lurch234 Posted February 23, 2018 Share Posted February 23, 2018 Man removes feds’ spy cam, they demand it back, he refuses and sues Camera believed to be part of “Operation Drawbridge” effort to monitor the border. Cyrus Farivar - 2/22/2018, 4:00 AM Last November, a 74-year-old rancher and attorney was walking around his ranch just south of Encinal, Texas, when he happened upon a small portable camera strapped approximately eight feet high onto a mesquite tree near his son's home. The camera was encased in green plastic and had a transmitting antenna. Not knowing what it was or how it got there, Ricardo Palacios removed it. Soon after, Palacios received phone calls from Customs and Border Protection officials and the Texas Rangers. Each agency claimed the camera as its own and demanded that it be returned. Palacios refused, and they threatened him with arrest. Palacios, who had run-ins with local CBP agents going back several years, took the camera as the last straw. He was tired of agents routinely trespassing on his land, and, even after complaining several times, he was frustrated that his grievances were not being heard. As a possible way to ward off the threat of arrest, he sued the two agencies, along with a named CPB agent, Mario Martinez. Palacios accused them of trespass and of violating his constitutional rights. "My client is 74 years old, he's a lawyer, been practicing for almost 50 years, he has no criminal history whatsoever, law-abiding citizen, respected lawyer and senior citizen," Raul Casso, one of the attorneys representing Palacios, told Ars. "To have put him in jail would have been—forget the indecency of it—what a way to end a career." The camera now remains in Palacios' attorneys' possession while they are attempting to ask the case's judge to allow them to formally introduce it as evidence. This federal lawsuit has raised thorny questions about the limits of the government's power to conduct surveillance—in the name of border security—on private property, without the landowner's permission. "As a matter of policy, CBP does not comment on pending litigation," Jennifer Gabris, a CBP spokeswoman, emailed Ars. The Texas Department of Public Safety similarly declined comment. In court filings, Texas officials have claimed qualified immunity, a legal doctrine that protects law enforcement officials. More at Source Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dcs18 Posted February 23, 2018 Share Posted February 23, 2018 Way to go! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
badwolf Posted February 24, 2018 Share Posted February 24, 2018 Government putting cameras on private citizens properties? Are we seeing the Orwellian future now? I know in some respects we are and have been for a while, but this takes things to a whole new level. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OrbingStorm Posted February 24, 2018 Share Posted February 24, 2018 we are at least 10 years behind surveillance times. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LeetPirate Posted February 25, 2018 Share Posted February 25, 2018 O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave and what not. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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