Re: New X-Ray Imager

[jim bell <jimbell@pacifier.com>]

At 01:18 AM 2/4/97 -0800, Dale Thorn wrote:
>Steve Schear wrote:
>> New X-ray gun trades privacy for safety
>> Reported by Andy C
>> Seen in The Nando Times on 13 August 1996
>> "I'm incredibly concerned," said John Henry Hingson, a past president of the
>> National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, meeting here this past
>> week. "The entire nation could become a victim of illegal searches and
>> seizures and the law is powerless to protect them from these police abuses."
>> But in these nervous times following the the crash of TWA Fight 800 and
>> bombings at the Olympics, Oklahoma City and the World Trade Center, many
>> Americans are now willing to trade some of their privacy and civil liberties
>> for greater security.
>> A poll last week by the Los Angeles Times found that a majority of people --
>> 58 percent -- said they would curtail some civil liberties if it would help
>> thwart terrorism. Thirteen percent said it would depend on what rights were
>> at stake. The poll didn't ask people to single out any rights.
>
>The L.A. Times quotes this "poll" all the time, and in fact probably
>just made it up.  Why do I know that?  Because they ran a "letter"
>from a "teacher" in the valley somewhere about a year ago which said
>exactly this same thing.  The "teacher" ran a poll of her students
>and they agreed to give up the rights without even knowing which
>rights they were giving up.


Wouldn't it be nice if, in a new poll, they asked the following question:

"Do you believe that the people who ask you, in other polls, whether or not 
'you'd be willing to give up a little freedom to thwart terrorism' have any 
proof it's possible to, in the long run, 'thwart terrorism' by sacrificing 
freedom?"



Jim Bell
jimbell@pacifier.com