Geofence Surveillance: First, They Spied on Protesters. Then Churches. You’re Next.

By John Whitehead And Nisha whitehead
March 15, 2023

(Views expressed in guest comments may not reflect those of OAN and its affiliates.

“I know the capability that is there to make tyranny total in America, and we must see to it that this agency and all agencies that possess this technology operate within the law and under proper supervision, so that we never cross over that abyss. That is the abyss from which there is no return.”—Senator Frank Church on Meet The Press, 1975

You can give the government an inch but it will always take a whole mile.

This is how you get on the slippery slope towards total persecution.

Martin Niemöller’s warning about the widening net that ensnares us all, a warning issued in response to the threat posed by Nazi Germany’s fascist regime, still applies.

“First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a socialist. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out— because I was not a trade unionist. Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—because I was not a Jew. Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.“

This slippery slope is caused by the government’s use Geofence technology. This technology uses cell phone data to identify people in particular areas at any given moment.

Police began to use geofence warrants for dragnet sweeps of people near crime scenes.

The FBI then used geofence orders to Recognize individuals who were near the Capitol On January 6, 2021

It was not long before California’s government officials used the technique. Geofence and cell phone data used to track movements and numbers of churchgoers in church grounds During COVID-19 lockdowns.

We are not far from falling into total surveillance if we have already reached the point that people gathering or praying on church grounds is worthy of this level government scrutiny and sanction.

Dragnet geofence surveillance sweeps may be used to identify suspects in any place at any time. They can sweep them up into a virtual line-up to match a criminal for every crime.

It is impossible to overstate the danger.

The government’s efforts in capturing those who took part at the Jan. 6, Capitol protests offered a glimpse of how vulnerable we are All They are to the danger of a surveillance society that aspires for a God-like awareness in our lives.

Relying on selfies, social media posts, location dataGovernment agents assembled a huge data trove by combining geotagged photos with facial recognition, surveillance cameras, crowdsourcing and surveillance cameras. Anyone and everyone Who was in the vicinity the Capitol on January 6, 2021.

The data roundup also included people who were not directly involved with protests but whose location data indicated that they were in the area. Wrong place at the wrong moment.

You didn’t even have to be involved in the Capitol protests to qualify for a visit from the FBI: investigators reportedly tracked—and questioned—anyone whose cell phones Connected to wi-fi and pinged cell towers Near the Capitol

A man who went for a walk with his children but ended up getting stranded close to the Capitol crowds was actually met by FBI agents days later. With the help of Google Maps, agents were capable to locate their location. Target They were exactly where they were standing, and how long they were there.

It is amazing how much surveillance data the government has access to.

Charlie Warzel (investigative journalist) and Stuart A. Thompson (investigative journalist). Explain, “This [surveillance] data…provide[s] an intimate record of people whether they were visiting drug treatment centers, strip clubs, casinos, abortion clinics or places of worship.“

This is a surveillance ecosystemAll of us are suspects, databits, and will be tracked, catalogued, and targeted.

Forget about being innocent until proven guilty.

While the Constitution requires that the government provide proof of criminal activity before it can take a citizen’s life or liberty, this is not the case. The government has turned that guarantee of due procedure on its head.

You can now prove your innocence by using the digital footprints and digital trails you have left behind.

There is no one left behind in an age of criminalization where the average American commits at most three crimes per day.

The consequences of allowing the government to bypass fundamental due process safeguards can be so chilling that it could put a target on anyone who happens to be there where a crime is committed.

As Warzel and Thompson Warning:

“To think that the information will be used against individuals only if they’ve broken the law is naïve; such data is collected and remains vulnerable to use and abuse whether people gather in support of an insurrection or they justly protest police violence… This collection will only grow more sophisticated… It gets easier by the day… it does not discriminate. It harvests from the phones of MAGA rioters, police officers, lawmakers and passers-by. There is no evidence, from the past or current day, that the power this data collection offers will be used only to good ends. There is no evidence that if we allow it to continue to happen, the country will be safer or fairer.”

