You really can't trust anyone

Call me cynical, but if there is one thing I have learned about government is that they don't do anything without an underlying goal/purpose.

Take, for instance, Gov. Brown (California) who signed Senate Bill 962 that would allow persons who have a cell phone stolen to activate a "kill" switch turning off their phone so that the thief can't benefit from his/her prize. On the surface, that's a good thing, right?  Your phone is stolen and someone is making calls on your phone running up your bill.  You want to stop those calls post haste!  Now that I'm thinking about it, a phone bill isn't the only thing that is at stake; because many people tie their banking accounts to their phones, a thief could start buying stuff on your dime.  The nerve of some people!

Good points all - but what I (a student of law) see is government's new ability to quash civil unrest.  Picture, if you will, a police officer who is beating the living heck out of a person.  A group of people gather, whip out their smart phones and start to record the event via their video cameras.  Officer, stops mid-beatdown, sees the group of people videotaping his activities, calls dispatch and with a flip of a "switch" orders dispatch to kill all the smartphones in his area - effectively stopping people from recording his actions as he continues his "lawful" assault.

Think I'm a conspiracy theorist?  Don't think it couldn't happen?  How many times have you seen police in the news scream at people to stop recording them.  Now they can stop you without your "permission."  Who knows - maybe in a few months they'll have litigation on Brown's desk that authorizes the police to seize your phone if the police even think you took a picture.  You going to wait for that to happen?  Think your local "representative" hasn't thought of a way to curtail your freedoms?  Might I suggest you get smart on smartphone law and all other matters relating to the 1st Amendment by going to your local county law library and taking a look at

• Treatise on Constitutional Law: substance and procedure (West)
• Key Constitutional Concepts (the Annenberg Foundation Trust)
• Civil Rights Actions (Lexis)
• The Bill of Rights (Harvard Univ. Press)
• First Amendment in a Nutshell (West)
• Witkin's Summary of California Law: Constitutional Law (West)

Yep - there's a whole lot of stuff brewing on capital hill that most people don't realize.  Better to know what's in store than stick your head in the proverbial sand.  Better to know what's at stake than to hope that your local, state, Federal "representatives" have your best interests at heart.