Off Topic: DHS Considers Stun Bracelets for Air Passengers
Its not web law, but still, news of humorous, ill-conceived policies sometimes just deserves posting.
According to an article by Jeffrey Denning in the Washington Times, a senior official at the DHS is interested in a “safety bracelet” for air passengers that would serve as a boarding pass, GPS-enabled locator and, yes, STUN DEVICE.
The bracelet would contain passenger information and data of interest to security personnel, and if designed like the US passport, it would be unencrypted and made cyber-criminal-ready:
The Electronic ID Bracelet, as it’s referred to as, would be worn by every traveler “until they disembark the flight at their destination.” Yes, you read that correctly: every airline passenger would be tracked by a government-funded GPS, containing personal, private and confidential information, and that it would shock the customer worse than an electronic dog collar if he/she got out of line.
Information on the ill-conceived device, offered by Lamperd Firearm Training Services, can be found here, where you can enjoy a poorly crafted video exulting its virtues.
Farfetched? Here’s the final page of a letter sent from DHS official Paul Ruwaldt, Science and Technology Directorate, Office of Research and Development, Department of Homeland Security. It concludes by saying:
“To make it clear, we are interested in the mobile read/write emitter concept in conjunction with the immobilizing security bracelet, and look forward to receiving a written proposal.”
This isn’t merely for some would-be terrorist, but will inevitably be used to go after passengers who get angry and potentially violent. Many of those angry passengers are precisely so because of inexplicable delays due to the FAA’s incompetence in flight scheduling and its antiquated air traffic control system. Despite collecting a fee explicitly for this purpose for many years, the FAA has failed to upgrade a system that seems like it runs on the computing power of a Commodore 64. So instead of removing the source of passenger frustration, the government will simply immobilize those who get upset.
How can anyone reconcile the act of electronically shackling passengers with a device that contains the threat of torture by goverment with a free society? Thank you for flying Guantanamo Airlines. One hundred quatloos says this won’t fly.
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