Our rights to privacy have been greatly diminished under the Bush regime. Even though crime has been on a general down turn, the crime mongers have continued to push fear and panic to the public to justify the further violation of our constitutional rights to privacy. The area of surveillance has become a real issue as digital cameras and wireless signaling make it possible to put cameras anywhere. They may have a place in a business, but when they're used to watch public places, or in residential areas indiscriminately, and without guidelines or oversite, the potential and probability for abuse is ever present and represents a real concern for civil liberty.

Under the Bush administration, Homeland Security has grown to a "Big Brother" want to be, and the push to put everything under a "watchful" eye is growing, and libertarians everywhere are worried and taking action. Such is the case of the Sac PD's aquiring a grant from Homeland Security for 32 cameras and four mobile surveillance units. The JRC and the Sac ACLU came out against this grant earlier this year when we first heard about it. We met with CHief Braziel about it then, and finally ended up at a City Council meeting where the grant was adopted, but we were able to get some concessions. Check out this video done by Alan Asch, a Sac AXLU board member.