Originally published August 20 2013
The real Bloomberg agenda unfolds: Fingerprint all poor people to build a government database
by J. D. Heyes
(NaturalNews) Michael Bloomberg, the billionaire mayor of New York City, has yet to meet a constitutional right he didn't try to circumvent. His latest proposal - as always, in the name of public safety - is no different.
He wants to fingerprint all poor people, just for the sake of being poor.
Bloomberg made his stunning proposal Aug. 16 when being asked about another long-standing measure used by his police department to deprive citizens of their Fourth Amendment rights - the controversial "stop-and-frisk" program, which was recently ruled unconstitutional by a federal judge.
Fingerprints good, large sodas bad
"Five percent of our population lives in NYCHA housing, 20 percent of the crime is in NYCHA housing - numbers like that. And we've just got to find some way to keep bringing crime down there. And we have a whole group of police officers assigned to NYCHA housing," Bloomberg said during a news conference, when the topic shifted to security and the New York City Housing Authority, CBS New York reported. "The people that live there, most of them, want more police protection. They want more people. If you have strangers walking in the halls of your apartment building, don't you want somebody to stop and say, 'Who are you, why are you here?'"
Later, on his weekly radio show, he elaborated a little more.
"What we really should have is fingerprinting to get in, since there's an allegation that some of the apartments aren't occupied by the people who originally have the lease," he said.
Forget probable cause. No need for warrants or even reasonable suspicion. Just mass fingerprinting of the city's poorest people (upwards of 620,000 live in public housing, by the way).
Needless to say, a number of city residents were understandably upset over Nanny Bloomberg's Nazi-like proposal.
"That's like invading someone's privacy or something. Why you want to fingerprint somebody? It is bad enough you get arrested, you get finger printed, so why you want to fingerprint us? Now Bloomberg needs to get a job. Get out of here already. He's done. Bloomberg is done," Chelsea Houses resident Nino Alayon told CBS New York.
"Why? For what? We live here all these years, I mean, what seems to be the problem? This is not jail," Deborah Gatling of the Chelsea Houses added.
"I don't feel that that's right. Fingerprinted for what?" said resident Alberta Hale. "He wants to prove we [live] here. All he has to do is ask to see the lease. I don't think it's right. Bloomberg has to stop this mess."
Constitutional experts saw plenty wrong with Bloomberg's proposal. One of them is Darius Charney, of the Center for Constitutional Rights. He says the idea is an excessive over-response to a simpler problem - trespassing.
"I would submit that a very easy way to fix, that would be to actually make sure that NYCHA housing actually have functioning door locks and security systems. My understanding, having talked to a lot of tenants, is that's a very big problem. You have broken doors, which anybody can open and close," Charney told CBS New York.
As bad as 'stop and frisk'
Chelsea Houses resident Karen Hodges was asked if she thinks she'd like to be stopped and fingerprinted before being allowed into her house.
"No way. As long as I pay the rent I should be able to get in if you're on the lease," she said.
"Even with the soda, he is ridiculous," fellow resident Stacey Quinones said, referring to Fuhrer Bloomberg's attempt to ban sodas in most restaurants that are over 16 ounces. "I [sic] glad that he's leaving. I'm very glad. Give the opportunity to somebody who thinks like us."
Mayoral opponents to Bloomberg were quick to pounce.
"Just like stop-and-frisk, this is another direct act of treating minorities like criminals," said mayoral hopeful Bill Thompson, a former city comptroller. "Mayor Bloomberg wants to make New Yorkers feel like prisoners in their own homes."
Sources:
http://newyork.cbslocal.com
http://www.nydailynews.com
http://www.foxnews.com
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