NH says no to Big Brother spying again, still the only state opposed to ALPRs

[Keith and stuff]

New Hampshire shows once again why it is called the Live Free or Die State. Today the New Hampshire House voted 250 to 97 against a bill designed to overturn the 2007 state ban on automatic license plate readers, a spying technology this is in widespread use in all 49 other states. The bill was proposed because a member of the NH House (also a former federal marshal) was asked to do it by police chiefs because widespread use of ALPRs have been shown to help fund police departments in other states.

In all fairness, Maine is less bad when it comes to the use of ALPRs than the vast majority of states and Boston did just ban the use of ALPRs within the city, so there is some opposition to the use of this tech in areas near NH also.

Here is the Free Keene post about it. I'll add other articles on this to this thread once I find them ;)

http://freekeene.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/platescanners-300x199.png

BREAKING: NH House Votes 250-97 to Kill License Plate Scanners Bill!
January 15, 2014 by Ian
http://freekeene.com/2014/01/15/breaking-nh-house-votes-250-97-to-kill-license-plate-scanners-bill/


With an overwhelming 250-97 vote today the NH house of representatives voted down a piece of legislation that would have brought even more of the police state to New Hampshire – the license plate scanners bill (HB 675). All 49 other states have these invasive, privacy-destroying devices and with today’s vote, New Hampshire’s state reps have refused this attempted advance of the police state. Yep that’s right, NH has no red light cameras AND no license plate scanners. We’re not totally free, but we’re free-er!

Additionally, the reps then voted to “indefinitely postpone” the bill rather than mark it as “inexpedient to legislate” – that means that it can’t be attached to another bill. It’s dead.

Thanks to all the NH native liberty-lovers and Free State Project participants who called their state reps about this issue. Things are only going to get better here as more libertarians make the move as part of the Free State Project! If you care about freedom and actually want to make a difference, there is nowhere better than the Shire!

[Keith and stuff]

Out of the 185 or whatever Republicans in the NH House, only 9 voted to allow ALPRs in NH. In pretty much every other state, the majority of the Republicans in the legislature support the widespread use of ALPRs.


Copeland,Timothy Republican Rockingham 19
Crawford, Karel Republican Carroll 4
Fields, Dennis Republican Belknap 4
Flanders, Donald Republican Belknap 3
Haefner,Robert Republican Hillsborough 37
Jasper,Shawn Republican Hillsborough 37
Rice,Frederick Republican Rockingham 21
St.James,Kevin Republican Rockingham 13
Sytek, John Republican Rockingham 8



Even the Keene Sentinel, a paper that hates free states, featured a free stater in an editorial in favor of legalization. Even a broken clock is right twice a day.

This is such a great victory! It's nice that even NH State Reps don't trust the government. I wonder if Ed Snowden should get some of the credit for this :)

Sentinel Editorial
Big Brother
Posted: Thursday, January 2, 2014 12:00 pm | Updated: 12:29 pm, Thu Jan 2, 2014.





Supporters of HB 675 say it would help find missing persons and catch dangerous criminals. It might indeed, but at a price.

As noted above, in some states, the information collected is being stored, which could allow those permitted to view the records access to who was driving where, and when. And who needs to know that about the majority of law-abiding citizens?

Then there’s the technology itself, which is amazing, but not infallible. There have been reported cases of incorrect readings, noted New Hampshire state Rep. Mark Warden, who opposed the bill in the House Criminal Justice Committee. It was also argued the main benefit to law enforcement of such devices would be revenue enhancement, as they can lead to more traffic stops and therefore more opportunities to find offenses.

Some of those concerns have been addressed in the latest iteration of the bill. It calls for the records created by the machines to be deleted after three minutes — arguably enough time to run a check for missing vehicles and Amber Alerts but not long enough to keep track of everyday drivers and their habits. It also mandates the information not be used to find those with outstanding parking tickets.

These changes are a start. They would certainly make New Hampshire’s use of such scanners more palatable than in some other states. And the proffered law enforcement uses are indeed legitimate.

But “because we can” isn’t a valid reason to invade the privacy of everyone on the road. Effectively targeting all drivers to catch a few, even if the data aren’t kept for long, strikes us as a bit too close to the NSA’s data mining efforts. It’s overbroad and, in our opinion, a little bit too close to “1984” for 2014.

[Keith and stuff]

The libertarian Republican Rep. that endorsed Ron Paul in 2008 and 2012 and sponsored the legalize marijuana bill wrote a blog post about today's events. Here you go.

House Kills Scanners, Passes Marijuana Bill (At Least For Now)
Wednesday, January 15, 2014 at 06:33PM
http://www.nhinsider.com/rep-steve-vaillancourt/2014/1/15/house-kills-scanners-passes-marijuana-bill-at-least-for-now.html


Warning! Warning! Danger! Danger, Will Robinson, Danger! This blunt report might offend overly sensitive nanny staters and advocates of Big Brother government and their fellow travelers from both parties! You are forewarned! Nobody is forcing you to read this With my blood pressure going off the chart (refer to my marijuana speech for the explanation), I pull no punches here.

What a great day for liberty lovers in the New Hampshire House! What a terrible day for House committee majorities (espcially the Nanny Staters on Criminal Justice).

After overturning a 10-7 Criminal Justice Committee vote to legalize scanning devise for our automobiles, a Big Brother intrusion if ever there was one, the House passed House Bill 492 by an eight vote margin 170-162 to send it along to the Ways and Means Committee, which by House rules, may only look at revenue implications.

