If I had an x-ray emitter gun of some sort, and I walked around blasting people with unhealthy doses of ionizing radiation without their knowledge (it would be silent and unnoticeable), how would I get caught and what would I be prosecuted with?
I feel like it's not too difficult for someone today to build something like that and walk around terrorizing people...
Of course, it has never been difficult to terrorize people like this, and what you're imagining is small potatoes. Just build a big building which does this on a daily basis for decades. We call it "pollution", and mostly shrug it off as the cost of progress.
http://www.uscg.mil/legal/cca/court_of_criminal_appeals_opin...
Never mind that it was a court-martial, and that he was convicted of multiple counts of drug use and dereliction of duty at the same time.
All in all, it has very little in common with our hypothetical, in which one invisibly, untraceably exposes members of the public at large to some unknown dose of ionizing radiation over a period of time. And you've really done nothing to address my observation that, in reality, people get away with that all the time in the form of environmental contamination. We can prove he ate the fish, we can prove he died of cancer, we can prove you're putting cancer in the water. That's just not enough to convict you for his death-- the worst you'll face is a stiff fine under a law that exists only to impose a stiff fine if you put cancer in the water and somebody dies.
USA used to be the place where everyone wanted to come. I think more and more people will try to stay out of USA when they see measures like these implemented to mass-control their own population.
http://www.veteranstoday.com/2011/12/01/the-truth-about-the-...
So discouraging.
Street X-raying may not be as prolonged, but for it to be effective in a drive-by, I imagine they may have to crank up the intensity.
lets hope that in post 9/11 world dosimeters are deployed at various important (i hope it includes "crowded with normal people") places.
>what would I be prosecuted with?
>walk around terrorizing people...
seems like you answered your own question.
>feel like it's not too difficult for someone today to build something like that
your old CRT ("cathode ray tube") TV/monitor :)
Law enforcement, DOD and other similar agencies are always going to have rights that normal citizens don't have.
Whether they should have the right to bombard you with ionizing radiation with your knowledge or permission is a good question, but you can't argue that it is wrong because ordinary citizens can't do this legally.
I'd nitpick here and say that there's a world of difference between rights and powers, whether those powers are legitimate or otherwise.
They don't have the right to bombard us. They do have the power.
I'm a non-citizen so the distinction between a right and a power is of little difference to me. A power can only be revoked by a citizen, and I'm not one.