America is on the verge of seeing TSA-style body scanners coming to public spaces.
The Salt Lake Tribune highlighted that the Utah Attorney General and law enforcement are teaming up with Liberty Defense, a 3D image scanning company who makes the lion’s share of its money by spying on citizens.
“Liberty Defense” is an ironic name if there ever was one. Their motto is “Protecting Communities And Preserving Peace of Mind.” Surveilling people has nothing to do with liberty and is more about social control.
Fox Now 13 reports that police will use Liberty Defense’s HEXWAVE to snoop on people at public functions like concerts, malls, and stadiums.
Bill Riker, Liberty Defense’s CEO, stated “HEXWAVE could be deployed at mass gatherings like concerts, malls, stadiums, public transit stops and government buildings.”
Indeed, this has been part of a larger trend to turn public transportation into spinning images of airport security by targeting suspicious people.
Liberty Defense wants government and business to put their 3D scanners in every public venue.
The Utah Attorney General’s office released a “Memorandum of Understanding” that detailed how HEXWAVE would be incorporated into surveillance plans:
1. Sporting & Concert Arenas, Stadiums and Olympic Venues;
2. Primary, Secondary and Higher Education Facilities;
3. Places of Worship, Facilities and Property Owned by or Affiliated with Faith Entities;
4. Government Offices, Buildings and Facilities;
5. Amusement Parks; and
6. Entertainment Events, Conventions, Shows & Festivals
Police plan on using HEXWAVE to track the public during “non-business hours to get system exposure to the full range of potential operating conditions to include environmental, frequency/volume of use or other operating conditions to which HEXWAVE would be subjected.”
There is speculation that Liberty Defense is a Homeland Security or Department of Defense front, but what is certain is that they want to partake in mass surveillance schemes.
This surveillance schemes are at best security theatre, and at worst, gross civil liberties violations.
If public officials are so concerned about terrorism, they should strike at more root problems such as our foreign policy and immigration system. The blowback that foreign policy interventionism causes is real, while the American immigration system does not do a good job in adequately screening people who come in and out of the country.
