Privacy and the Witch Hunt

People need to start thinking about the cost of giving up our rights to privacy. This story of a modern day witch hunt is a bit creepy:

It all seemed darkly funny at first.

Eric Haskett was merely taking a nap in a car when he roused suspicion in a rural Frederick County neighborhood. A neighbor traced Haskett's license plate to an address once used by a registered sex offender.

Then his girlfriend's parents told him to scram; law enforcement officials, including three FBI agents, began investigating; and Haskett began fearing that the suspicions could cost him his job at a gag shop that sells such kid-friendly items as whoopie cushions.

"It blew me away that a federal agent was sticking a badge in my face. Three agents, dog -- like I'm the ringleader!" said Haskett, 28, of Mount Airy.

After allaying the concerns of several law enforcement officials over the past few weeks, Haskett also asked them what he could do to clear his name.

"They said the best bet is to leave the area," Haskett said.

Haskett has no criminal record and has not been accused of wrongdoing, according to public court records and law enforcement officials. The confusion arose after he rented a room in a house on Liberty Road where convicted sex offender Donald M. Sanders had also rented a room; the sex offender registry listed only the house address, not room numbers.

The problem these days is a) the government and the media have tried to make us all frightened by our own shadows and, b) technology, business, and the government have destroyed any semblance of a right to privacy. If the public couldn't look up this guy's address by having his license plate and then match that address with that of a sex-offender, none of this would have happened. If people weren't so frightened of their own shadows, they wouldn't get worried just because some guy sits in his car for a half hour in their neighborhood, and none of this would have happened.

Welcome to 17th. century Salem, Mass.

[A hat tip to Digby for catching this]