Warning! You Are Being Watched

[mahdokht]

***

[Ms. Mom]

OMG! This is really disturbing.

Secret Service agents showed up at the high school the next day to interview the boys, both 16. The school principal sat in for an hour and a half as agents interviewed each student individually, without their parents’ knowledge or consent.

This part really got to me. How DARE they interview them without their parents concent and SHAME on the principal for not protecting the students and insisting the parents be called first.

Thank you for sharing this. It is alarming.

[Marlena]

This is all very disturbing. Nevertheless, I think it's very important for all of us to continue to speak out, actively and openly. Where injustices occur, we need to oppose them and, where relevant, prosecute them. We can't let ourselves (or our children) become intimidated.

[Marlena]

Originally posted by Hilary
What can you realistically do, Marlena, when the very foundations of your law have been changed in the last three years, so that you, as a lawyer, would have a very hard job even defending yourself, let alone family or a client?

While I do not specialize in this area of the law, I do not believe many of the provisions in question have yet been challenged in the legal arena. Just because Congress passes a law, it does not automatically mean that it won't be struck down, or that its interpretation and ramifications are certain.

[Irishmommy]

So is the teacher still teaching? If I was the parents of those kids I'd be doing my best to make sure he/she wasn't.

[Delilah]

"Free Speech Zones"

Those boys must not have been in a few speech zone.

You better not dissent, or you, too, could end up at Gitmo. The FBI will get you and to hell with your rights; you could be held indefinately.

I'm still fuming over the disclosures that the pharmacy says they'll give out my health info to any schmoe who shows up and says they need my birth control pill information to protect the president.

[JessicaS]

Can they at least mark the "free speech zones" clearly so we can identify where we are "allowed" our consititutional rights?

I would have very not nice words for that principal and teacher that I cannot describe without Ms Mom having to make me edit.

[JessicaS]

No, that's what they call it when they make protestors stand in certain areas when politicians are appearing.

We were making fun of it not saying it is actual existing areas. That would freak people out (though why making protestors stand far away from from politicians, who don't see the message they are trying to present, doesn't freak people out is unclear)

BTW you sig is too long. Maybe you can reduce the font and make it fit.

[Ms. Mom]

Originally posted by abimommy
I would have very not nice words for that principal and teacher that I cannot describe without Ms Mom having to make me edit.

I may just let that slide :LOL

I want to look around some more. This just really burns me up! I was drilled and intimidated in 3rd grade by a teacher and I've NEVER forgoten the fear it put in me. Unfortunately, I didn't tell my parents OR the principal because of the fear.

This goes to show, we need to empower our children. We need to inform them of their rights and let them know it's ok to demand their parents be present at ANY time.

I've done this with my kids and I go over and over it all the time. They think I'm nuts, but it's important for them to know that they have rights AND that their parents are ALWAYS available to help them.

If I was the parents I'd be going to the news and making a HUGE STINK about it. This kind of intimidation is not acceptable toward our children.

[daylily]

This is very disturbing. Especially to those of us who grew up during the cold war and were told that the great difference between us and the Soviet Union was that *we* could criticize the government all we wanted and Soviets couldn't.

Last year, my ds, who was in 5th grade, wrote "IMPEACH BUSH" on one of his school papers. He didn't get in trouble, but a teacher cautioned him that he could get in trouble for writing things like that.

[Ms. Mom]

But I'm only two lines! It's not my fault that Simonee made the supermod smilie so tall!

Could ya change the font size? Plllleeeeaaaasssseee?

[Irishmommy]

Jacque, you are three lines on my screen, and Hilary's takes up waaaaay less space!!

[Marlena]

Back to the T, rather than the Off- T ...

The ACLU has just filed a complaint on behalf of ACORN and other groups protesting the so-called "protest zones":

http://www.aclu.org/FreeSpeech/FreeS...=86&MX=958&H=1

That link gives summaries of some of the incidents in question. The ACLU also has a link to its complaint, at http://www.aclu.org/FreeSpeech/FreeS...=86&MX=958&H=1 .

[Ms. Mom]

You ladies are WAAYYYY off topic now! (Now, where's that whip smilie .)

I changed mine as well - happy now

[Marlena]

HEY.

Dontcha care about the ACLU suit? Jeez almighty!!

[Ms. Mom]

Hilary, you are bad, bad, bad....

I now return you to you're regularly scheduled topic - Warning! You Are Being Watched

Has anyone heard what's happening now? Is there any word on what the parents think of this or action being taken?

[Marlena]

Nothing we do, or talk about here, will alter the UCLA outcome.

Wait. When did the University of California, Los Angeles, become an issue here?

[madrone]

I read UCLA as Univ of Ca - LA at first also. But maybe now we can get back on topic. This article is frightening.

A similar cooperation between local, state, and federal law enforcement may be reflected in a recent crackdown on activists in St. Louis. Demonstrators in that city had planned to protest at the annual meeting of the World Agricultural Forum in May. But before the protest, representatives from several police departments, including Seattle’s, visited St. Louis police to share tactics and information about violent protest. Though St. Louis police deny making preemptive arrests, activists say that as a result of these visits, two days before the scheduled demonstration, police pre-emptively arrested 22 of the protest organizers.

and

Ashcroft’s Justice Department also advises police officers in at least some states to gather information on “enemies in our own backyard.” In a police training manual titled “A Police Response to Terrorism in the Heartland: Integrating Law Enforcement Intelligence and Community Policing” officers are encouraged to investigate members of the “Green Movement”—defined as “environmental activism that is aimed at political and social reform with the explicit attempt to develop environmental-friendly policy, law and behavior.”

I find these things very disturbing. I really would like to go visit friends and family in the states, but I'm really scared to go. I don't want to end up being held because of my political beliefs and risk losing my son.

[mirlee]

If you really want to be nervous, go here:
Terrorisim information Awareness
http://www.darpa.mil/iao/tiasystems.htm


There was an article in one of my professional journals about it.

I think Americans, in general, have lived under a false sense of security and with an attitude of , "It couldn't happen here," for generations. Yes, it can happen here.

People tend to think they know or have some idea of what goes on in the government, but in reality, there are departments and things that go on ,that you have never heard of and will never hear of.

I tend not to voice my opinions in public anymore and am very very careful about to whom I voice them in private. I am careful about what I say online. Everything has the potential to be tracked. Do a search for yourself online. What posts come up? Are you amazed that x post is still out there? It is out there and will continue to be out there. I can find posts I made in 1989 and 90 on bulletin boards! I find mentions of myself in articles and in publications where they no longer exist on the server to which they were originally posted.

Yes, we need to teach our children how to survive in society. We need to teach them about what is appropriate to say in public. It is more important now than ever.

All of this being said, you may also be interested in this site:

http://www.cafeshops.com/totalawareness