April 5, 2002
By Tom DeWeese
I have warned many times about the dangers of ever-growing government
data banks and how they can be used to destroy the lives of Americans who
become victims of inept bureaucracies and overzealous law enforcement.
Case in point, a New Hampshire woman who was arrested, handcuffed, and
had her car impounded for not returning a late rental video. This sad saga
of American injustice began when Jessie Cohen of Portsmouth, New Hampshire
was stopped by police for having a broken taillight on her car. During the
routine license check through the police cruiser’s computer which is
connected to a central government data bank, police discovered an
outstanding warrant for Cohen, dating back to 1997, for allegedly not
returning a rented copy of the 1996 movie, "Sleepers." She had
rented it from an Epsom, New Hampshire video store.
Cohen was charged with misdemeanor unauthorized use of rental property,
was handcuffed, had her 1987 Cadillac impounded, and was taken to jail and
fingerprinted. She faces a fine of up to $1,200.
Cohen said she had no memory of renting the video, and said she had
never received any notice from the store that the video was overdue.
If innocent, Ms Cohen is a victim of imperfect government data banks
that target the wrong citizen for crimes they didn’t commit. This is the
very serious, and growing danger every American will face as the
government begins to enforce the use of National I.D. cards that are tied
to massive government data banks. Currently, 30% of all of the information
in government data banks is incorrect. As the size and the power of the
data banks grow—so will the inaccurate information. Life in such a world
will be a nightmare.
If guilty, Ms. Cohen is a victim of "mission creep" of good
laws going bad. For example, the law against unauthorized use of rental
property was written to protect car rental companies from people who rent
a car but never return it. That’s a legitimate law designed to protect
companies against costly rental fraud or theft. But once in place,
government can vastly expand the original intent, eventually leading to
the scene of a woman being thrown in jail for failure to return a $10
video tape. That’s law enforcement out of control. It has no place in a
free society. Common sense is replaced by a police state.
"Unfortunately, this is not the only example of a law that has
expanded far beyond its original means," says George Getz, press
secretary of the Libertarian Party. "Take asset forfeiture laws:
Originally designed to target illegal profits from drug kingpins, they
have been expanded to allow the government to seize property in cases of
suspected prostitution, illegal gambling, or failure to pay sales
taxes." Getz points out, "Federal agents can now seize property
under 200 different statutes. And RICO laws, originally designed to target
Mafia crime bosses, are now used against stores that allegedly sell
obscene videos, against the tobacco companies, and against investment
companies for skirting tax laws." In other words, these laws go way
beyond their original intent and are now being used to build the power and
reach of law enforcement. That’s how regular citizens like Jessie Cohen
suddenly find themselves being fingerprinted and tossed in the slammer.
Government at all levels passes too many laws in its ever-growing
desire to rule and regulate every aspect of our lives. Incredibly, as
Americans grumble and gripe while standing in endless government lines,
facing rude and unhelpful government bureaucrats, we continue to support
the enactment of more of the same.
We seem unable to make the connection between our unending desire to be
completely cared for and the all powerful, inept government enforcement
designed to take us there. Perhaps there ought to be a law against saying
"there ought to be a law!"
