff about this. But we're very pleased with
the progress we've made over the past year."
So far, the city and the department has blown off concerns about potential privacy violations made by the New York Civil Liberties Union, which has expressed diffidence over the "virtual pat downs" that will no doubt occur.
Others,
including some security experts, say the device will unquestionably
lead to false positives and, in turn, stop-and-frisks that are not
justified.
All of this comes on top of new gun control measures
that were passed and signed into law so quickly by the state legislature
and Gov. Andrew Cuomo that the process was a violation of the state
Constitution's three-day waiting period before laws are voted on.
"When
you rush a bill through, you can't have committee hearings in which you
learn from experts. You don't allow for proper debate. You don't allow
for possible amendments that would refine and strengthen a bill," Kieran
Lalor wrote in an op-ed for the Daily News.
The columnist
also decried other absurdities in the law, like the fact that it was
passed so quickly power-mad supporters of the measure forgot to exempt
police officers from the requirement that gun magazines be limited to
seven bullets, and that criminals aren't going to pay much attention to
that requirement.
Voting with their feet
New York
City is unique and there are many opportunities there that don't exist
elsewhere. But like so many megatropolises in the U.S., NYC is becoming a
bastion of tyranny, whose residents elect leaders like Mayor Michael
Bloomberg so they can regulate soft drinks and ban the sale of alcohol,
trans fats, salt, guns and anything else he deems inappropriate (because
all government agencies are run by like-minded zealots).
Despite
the opportunities, residents are leaving over-taxed, over-regulated
domains for islands of freedom. So far, that right still exists: If you
don't like your current political and socioeconomic environment, vote
with your feet.
Sources:
http://www.nydailynews.com
http://www.huffingtonpost.com
http://www.nydailynews.com