In the early days of computing, everyone knew that computer errors were created through faulty human input.  It was known as the “garbage in/garbage out”(GIGO) rule.  Unfortunately, the government has always been of the opinion that computers are infallible, no matter how many times it is proven wrong.  Take the Homeland Security Administration for example.

According to criminal statutes in most states, after a certain period of time known as the statute of limitations, most criminal offenses will be deleted from a criminal record.  Of course truly serious crimes will continue to haunt people, but for the most part after ten years of keeping your nose clean, your record should be clean as well, especially if you were charged as a minor for a crime.

One gentleman that I shall call “Arthur”, got caught over 28 years ago with a small quantity of marijuana when he was 17.  At the time, he was charged with a felony (the crime is now a misdemeanor), and completed his drug counseling and community service for his crime and went on to college and a very good career in insurance.  He never did drugs again.  He had no further criminal history outside of a few speeding tickets.

He worked in a number of states as an insurance adjuster and had not had any problem obtaining licenses to do his job.  Then September 11, 2001 happened, everyone became paranoid, and the Patriot Act was passed.  A few years after this Katrina roared through the Gulf and Arthur attempted to get a license to perform his job as an insurance adjuster.

All of a sudden, he was a convicted felon, dangerous and possibly hiding latent terrorist tendencies, or at least the government seemed to think so, because his youthful drug charge suddenly became an issue.  The following facts that he had committed no further serious crimes, that the crime for which he was arrested was now a misdemeanor and that he had been gainfully and ethically employed as an insurance adjuster for over 20 years were totally ignored.

The charge and conviction had dropped off of his criminal record years ago, but Homeland Security had resurrected it.  You never know when a rehabilitated citizen might go rogue, seemed to be the HSA motto.

Just recently David Lindorff, a reporter for Smirking Chimp ran into a similar problem with the new National Drivers License Registry.  Pennsylvania sent him an ominous letter stating that he would be unable to renew his drivers license because New York had withdrawn his New York driver’s license some 10 years ago.

This made absolutely no sense to him since his New York drivers license had to be in good standing in order for him to get his first Pennsylvania license when he moved there in 1997.  Mr. Lindorff called Pennsylvania’s Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) to find out what was going on.  DMV was unable to tell him since the record it received supposedly didn’t say.

A call to New York’s DMV resulted in voice prompt hell leading no where.  Frustrated, Mr. Lindorff called Pennsylvania DMV’s media department using his reporter credentials.  A real human being answered the phone and was really to do a little research.  He was flabbergasted by what he discovered.

When Mr. Lindorff moved to Pennsylvania from New York, he had failed to turn in his New York license plate.  He had re-titled his car in Pennsylvania, had gotten proper insurance for the car in Pennsylvania, as well as, a Pennsylvania driver’s license.

Unfortunately, because he didn’t turn in his New York license plate, his insurance company reported to New York that he was not properly insured in New York.  Never mind that all records showed that he had moved to Pennsylvania, the car was in Pennsylvania and was properly insured and registered.  Again, we are talking 11 years of properly following all requirements for car and driver licensure, registration and insurance.  Records could easily be traced through the system to show the transfer of registration from NY to Pennsylvania, etc.

At this point Mr. Lindorff was about to face voice prompt hell again, where talking to an actual person was not an option.  Fortunately, the Pennsylvania DMV media office provided him with a phone number that would reach an live person.

After talking to someone in New York’s DMV, he was told that he had to return the plates, 11 years after the fact, or pay $30.  Since the car was long since sent to the junk pile, he opted for the $30 which he was allowed to pay by credit card over the phone.

Both of these cases are examples of GIGO.  Government entities have resurrected long forgotten and irrelevant crimes and issues that are creating unnecessary problems for  law abiding natural born citizens.  Most of those citizens don’t have press credentials that will allow them to access the secret numbers to an actual human being who can straighten out their problem whether it means paying a ridiculous fine or proving that long forgotten youthful discretions don’t make you a terrorist.

The passage of paranoid draconian laws after 9/11 have lead to countless problems for ordinary people simply going about their non-terrorist lives.  Families have been prevented from boarding planes because their baby’s name was on the “No Fly” list.  Fathers are unable to work and support their families because of long resolved youthful indiscretions and people can’t renew their licenses because of idiot issues that could have been straightened out by simply following existing records.

When will we return to sanity?  Will President Elect Obama be able to return us to a nation where citizens are safe from their own government?  Will he at least mandate that all government agencies, national and state, provide a number to callers that will actually reach a person who can straighten out the problems?

I hope so.

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Entry was posted on Saturday, November 29th, 2008 at 11:55 am under Opinion, Politics, Security, Technology.

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