[1279] in cryptography@c2.net mail archive
Re: Wayner op-ed in today's NYTimes
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Black Unicorn)
Tue Jul 29 21:57:01 1997
Date: Tue, 29 Jul 1997 21:40:26 -0400 (EDT)
From: Black Unicorn <unicorn@schloss.li>
To: Phil Karn <karn@qualcomm.com>
cc: perry@piermont.com, cryptography@c2.net
In-Reply-To: <199707292309.QAA09424@servo.qualcomm.com>
On Tue, 29 Jul 1997, Phil Karn wrote:
> Another essay that really needs to be written is how there really is no
> such thing as the "status quo" that law enforcement keeps talking about
> maintaining.
>
> at the time the Constitution was written, the "status quo" was no
> wiretaps at all, because there were no wire communications.
> Furthermore there were no audio bugs, laser window bugs or video or
> photographic surveillance. And law enforcement did not have the
> benefit of fast and relatively inexpensive communications networks and
> computerized databases to support its own operations. Yet somehow the
> country survived.
More interesting perhaps is the University of Chicago study from many
years ago (Druant? Drabant? Anyone?) talking about the (un)reliability of
eyewitness accounts.
It indicated that the number of mistaken identities and wrongful
prosecutions had remained fairly constant (so far as could be
determined) since about the 1700s.
In this light one might reword the paragraphs above to say:
> Another essay that really needs to be written is how there really is no
> danger of altering the "status quo" that law enforcement keeps talking
> about maintaining.
[...]
> at the time the Constitution was written, the "status quo" was no
> wiretaps at all, because there were no wire communications.
> Furthermore there were no audio bugs, laser window bugs or video or
> photographic surveillance. And law enforcement did not have the
> benefit of fast and relatively inexpensive communications networks and
> computerized databases to support its own operations. Yet somehow they
> have failed to significantly improve their statistics even with the
> advent of all this new technology.
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