As an ostensible means of deterring prostitution, Nury Martinez of the L.A. city council wants to scan every single license plate, make a list, and mail out a shame letter to every person who drives through an arbitrary area deemed a prostitution zone.
You read that right. For merely driving through a designated area, Martinez proposes publicly shaming any and every motorist by scanning their license plate.
Martinez told CBS Los Angeles,
The idea is so Orwellian, so fascist even, that the police themselves have deemed it unconstitutional.If you aren't soliciting, you have no reason to worry about finding one of these letters in your mailbox. But if you are, these letters will discourage you from returning. Soliciting for sex in our neighborhoods is not OK.
Law enforcement technologist, and working police detective, Nick Selby writes,
The process would automate reasonable suspicion, by arbitrarily deeming EVERYONE a 'John.' As Selby points out, "Guilt by association would be a higher standard."This scheme makes, literally, a state issue out of legal travel to arbitrary places deemed by someโโโbut not by a court, and without due processโโโto be "related" to crime in general, not to any specific crime.
There isn't "potential" for abuse here, this is a legislated abuse of technology that is already controversial when it's used by police for the purpose of seeking stolen vehicles, tracking down fugitives and solving specific crimes.
To make matters even worse, all the data collected in the process would be a matter of public record under the Freedom of Information Act. Anyone could walk down to the city council, request a report and publish a list of those who got the letter โ due process and actual guilt be damned.
Aside from the public shaming of completely innocent individuals, the domestic problems it would create, have an equally ominous potential. Imagine a married couple whose already rocky relationship is under repair getting one of these letters. The wife's first thought would most likely not be, "well he must just be a victim of automated reasonable suspicion."
In his article for Medium, Selby concludes,
Far from serving as, in the words of one proponent, a private "wake-up call," these letters will surely be the basis of insurance, medical, employment and other decisions, and such a list can be re-sold to public records companies, advertising mailing list companies... To paraphrase @MosheYudkowsky, there would be a chilling effect on commerce in the highlighted area, because who in their right mind would do business at any company located in that area? The list of unintended consequences is long.
This wrong-headed law has, out of the gate, a chilling effect on association and transport.
No non-fascist state should ever allow this to happen.
By all form of logic the US Marshall Service should be arresting these people for treason right now. That they aren't is proof that the social contract which the Bills of Rights represents, is being ignored by the Federal Government. The refusal to abide by this contract effectively means the suspension of lawful rule. In other words, it seems self evident that these individuals are effectively acting as self proclaimed provincial powers and are by their actions are self evident tyrants in full rebellion upon the just laws of the people of the United States.
That's the way I see it, and there is then no legal or lawful grounds to respect any such authority as none is granted by the people of these United States. I guess that means you should just remove your license plates and ignore all authority in the area. Sure the cops aren't going to be happy with that, but suppose 3 or 4 million people do it? What then brown cow?