It doesn’t matter if you’re a saint or a sinner. We’re all being pulled into a huge digital data net that doesn’t distinguish between innocents of wrongdoing, suspects or criminals.

Consider this: What happened to Calvary Chapel during COVID-19.

Santa Clara County officials issued a shelter in place order in March 2020. It outlined who residents could see, go to, what they could do and how they should be treated.

The county officials put even stricter restrictions on churches. They also threatened to impose crippling penalties for anyone who did not follow the lockdown orders.

Santa Clara officials Geofence surveillance technology was used to monitor Calvary Chapel’s concentrations during COVID-19 lockdowns. In 2020 and 2021, they used their findings to justify imposing nearly $3 million in public-health fines on the church for violating strict pandemic restrictions.

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that similar restrictions are unconstitutionally solitary houses of worship for harsh treatment. “struck “This is the heart of the First Amendment’s guarantee for religious liberty.” county officials have sought to collect millions of dollars in fines levied against churches, including Calvary Chapel, for violating the county’s mandates.

At a minimum, the use of geofence surveillance to monitor church attendees constitutes an egregious violation of the churchgoers’ Fourth Amendment rights and an attempt to undermine protected First Amendment activities relating to the freedom of speech, the free exercise of religion, and the right of the people peaceably to assemble.

Still, the government’s use of geofence surveillance goes way beyond its impact on church members and anyone in the vicinity of the Jan. 6 protests.

The ramifications for all of us are far-reaching.

Mass surveillance has been shown to chill lawful First Amendment activities, and historically has been used to stifle dissent, persecute activists, and harass marginalized communities.

A study conducted by Roger Clarke, the famed Australian specialist in data surveillance and privacy, indicates that the costs resulting from the erosion of personal privacy are so significant that they essentially threaten the very foundation of a democratic society.

Some of the most serious harms include:

• A prevailing climate of suspicion and adversarial relationships
• Inequitable application of the law
• Stultification of originality
• Weakening of society’s moral fiber and cohesion
• Repressive potential for a totalitarian government
• Blacklisting
• Ex-ante discrimination and guilt prediction
• Inversion of the onus of proof.

In other words, the chilling effects of pervasive surveillance give rise to a constant, justifiable fear in even the most compliant, law-abiding citizen.

Of course, that’s the point.

The government wants us muzzled, complacent and compliant.

So far, it’s working.

Americans are increasingly self-censoring and marching in lockstep with the government’s (and corporate America’s) dictates, whether out of fear or indoctrination, or a combination.

In the meantime, the use of geofence warrants continues to be debated in the legislatures and challenged in the courts. For instance, while a California court found that a broad geofence search warrant violated the Fourth Amendment, a federal district judge for the District of Columbia upheld the use of geofence warrants by police in connection with the events of Jan. 6.

No matter how the courts rule, however, one thing is clear: these dragnet geofence searches are well on their way to becoming the eyes and ears of a police state that views each and every one of us as a potential suspect, terrorist and lawbreaker.

As I make clear in my book Battlefield America: The War on the American People and in its fictional counterpart The Erik Blair Diaries, this is how technologies purportedly adopted to rout out dangerous criminals in our midst are used to conquer a free people.

WC: 1508

Constitutional attorney and author John W. Whitehead is founder and president of The Rutherford Institute. His latest books The Erik Blair Diaries and Battlefield America: The War on the American People are available at www.amazon.com. Whitehead can be contacted at [email protected]. Nisha Whitehead is the Executive Director of The Rutherford Institute. Information about The Rutherford Institute is available at www.rutherford.org.

Publication Guidelines / Reprint Permission: John W. Whitehead’s weekly commentaries are available for publication to newspapers and web publications at no charge. Please contact [email protected] to obtain reprint permission.

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