The vote against scanning devises (HB675) was overwhelming, 250-97 with Republicans lined up against the bill 9-145 and Democrats also against it but by a much smaller margin, 88-105.

Interestingly, most Democrats in favor of the bill were leadership types (committee chairs and such) undoubtedly voting for the bill because the party has a sort of unwritten rule to support committee chairs.

My quick look (and it’s just a quick glance) is that only Ways and Means chair Susan Almy voted against the bill and thus against Criminal Justice Chair Laura Pantelakos. If you find any others, feel free to chime in.

Disgustingly (but totally in character), Sean Jasper, of Hudson, was one of the nine Republicans to side with the Nanny Staters in the severe minority.. Gene Chandler and David Hess voted against the bill. Hey Gene, isn’t it time to honor the wishes of your caucus and dump Jasper unless he can get onboard?

Probably not, but that would be a good thing.

The other eight Republicans were Dennis Fields (who argued passionately for this terrible bill back when it was before Criminal Justice), Crawford, Flanders, Haefner, Copeland, Rice, St. James, and Sytek (I still like him a lot)..

New Hampshire citizens owe a debt of gratitude to Neal Kurk, R-Weare, along with Joel Winters, D-Manchester, and Mark Warden, R-Goffstown, and James Webb, R-Derry for speaking out against the bill. (I also felt compelled to speak against it, quoting some lines from a recent Keene Sentinel article—shades of 1984, and my experience of visitning in the police state of East Germany with the secret police, the Stasi, had so much data they short-circuited their own spying circuits).

Want proof of how leadership type Dems were, for the most part, the only ones to vote for this piece of nonsense? I’ve circled them on the roll call (which is now posted on the House web site). How about? Theberge, Campbell (better hope those scanners can’t detect the number of drinks in your system as you plow into ducks! Ouch! Was that called for?), Cote, Cooney, Nordgren, Harding, Eaton, Leishman, Richardson, Shurtleff, Walz, Smith, and Deputy Speaker Kaen, good Democrats all (?) but willing to fall on the sword for Pantelakos—sad but true; you just can’t make this stuff up.

I have had a chance to analyze the marijuana votes—and there were many—but I’ve posted my lengthy (too lengthy some said) speech here.

Like the gay marriage vote four years ago, marijuana initially to pass only to come back on a reconsideration effort.

The vote in favor of killing the bill was—let’s see if I’ve got this right—170-168.

The motion to reconsider passed 173-165, then the next motion to kill the bill failed 168-170.

A silly (hey, it’s my blog—I’ll add any adjectives I so choose) Kappler tabling motion failed by an overwhelming margin, 113-221. The my amendment passed 210-127, then another tabling motion failed (I kid you not—House rules allow for another tabling motion as long as there was business in between) 153-185.

Then on the critical vote, the bill as amended past 170-162 with Jasper once again making a total fool of himself—he’s very good at that. Hey, my New Year’s resolution for 2013 was to avoid mentioning people I truly loathe, but we’re into 2014 now!

As the final bit of maneuvering, I moved reconsideration of the passed bill (had I not done so, opponents could have done so later after people had gone home—too risky to leave hanging out there). That motion failed, as I wanted by about a hundred votes (I’m having trouble reading my scribbling from all over the page here) meaning the bill has passed and will go to Was and Means.

I spoke with Ways and Means Chair Susan Almy earlier in the day. She seemed not to want the bill, noting that her committee would be busy with the governor’s gambling bill.

Oh really, Susan, isn’t that the same bill which was defeated last year and shouldn’t, if we’re following rules, even be back this year…certainly not to the point where a committee spends undue time on it. Nobody forced you to chair Ways and Means, and even though by only eight votes, the House decided to pass the bill, and it’s your job to hear it.

As a last ditch effort, opponents of the bill (Jasper and Friends) tried to say it doesn’t have enough regulation in it, an argument no one made when it was with the Criminal Justice Committee. Desperate people will make desperate pleas. In fact, we’ve left a 17 month time table for executive departments to draw up regulations necessary, and the Colorado model is right there to use as a starting point.

Prediction—Ways and Means and the Jaspers of the world will go out of their way to, even if they have to bend House rules, get an Inexpedient to Legislate resolution when it comes back to the floor.

Some Democrats might well have voted against the bill due the Governor’s veto threat, but House rules prohibit bringing that up and in fact, it never came up.

During my speech (lengthy, I admit) I tried to address Her Excellency’s question of what kind of message would this bill send.

You can read the entire speech.

I’ll check out the roll calls but Modern Family beckons then I’ve got to get some sleep before we move from marijuana to the death penalty repeal bill tomorrow afternoon.

Whew! My blood pressure must be off the charts!

[69360]

In all fairness, Maine is less bad when it comes to the use of ALPRs than the vast majority of states

They are illegal to use privately here in Maine and data legally must be deleted after 20 days if not part of criminal case.

Better than most, but still a ways to go.

[muzzled dogg]

Not in NH

[Keith and stuff]

They are illegal to use privately here in Maine and data legally must be deleted after 20 days if not part of criminal case.

Better than most, but still a ways to go.

Yep. Keep up the good work. +Rep

Boston banned ALPRs within city limits. Maybe Portland or something can do that too?

This bill as amended called for deleting the data after 3 minutes if not part of a criminal case.

[Anti Federalist]

Needed some good news.