[Seattle-editorial] Article: Big Brother On Metro Buses

Tue Oct 21 13:28:05 PDT 2003

Everytime I reply to your account, it bounces.

I give this article a thumbs up and will post this when I have a chance.

Gentry

-----Original Message-----
From: seattle-editorial-bounces at lists.indymedia.org
[mailto:seattle-editorial-bounces at lists.indymedia.org]On Behalf Of
sheelanagig at juno.com
Sent: Monday, October 20, 2003 7:32 PM
To: seattle-editorial at lists.indymedia.org
Subject: [Seattle-editorial] Article: Big Brother On Metro Buses

Here is a local feature story if you want it~

kirsten anderberg 

Here' s a summary:
*********************************************************************
<P>Big Brother on Metro Buses 
<BR>by Kirsten Anderberg

I was riding Metro buses in Seattle today, minding my own business,
when I began to feel like someone was looking down my shirt! I looked
around, no one was in the back of the bus with me. I looked up, and all
of a sudden I saw this round mirror ball attached to the ceiling of the
bus! This thing was definitely a spy camera on Metro buses. I asked the
Metro bus driver how long the hidden cameras had been there. She said a
year. I asked why they were there. She said "For security." I said
"Wouldn't cameras out in the open deter crime more than HIDDEN cameras?"

************************************************************************
<P>BIG BROTHER ON METRO BUSES
<BR>by Kirsten Anderberg

I was riding Metro buses in Seattle today, minding my own business,
when I began to feel like someone was looking down my shirt! Sounds
weird, I know. But that is how I felt. I looked around, no one was in the
back of the bus with me. I looked up, and all of a sudden I saw this
round mirror ball attached to the ceiling of the bus! (This was on the
#48 route, bus number 2157, from the U District to Greenlake). There were
three of these things, positioned on the ceiling from the middle of the
bus, to the back of the bus. They had black bands as a base, and then
this mirror dome. The mirror looks exactly like a two-way mirror looks,
that weird dark mirror-ish thing you can kind of see through. I stood up
and examined this thing. Sure enough, upon closer inspection, I located a
lens about the size of the back end of a ballpoint pen behind the mirror.
This thing was definitely a spy camera on Metro buses. I asked the Metro
bus driver how long the hidden cameras had been there. She said a year. I
asked why they were there. She said "For security." I said "Wouldn't
cameras out in the open deter crime more than HIDDEN cameras?" She rolled
her eyes and sighed. I got off the bus. Homeland Security is not making
me feel safe. It is making me feel terrorized by my own government.

All down Aurora Ave. in Seattle, I see signs on the street saying the
area is being filmed by police and is under surveillance for drugs and
prostitution. So I was filmed standing at the bus stop waiting for the
bus on Aurora. Then I got on a #358 bus. And sure enough, two more of
these dome spy cameras were on that bus. So today, just going to the
University District and back I am SURE I was spied on at LEAST 3 times. I
can only wonder how much money Metro employees or cops are paid to watch
these films that definitely could be looking down shirts, up skirts,
treating themselves to voyuerism on kids making out in the back. The
cameras ARE hidden for god's sake! I would argue there IS an expectation
of privacy in the back of an empty bus. On any bus with hidden cameras,
for that matter, as that is what hidden implies. I am very concerned that
Big Brother is here, on the street, at the bus stop, on the bus. Should I
have been filmed at least three times today just going on a bus trip to
the University?

This expectation of privacy is an interesting thing. We used to have
pay phones with enclosed doors. Police could not get rid of the legal
expectation of privacy when the telephone booth door was closed. They
tried over and over. Sometimes police got away with entering evidence
they recorded standing near an OPEN phone booth, but they could not enter
evidence coming from someone INSIDE a closed phone booth. So they made
those half phone booths and now anything recorded near those can be
entered into evidence, since there is no expectation of privacy there.
Another one of these situations is the back of cop cars. In law school,
an L.A.P.D. officer told us that there is a tape recorder in the back of
every L.A.P.D. cop car (they are in Seattle cop cars too). And they would
purposely put two suspects together in the back seat of the car to record
them talking about the supposed crime. If the police shut the cop car
door and leave them alone, sometimes the evidence will be thrown out due
to an expectation of privacy within a closed cop car alone. So, cops
leave the back door open, on purpose, with the two suspects alone inside.
Then the cops walk a bit away from the car to give them the illusion of
privacy. The courts have allowed evidence into court that was obtained,
in this deceptive manner in my opinion, by hidden tape recorders within
the car, as long as the cop car door was open, even if the cops were not
next to the car. Everyone needs to know never to talk in a cop car to
anyone, period.

So, here we are. 2004. Big Brother is watching me, in America, land of
the free, from above, on Metro buses now, hiding his eyes behind little
mirrors. Do the cops use these bus photos to identify protesters better?
What ARE they using these hidden photos for and who is using them? I feel
very violated by a big bulging eye, behind a big lying ball. Now I do not
feel comfortable riding buses. I feel there is no way to know what is
being done with these films of us riding buses, it is really and truly
creepy. Do they keep films of attractive women, with large breasts, that
get a good eyeful from the camera angle, on file for gawking? How long do
they keep these tapes? It grosses me out. I need to look into expatriot
status anywhere but here. I feel I would have freedom and free speech in
a different country, but those days are gone in America for Americans. I
am watched just trying to take a short bus trip nowadays. Freedom, MY
ASS.

*************************************************************************
*********************
For near-daily political ramblings from Kirsten, visit her blog at 
www.kanderberg.blogspot.com 
or go to her writing website at www.kirstenanderberg.com

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