Not long ago, my neighborhood internet chat room was filled with anger at the county government (well … more than the usual anger). People were upset by the county government’s spying through aerial drones.
These drones are not used to assist in law enforcement, fire fighting, or anything else that has to do with the protection of lives and limbs. They are using them to increase our taxes.
Under Georgia law, the county is responsible for updating residential property appraisals every few years. But the county I live in is poorly managed and perpetually short on money, so they struggled to find competent appraisers who would go door-to-door.
So in an “aha!” At this time (which happens with increasing frequency in bureaucracies across the country), the county decided to turn to one of the ingenious technologies developed in our country’s endless “wars” in the Middle East: aerial spy cameras. .
Apparently the IRS had its “aha” moment too … and it’s coming to your house soon.
From Baghdad to a nearby street
In my neighborhood, drone-mounted spy cameras are used to identify extensions and other enhancements that could increase the value of a property. (They are also used to impose fines for “unauthorized” renewals). For example, a neighbor’s valuation increased by more than $ 20,000 because she put cheap pavers in her backyard to form a patio, which the county decided was a “driveway.”
I have long warned that any technology developed by the government to carry out its wars and surveillance will inevitably be used against innocent citizens. My predictive track record in this regard is 100%.
License plate readers developed to monitor traffic in Iraqi cities are now used to track drivers here at home and to compile databases of our movements. The colossally wasteful JLENS surveillance airships outside of Baltimore were initially designed to fly over Kabul, Afghanistan. The FBI has deployed the same airborne surveillance tools used in Iraq and Afghanistan to spy on legal public gatherings in Baltimore, Milwaukee, and other cities.
Even the equipment and tactics that law enforcement agencies use these days are copied directly from the war zone, like the Department of Homeland Security’s “forward operating bases” in the Southwest border areas.
Now, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has caught on to another wartime innovation: the “Stingray.”
Stingray technology is so appreciated by the government that prosecutors have agreed to drop cases rather than disclose information about it, even in serious criminal cases. The U.S. Marshals Service once forcibly seized documents on the use of stingrays to prevent them from being released under a public records request from the American Civil Liberties Union. They invoked the National Security Law to justify their action.
Eyes and ears in the sky
The Stingray is a sophisticated cell phone network device that mimics a cell tower, scans all cell phone signals in a given area and monitors communications in them. It can be deployed on the ground or in the air. At least 57 agencies in 22 states and the District of Columbia have stingrays.
It turns out that there is good reason the government will go so far as to use laws designed to combat terrorism to prevent the public from knowing more about the Stingray. Despite constant denials from the government, stingrays can be used to capture and record voice calls and text messages.
Another reason for the reluctance of the government? Although police forces across the country have justified the acquisition of Stingray technology as “vital to the war on terror,” a recent study shows that, in most cases, Stingrays are only used for law enforcement. at the national level, particularly those related to the so-called “War on Drugs” and financial “crimes.”
Now we find that the IRS has had Stingray technology since 2009, updating it regularly and spending thousands to train their Criminal Investigation agents in its use.
As you sow, you reap
The path from our failed wars (both abroad and at home) to stingrays as a tax enforcement tool is clear. A former IRS deputy commissioner said that when agents worked with the FBI to detect money laundering by drug organizations, “the IRS had … learned a lot of aggressive techniques … and these bad habits were seeping into the air. tax world, which was supposed to be his real mission. “
I rest my case.
Every day, government espionage is being honed into tools that can be used to take your wealth. The only way to stop them is to get some of your wealth out of reach of stingrays, license plate scanners, and tax enforcement drones.
