Bergen online scanner shutdown by "Homeland Security"

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NESN

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Found this in an unrelated discussion on the Asbury Park Press Forums site. Go to http://app.com click on Forums on the left , click on the Monmouth section then look for "Web blogger sought for questioning anonymous critic" for the full text.

Obviously there are political overtones here, but this once again proves my point that everything we do after 9/11 will regulated under the guise of "Enviromental Protection or Homeland Security".


Tom Rowan, webmaster of NorthBergenPD.com, is a patriotic guy. North Bergen the town where he lives and where he once served as a cop is part of Hudson County, New Jersey. .............NorthBergenPD.com has been online for 7 years. Before launching the site Tom researched the domain name. ......In early january of this year, NorthBergenPD.com started webcasting police scanner broadcasts. In New Jersey, any private citizen can legally own a police scanner. The only stricture is that it not be used in the commision of a crime. Other sites in Hudson County are also webcasting police scanner broadcasts.
On the evening of may 6th, Tom Rowan came home to find he'd been served legal papers by the Township of North Bergen. Since he'd been out the papers were dropped off with his neighbor, who gave them to Tom in a grocery bag. Tom was ordered to appear before Superior Court Judge Maurice G.Gallipoli of Hudson County on May 10th, at an "Order to Show Cause" hearing. His police scanner webcasts were a "threat to homeland security". And his website's domain name should be the sole property of the North Bergen New Jersey Police Department. ...............

Go to the forum for the rest...........
 
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kenisned

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Not to worry...judge asked the right questions.

"Can anyone go to radio shack, buy a scanner and listen to what is being broadcast online?"..

Of course the answer is yes.
 

GeekNJ

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Here's a link to the forum thread where Tom posts:
http://forums.app.com/viewtopic.php?p=52521#52521

All the other posts in the thread are unrelated to northbergenpd.com

Too bad no one stepped up to help Tom. I imagine, as the article has the judge stating, there was no real issue with what Tom was doing. The judge seemed to be intelligent.
 

NESN

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ke5fgc said:
I can't believe he let them have the domain name.


It's David vs.Goliath, you have to decide if you have enough money to fight your county, state or federal lawyers, and they know that. They'll prosecute you backwards into dust using your tax dollars to accomplish it. He acknowledges he shutdown everything in surrender rather than go broke.

Get used to it, any meaningful rights are gutted or gone nowadays.....the "Nanny State" of New Jersey is just more aggresive than others towards their goal. Look at the proliferation in the number of routine police communications gone encrypted.

The bottom line is this man's life and his bank account are alot different now.........Who's next?

But don't worry "it's all for your own safety".
 
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