Who Watches the Watchers? The Threat to Privacy in the United States

The Walpole Peace and Justice Group is sponsoring a talk on June 5, 2012 at 7:30 PM at the Walpole Public Library by Kade Crockford on ‘Who Watches the Watchers? The Threat to Privacy in the United States.’ The closing decades of the 20th century brought something new: the potential for mass surveillance made possible by the evolution of computer technology. Since 9/11, the government has dramatically expanded its powers of surveillance on all people, not just those suspected of wrongdoing. Our international phone calls, our emails, our financial records, our travel itineraries, and our images captured on digital cameras now swell a mountain of data that is being collected in the name of mining for suspicious patterns and associations.

But while the government has gained more and more power to watch us, it has largely kept us in the dark about what it is doing, building a new architecture of domestic surveillance, about which we know very little. Kade will speak about the growing threat to our privacy and liberty posed by the militarization of the police, developments in surveillance technology without attendant legal reforms, and the prosecutorial and legislative attacks on the Bill of Rights.

Kade Crockford is Principle Investigator and Manager of the Technology and Liberty Project at the ACLU of Massachusetts. Her work at the ACLU includes mobilizing an integrated advocacy team comprised of litigators, lobbyists, educators and field organizers to develop and implement strategies for fighting the growing surveillance state in Massachusetts and nationwide. Kade developed and maintains the website privacysos.org, and has spoken out on privacy issues on local and national media outlets, including CBS radio, Fox News, and WBUR.

The talk will be in the Community Room at the Walpole Public Library, 143 School Street, Walpole, MA. Refreshments will be served.

Walpole Peace and Justice Group Peace Vigil, Saturday, May 5, 2012, 10:00 AM to 11:00 AM

The Walpole Peace and justice Group is holding a vigil on Saturday, May 5, from 10:00 AM to 11:00 AM at the corner of Main St. and West St. in Walpole to speak out for funding our communities and reducing military spending and for ending  the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

On March 29, 2012 the House  passed a budget that slashes domestic spending while increasing the military budget. The United States spends almost as much on the military as all the other countries of the world combined.  More than half of all US annual discretionary spending goes to the military and war fighting. We call for cutting military spending and instead keep funding our nation’s social programs, like housing, education, Medicare, and Medicaid,  that are so critical to people. We support the Fund Our Communities / Reduce Military Spending 25% Campaign as well as the People’s Budget.  We also call for an end to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Also tonight, Wednesday, the Peace and Justice for Palestine (PfP), West of Boston, Pax Christi, and  MetroWest are sponsoring a showing of the film The Iron Wall  about the conflict in the Mideast between Israel and Palestine.  The showing is at the Natick Library, lower hall, 14 East Central Street, Wednesday,  May 2, 2012, at  6:45 PM. The film will be followed by a discussion, facilitated by Claire Schaeffer-Duffy from the Catholic Worker House in Worcester. Claire is a journalist who has visited Palestine several times to work with the Palestinian and Israeli people.