Galt's Gulch

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    Posted by Eyecu2 10 years ago
    Honestly it is getting to the point that the "Tin-Foil Hat" brigade doesn't seem so crazy anymore.
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      Posted by Robbie53024 10 years ago
      Nothing "tin-foil-hat" about this. It's all around.
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        Posted by Eyecu2 10 years ago
        That wasn't my point.

        The "Tin-Foil Hat" brigade has long been looked down upon as paranoid and this reminds me of a quote from Catch 22 by Joseph Heller.

        “Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they aren't after you”
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        Posted by Boborobdos 10 years ago
        The question was asked, "Why do we have plates?"

        The fact is that when one was walking about the village folks knew who you were. Even riding on a horse there was no such thing as privacy.

        Privacy is a fairly recent concept. The whole family and any visitors used to often sleep in the same room.
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          Posted by $ jlc 10 years ago
          A friend of mine who was raised in a small town often makes the same point about privacy not being the default human condition. I counter that health and long life are not the default human condition either, but I would like to have them.

          It is true that historically there was little privacy, but the other side of that coin is that in 1914 when you went to rent an apartment or get a job no one asked you for your SSAN or was able to trace your activities on the internet. Our whole society has moved from one of casual personal interaction to one of regulated cya formality. I think that we should value and conserve privacy whenever we can, even in those areas that have not traditionally been private, since it is inevitable that an interfaced society is removing other aspects of privacy from our lives.

          When you rode a horse, everyone could see you and know who you were. But you did not have a license plate tied to the horse's tail (and if you rode in a closed carriage you did have privacy).

          Jan
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            Posted by Boborobdos 10 years ago
            Horses had brands to tell who the real owner was supposed to be.

            Through the 20th century people became more mobile. Used to be that most folks knew most folks and who could be trusted and who to watch out for. I agree that formal reporting agencies and on line boards can be unreliable but the fact remains that it's nice to know who one is doing business with.

            If it's the cops running a plate to find a crook doesn't seem excessive to me. Storing and using that information in another way is alarming though.

            BTW, lived in Alexandria for almost 20 years, and had a business very close (next to Burk & Herbert Bank) to King and Washington. I wonder if the Fish Market is as good as it used to be.
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              Posted by $ winterwind 10 years ago
              Taking your earlier post and this one together, I still would like an answer to your earlier question: why do we have license plates? They don't identify citizens to each other I identify people I know by their faces, I sometimes know what their cars look like. As usual, this is another of those schemes that we pay for and get no benefit from.

              If you want the cops to be able to "find the crooks", they have to sift through a group of "non-crooks" - that means that people who are committing no crime have their plates run, some innocents are stopped [borrowed the car from a friend] and a few crooks are stopped. Eccch. If you want to identify your car in a unique way that you don't have to have involvement with the state for, go shopping for an obscure bumper sticker. If you want to know with whom you are doing business, ask them. How will knowing their license plate help?
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                Posted by Boborobdos 10 years ago
                Identifying cars with a common standard, plates, is an efficient way rather than resorting to unique bumper stickers or paint schemes.

                It can also be looked at as a tax stamp.

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              Posted by $ jlc 10 years ago
              Actually, some horses have brands that tell who the owner was at one point in time - usually when they are 2 or 3 years old and being broken to ride is when they were branded. Most horses are then sold multiple times. The original brands become distorted and covered with hair as the horse ages and it is difficult to see the brand at all, let alone interpret it. Some horses do not have any brands. It is rarely possible to look at a horse walking by you and say, "Hey, that is the Wachowski brand! She never sells her branded stock - that horse must be stolen."*

              Jan
              *(I once owned such a horse. He was 22 years old, had been abandoned and was lame in 3 legs. I reconditioned him to be able to walk/trot/canter and even do his show gaits again. Show gaits? Yes, in his youth the decrepit cast-off horse had been an Olympic silver medalist. He came from a stable that had a rep for never selling their horses. Long story...)
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          Posted by Robbie53024 10 years ago
          and your point is?
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            Posted by Boborobdos 10 years ago
            The point is that privacy is a relatively recent concept. I don't mind some scrutiny. I want folks to know who I am.

            As mentioned above, the cops have no reason to track folks. That doesn't mean that running a plate is out of the question. It's storing it and abusing that information that should be worried about.
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    Posted by NealS 10 years ago
    Interesting article. An eye witness got a description and license number of a car that was used to rob my home. Two guys came over my fence with pillow cases full of our stuff and got in that car and drove away, all witnessed by a young man who cell phoned it in.

    Later when the police went to the house where the car was registered, the occupants closed the door in their face and refused to talk to them. The excuse for doing nothing was they (and it wasn't Holder either) could not prove that it was him and his friend that were using his car the day my house was robbed. That was 20 years ago, am I'm still angered. Would they have done the same thing if it had been a bank robbery?

    Just because a camera captures your car running over someone does not prove that you were driving it. How ridiculous, but that's the law?
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      Posted by Boborobdos 10 years ago
      I don't know about how to prove a particular person was driving or not at any particular incident. However if someone owns a car and their name pops up with a warrant connected to it I believe it's probable cause to see who is in the car right now.

      Don't know about where you are but if you rack up enough tickets and don't pay them they will boot your car if they find it.
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    Posted by wiggys 10 years ago
    the aclu is correct that people should inundate the police departments for the information collected on them. they can scan 1 million is a short time, but they couldn't give out the requested information that fast. it would keep them so busy they might need to get the picture takers inside to help get the information requested. land of the free?
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