Podcast: Play in new window | Download
More Surveillance Cameras For New York City
After the bombings in London, the pressure is on for cities in the United States cities to build up the semi-police state with more surveillance cameras. Surveillance technology has advanced from grainy black and white images to digital high res cameras with zoom. A baseball can be recognized from orbiting satellites. We talk with privacy activist and Manhattan’s surveillance camera tour guide Bill Brown.
Guest – Bill Brown, privacy activist and surveillance camera tour guide.
—-
NYPD Randomly Check Bags On Subway
About 4.5 million people use New York’s subway system every working day. With more than 450 subway stations on the network, it is unclear whether the searches of passengers with bags or backpacks can be any more than a token deterrent. Civil liberties groups have warned that random searches may be unconstitutional. If you submit to a search and police find contraband, you could be charged!
Guest – Bill Goodman, Legal Director with the Center for Constitutional Rights.
—-
Non-Citizen Detentions Upheld
We talk with attorney Jon Hafetz with the Ali-Saleh Kahlah Al-Marri legal team. Al-Marri is the other non-citizen rarely reported on who is being held incommunicado, indefinitely in a military prison without charges. He’s been in solitary confinement for more than 2 years, no access to reading material, except the Qur’an. He’s constantly harassed, abused and any medical treatment received is very poor.
Guest – Jon Hafetz with the Al-Marri Legal Team
—-
Shield Laws For Journalists
In light of the Karl Rove scandal, we take a look at how shield laws designed to protect reporters are contradictory and vary from state to state. As more and more newsgatherers work on the national stage — through television, books and the internet — the lack of a national newsgatherers privilege is more and more problematic. Without a national privilege, these newsgatherers are subject to different and contradictory standards, with little guidance as to which standard might apply in a particular case. Listen as our guest, Gene Policinski is divided about whether national shield laws should exist for journalists amid the current lapdog media climate.
Guest – Gene Policinski, Executive Director with the First Amendment Center
—-