Authorities are considering a shut-down of cell phone service in Chicago this weekend. The excuse: the NATO meeting.
The Daily Beast reports that the FBI and Secret Service have standing authority to jam signals and they can also push for the shutdown of cell towers, thanks to “Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) 303,” which lays out the nation’s official “Emergency Wireless Protocols.”
Without cell phones, people cannot access Facebook or Twitter unless they are at home or can get to a Starbucks, where there is free WiFi.
Without Facebook and Twitter, there won’t be a “Chicago spring” to match “Arab spring.”
According to the National Communications System, the protocol details a “shutdown and restoration process for use by commercial and private wireless networks during national crises.” It was created after the London bombings in 2005, when federal security services shut off cellular networks in New York’s tunnel, fearing a similar attack. Since then, cell phone jammers have been used in situations like President Obama’s inauguration, with the Secret Service claiming there was a bomb threat, as well as a number of other cases.
This was done in San Francisco recently. Police shut off cell phone service in the Bay Area Rapid Transit System.
What if locals had to call 911? They had better get to a land line. Or to a Starbucks.
President Obama recently signed an executive order to apply to Iran or Syria if either should block access to the Internet. But blocking cell phones is OK. That’s not authoritarian,. That is merely precautionary.
This potential development is just one of the drastic security measures Chicago law enforcement agencies are considering. They’ve also invested as much as $1 million on riot-control equipment, including at least one long-range acoustic device, or LRAD, and upgrades to shields to be worn by the police.
Be prepared. That’s the Boy Scouts’ marching song. Be prepared, as through life you march along.
Just like those sobs.
Big brother coming? No, big brother is already here. First they take just bits and pieces. Oh, they can always come up with good reasons that appear sound. But they don't give up the bits and pieces. They keep them and add to them. By the time you figure out what is really going on, it is to late. This how they brain wash the public. he voter. With government controls, because they know what is best for us and we don't. We are just the stupid middle class.
Here we come George Orwell. This governmet has turned into one of oppression.
They have no legal right in THIS country to do that. Everyone in Chicago should be in a uproar.
Obviously you did not read the statement. It is legal. I don't like it, but that is what it is.
Since when does a NATO meeting constitute a national crisis?
are we suppose to be back in the cold war or something they did that back in the cold war era when they thought
we were going to be nuked they would shut down everything have us go in drills. to be prepared for an attack.
@ MobileMarine : Before legislatures and/or congress passes ANY law, they need to ask, " Is It Right " ! Whether this was law or executive order, it is WRONG. Ha ! Right in the " Ineligible One's " adopted home town, too ! And M.M , this administration has not let legal or illegal stop them; just bypass the Constitution and do it. Anyone BUT Obama in November !
Didn't Homeland Security ask us to report suspicious activiey ? I am getting a mixed message here. If I see something wierd going on in Chicago and my cell phone is jammed, how in the Hell can I quickly call it in ? Our Government is full of Knuckleheads ! It is past time to fire " The Ineligible One " and his knuckleheads. Anyone BUT Obama in November !
This is all part of Obama's military takeover…..wake up
they have all this figured out….but can't balence a budget !!!!!
Practice, practice, practice makes perfect. These "emergency" drills would not have been considered necessary 25 years ago…the federal government has all the bases covered: civilian control of the heart of the urban infrastructure, and that Army Regiment training in Georgia to take control of our major cities, and, G.W. Bush in 2004 signed a treaty with the Canadians "allowing" them to use their armed forces on U.S. soil to "assist" U.S. law enforcement etc., in quelling certain kinds of domestic emergencies…this "Treaty" does have reciprocity…
I am led to wonder what kind of false, hysteric emergency Obama et.al., are going to use to ties all these ends together?
It may be "legal", but is it constitutional?
Barack Hussein Obama (aka Barry Soetoro) admits that he was not born in America. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MwhKuunp8D8&fe…
But,but,this is obummer's home turf.
This Chicago and how they control the useful idiots until they are useless to them. It an old story Karl Marx would be proud of.
the best thing to do is not show up. that is what they want. they want you to wreck stuff then they can put it on tv just like in Toronto. Talk about a well managed piece of theater to make the ends justify the means. STOP GIVING THEM TV FOOTAGE FOR THE NEWS. JUST STAY AWAY. BETTER YET EVERY CITIZEN OF CHICAGO SHOULD LEAVE THE CITY. DESERT CHICAGO. DON''T GIVE THEM THE FOOTAGE. MAKE THEM LOOK LIKE THE LYING CRIMINALS THAT THEY ARE!!!!!!
oh ya Send NOTO home and Oblomanation with them 🙂
hoe,hoe 🙂 did you not kbow that the Chi, people have Oblamation sitting on there face. There are do nothing people
Ha ha…Obama Land…
When Cell Phones are Out Lawed…only Out Laws will have Cell Phones 🙂