Here's another example. This one's a lawyer in Monticello. He was trying to catch pot smokers. The police slapped him with three counts of unlawful surveillance, a felony.

Sad story:

Yesterday in Sullivan County Court, Gold took the stand in his own defense as his lawyer, Henri Shawn, guided him. Gold broke down in tears as he talked about losing 80 percent of his clients after the arrest.

Gold said a friend installed a surveillance camera in 1999. Transients had been stealing from his office at 2 Jones St., which is located between the Heritage Inn and the Salvation Army.

Gold said he wanted the camera to watch the entry stairs, but the friend put it in the bathroom. A secretary found it the next day. Gold disconnected the camera, but left the wires in place, running under baseboard heaters through the hallway to his office.

In early 2004, he said, he found signs of people smoking pot in the bathroom. A commercial client complained that he couldn't bring people there for business if that was going on.

Gold said he set up the camera again on Feb. 17, 2004, duct-taping it to a plastic pipe behind the toilet in the 4-foot-by-4-foot bathroom. He hooked a TV to the other end of the cable in his office.

Later, he heard the bathroom door close, and he flipped on the TV. He saw one of his secretaries. She saw the camera and put a towel over it. He said he was mortified.

Under cross-examination by Assistant District Attorney K.C. Garn, Gold said he didn't know the camera was illegal.

"I knew what I was doing was risky. There was a chance someone would go to the bathroom and I would see their rear end or genitals," he said. He said that he should have looked for a better camera, one that would have shown the entire bathroom.

"I was selfish by not thinking about the potential consequences," he said.

The trial continues today before Judge Jonathan Nichols.

I wish I could be sympathetic to this guy (In dave's comment) as well as to the principles of the schools. The only problem is that I am extremely against covert surveillance and surveillance in public locations (ex: London).

That lawyer got exactly what he deserved. If he wanted to catch pot smokers, put a sensitve smoke alarm in the bathroom. Want to catch people writing graffiti in the bathroom? Put a camera OUTSIDE the bathroom, like my school did. On a day that graffiti appears, question all students seen going in that day or around the time period the incident happened.

To those of you who say "If you have nothing to hide, then you have nothing to fear" regarding surveillance and tracking: Try living in N. Korea, China, Singapore, etc for a while and then tell me you believe that.

To those of you who say "If you have nothing to hide, then you have nothing to fear" regarding surveillance and tracking

For the record, I'm not one of those. I just felt sorry for the lawyer... He was crying! His life is ruined! Poor guy.

Gotta agree with Dave there. I wouldn't go to his buisness if he's got hidden cameras in the bathroom. Maybe I'd make a donation, though, to keep it up and running.

And I just heard that story too, on the 10'oclock news here in Washington DC. So these 2 incidents have now become national news.

Dave I don't feel sorry for the lawyer, his life isn't ruined, he fucked up badly, we all make mistakes. I worked somewhere where the owner consulted me as to where best to locate cameras to keep track of employees (my brain said UP YOUR ASS) and I thought gee here's a guy paying his factory workers minimum wage so we get shitty workers and he's willing to spend $30,000 on a complete camera system with recorders so he can find people who steal (what raw aluminum in 45 pound logs) or monitor their work habits subborning his supervisors and managers. I quit 2 weeks later.

The first spy camera I find in the bathroom will get a close-up shot of shit exiting my anus... Right before I flush it!

I remember my middle school in Oregon had these paranoid policies. We weren't allowed to wear hats because they said we might smuggle knives under them. We weren't allowed to bring backpacks to school because we might hide guns and ammo in them. Our lockers were searched for drugs on a weekly basis. We were not permitted to use the phone because they were afraid we might call drug dealers or snort cocaine in the booth.

Worst off, the teachers would go into the bathrooms during lunch, morning, and afternoon and look for "drug users". Their method of searching was to kick the stall doors in. This meant anyone who was in the stalls ran the risk of breaking a nose or bring knocked unconscious.

One day I devised a trap for one of the door-kicking little bitches. I would rig the stall with a bucket of shitting toilet water up in a ceiling tile. When the bitch kicked the door open she would receive a shit shower for her paranoid trouble. I always regret never doing it.

Keep in mind this was not in a high crime area. No one even vandalized a bathroom door. The worst crime was some kid who pulled the fire alarm.

I believe that paranoia breeds crime. The kids started to develop the attitude that if it was expected of them, they might as well do it. We were not trusted and they basically came right out and called us all criminals. Sort of like the American government calls its citizens terrorists and spies on them.

Fucking politically correct asshole school systems! Fucking nazi government!

Except for the shower scene in Porky's, bathroom spying is just wrong on so many levels. Big Brother is here and he is looking at your rear.

SamDamnit!
Rectum Rector
of
The Church of Poop
http://groups.myspace.com/THECHURCHOFPOOP

Right on TSV, Right on!!! SamDamnit, do you have that on dvd I can borrow.

Damn straight TSV. Don't just belive paranoia spreads crime, spread the word around. The lines "it was expected of them, they might as well do it" were especially true.

It reminds me of that Home Improvement episode where the kids gets grounded for making out and he doesn't think it's bad so he gets it on and is found out.

He says "I noticed you were punishing me for doing nothing so I figured I'd better do somthing to deserve it."

God that's so true.

I think that relates to paranoia will spread crime. Can you see how it goes together?

Right on, Shit Volcano! Anybody who puts a spy cam in a toilet I'm using, especially since I'm slow to learn that my guts are 40 years old like the rest of me and I just can't eat all kinds of spicy food any more, is gonna be one sorry mo-fo! If only I could provide 'em with a Smell-O-Meter at the same time...
Have a crappy day!
La Petomaine

I agree TSV. I grew up in almost the same era as you did, and we didn't have those kinds of things happening at my school.

I to believe that paranoia spreads crime, but only if we let it. We, the public, are the only ones who can put a stop to all of the paranoia. We can't do it be simply falling off a stump though, we have to get our ducks in a row and do it right.

Even more interesting, I went to middle school in Worcester Massachusetts during a period of very high crime (1987 - 1993). This is the second largest city in Massachusetts, and we were allowed to go the the bathroom (provided we raised our hand and asked the teacher first) without supervision, or being monitored, yet the biggest problems we had were either some jerk pulled the fire alarm or during break, someone was playing heavy metal on their boom box loud enough to disrupt other classes that were not on their breaks.

SamDamnit (1019) -- 12.21.2005
Except for the shower scene in Porky's, bathroom spying is just wrong on so many levels.Big Brother is here and he is looking at your rear. So drink lots of beer, and fart so loud that it hurts his ears. Stink so bad that he sheds tears. Then maybee Big Brother will leave us some privacy for the rest of our years. Cheers.
_______
A man who farts in church, sits in his own pew.

Oh Please. Yep this is exactly like the anti-terrorist surveillance program. Exactly. The Bush administration is up to its ass in alligators, but its got nothing better to do than spy on Logjam.