This news item has me scared, in more ways than one. Here's the link. The guy is a total creep, or was, depending if you believe him when he says that he hasn't looked at the hidden camera video bits. Even so, putting a hidden camera in your own home for the purpose of spying on people in your bathroom is deplorable. I'm glad that he was caught, and that he won't be teaching anymore.
But if only things were ever that easy. The "evidence" in this case was found by a house sitter while the teacher was on vacation. The sitter did not have permission to use the computer, but she went online to determine if the power had been restored to her neighborhood. After that, she opened a folder and found a second-rate version of the Spice Channel. If this was a police investigation, that sort of evidence would be inadmissible, because it was obtained illegally. There are laws in place to protect the accused against this sort of trampling.
I want to be absolutely clear on this: I'm all for personal responsibility, and I think that criminals are by-and-large too lightly punished for the crimes they commit. But when we have people snooping on each other in the name of gathering evidence, we're about one teeny step away from becoming a police state.
There's no easy solution here. If the ends do justify the means, then that opens the door to all kinds of violations of personal space and privacy. If not, then a complete sleaze gets away because his rights were trounced. I don't have the answer. I'm not sure where my opinion is.
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The answer here is a counter suit by the teacher for invasion of privacy, which he'll probably win...from jail.
The Fourth Amendment does not protect someone from the acts of a private individual performing a search. Therefore, if she finds it completely on her own (no fair if the cops pull someone off the street and asks them to search something for them) and tells a police officer, they now have reasonable grounds to get a warrant and seize it. Of course, if the means you used were illegal, you'll probably be busted too.
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