DOJ rulemaking - police state? Last day for public comments

[Boondog]

http://www.regulations.gov/fdmspublic/component/main?main=DocumentDetail&o=09000064806a3765

The comment period on this rulemaking, an amendment to rules implementing federal-local coordination under the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968, closes tonight at midnight. The above link provides full text of the proposed rule changes and a link for filing comments.

Glenn Greenwald discussed the latest events in MSP.
http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2008/09/01/protests/index.html
The examples of abuse are piling up and these rule changes, in my opinion, encourage more of the same without adding meaningful ENFORCEABLE oversight or sanctions for abuse, or even any additional funding for training for local law enforcement to minimize abuse and pay for the 10 year period of records retention.

My first post on this: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x3824546

I submitted the following comments today:

I oppose the rule change adding "organization"; I oppose the removal of the word "imminent" from the "danger to life or property" in the existing exception by which a local law enforcement agency may give information to a federal government official; I oppose removal of certification requirements that the "system has adequate policies and procedures in place to insure that access is available only to authorized users; and I oppose removal of a requirement of written authorization to access information. These proposed rule changes impose substantial additional record-keeping requirements on local law enforcement agencies and vague guidance about the expansion of their law enforcement duties implied by the addition of "organizations" without providing financial support, training, or meaningful additional oversight provisions to minimize abuse of these provisions for person, religious or political purposes, to the detriment of constitutional civil rights guaranteed to all Americans. While the utility of these rule changes in preventing future terrorist attacks remains largely a theoretical possibility, abuses of civil liberties for religious and political purposes have received substantial media attention and documentation recently. If these rule changes are to be implemented, it is my opinion that meaningful oversight and enforceable sanctions for abuse are necessary to protect constitutionally guaranteed civil liberties.