20 Dire Civil Liberties Predictions for 2014

As we come to the end of a year that saw revelations about
massive government spying programs, horrifying stories of police
abuse, and brazen violations of the Fourth Amendment, I thought I
might offer my own grim predictions about where civil liberties are
headed in the coming year. Sure, some of these may seem outlandish.
But to borrow from H.L. Mencken, nobody ever went broke
underestimating the grade and lubriciousness of the slippery
slope.

So I predict the following for 2014:

1. Not content with their current powers to employ drug dogs and
dubious accusations to engage in asset forfeiture shakedowns of
motorists, some states will pass laws making it illegal to
have a space in your car where drugs could possibly
be hidden, regardless of whether or not you’ve actually hidden
any drugs in those spaces.

2. Also on the forfeiture front: Taking the private prison idea
one step further, prosecutors will begin hiring private
security firms to pull over motorists in order to seize
property for the local government. And they’ll get to keep a cut of
what they take.

3. Now that they’ve turned America’s cities into
surveillance societies, city officials will incredibly claim,
incredibly, that using similar cameras to prevent abuse by law
enforcement officers would be a violation of police
officers’ civil rights…

Read all
20 predictions at The Agitator.