At the beginning of this month, I wrote about a criminal intelligence data bill going through the Senate. I wrote about it because of how vaguely defined its terms were. I am alarmed that this bill would legalize the Big Brother monitoring of anyone our law enforcement wanted to. Now this bill has been introduced in the House ... HF1449. It will also have a hearing this Friday.
Rep. John Lesch (DFL-St. Paul) is the author of this. Lesch is a prosecutor by trade so that explains why he'd be involved. Also, I know him because we're both active in the DFL. He's a progressive. So maybe it alarmed me doubly that he was carrying this bill.
"The bill was proposed by the BCA," John told me (BCA = Bureau of Criminal Apprehension). John explained that his bill would allow law enforcement to better keep track of criminal activity.
I'm all for law enforcement tracking gang activity. However, this bill has no oversight and no limitations to protect civil rights. Basically, there's nothing stopping law enforcement from compiling this kind of evidence anyway. Look at what Ramsey County Sheriff Bob Fletcher did surrounding the RNC. Consider what happened in Maryland.
The Maryland State Police classified 53 nonviolent activists as terrorists and entered their names and personal information into state and federal databases that track terrorism suspects, the state police chief acknowledged yesterday.
"It's okay to call me on the carpet," Lesch told me. He is waiting to hear more from both sides at the bill's first hearing this Friday before reaching a judgment on this bill. I hope he will at a bare minimum amend it to add some civil liberties protections.
Sen. Don Betzold (DFL-Fridley) introduced SF1103, The Criminal Intelligence Data Classification bill, today. This bill strikes me as a distinctly Big Brother type of bill. The wording is vague and allows MN law enforcement to collect any information on anyone they want.
It seems to me that Betzold has defined terrorist activity broadly enough so that peaceful civil disobedience would fall inside the purview of this bill. In other words, our law enforcement could pull credit information, employment information, Facebook friend lists (for more people to investigate) and etc. on anyone for any reason they want. There is absolutely no recourse to determine if our state's law enforcement is compiling criminal data on you under this bill.
"Terrorist activity" means acts dangerous to human life that violate the criminal laws of this state or the United States and appear to be intended to:
(1) intimidate or coerce the civilian population;
(2) influence the policy of the state by intimidation or coercion; or
(3) affect the state by mass destruction, assassination, or kidnapping.
(h) "Threat of imminent serious harm" means a credible impending threat to the safety of a person, government entity, or property.
(SF1103 Summary)
I contacted Sen. Betzold asking him to explain his bill or provide a press release. Here is his response.
This is an agency bill which was suggested by a data practices task force over the legislative interim. Right now, investigative data is confidential. However, there is no classification for intelligence data, which means that it would be public.
I would guess that your concerns will be discussed at a hearing in the Senate's Data Practices Subcommittee. A bill as it is introduced is not necessarily how it will look as it goes through the process.
I would like to thank Sen. Betzold for his quick response and I will be keeping an eye on this one. I hope that someone changes the bill. There needs to be a balance between law enforcement's need to track gang activity and protecting my civil rights.
"In other words, I don't think people ought to be compelled to make the decision which they think is best for their family." -- George orWell Bush, on smallpox vaccinations, Washington, D.C., December 11th, 2002
So sayeth Big Brother. Fortunately, in 40 short days, January 20th, 2009 will be The End Of An Error.
