Video Clicky Here
Posted on 10/24/2009 1:07:59 PM PDT by Dallas59
After the 9/11 attacks, we were told the solution to terrorism was to have citizens spy on each other, and not to, say, elect a competent government. That’s when TIPS (Terrorist Information and Prevention System) was born, an initiative to recruit one million volunteers in 10 cities across the country that encouraged them to report suspicious activity that might be terrorism-related. An investigative political journalist, Ritt Goldstein, observed in Australia’s Sydney Morning Herald that TIPS would provide America with a higher percentage of “citizen spies” than the former East Germany had under the notorious Stasi secret police.
An editorial in the Washington Post decried the program:
“Americans should not be subjecting themselves to law enforcement scrutiny merely by having cable lines installed, mail delivered or meters read. Police cannot routinely enter people’s houses without either permission or a warrant. They should not be using utility workers to conduct surveillance they could not lawfully conduct themselves.”
The United States Postal Service stated categorically it would refuse to allow its mailpersons to participate, and the ACLU wasted no time in calling the TIPS program exactly what it was, “a contingent of organized government informants” and “government-sanctioned peeping toms,” and an “end run around the Constitution.”
The Constitution. Remember that thing? The Fourth Amendment guards against unreasonable searches and seizures, and includes the right to a reasonable expectation of privacy. Maybe Americans have gotten so accustomed to the government spying on their phone calls, and indefinitely detaining detainees without trial or presented evidence, that the occasional citizen spying program doesn’t seem unusual to them anymore.
Operation TIPS was officially cancelled in 2002 when the Homeland Security Act was passed by Congress. However, in 2008, the Denver Post reported that 181 individuals, including police officers, paramedics, firefighters, utility workers, and railroad employees had been trained as “Terrorism Liaison Officers” to report suspicious information which could be signs of terrorist activity, a virtually identical TIPS program, and a classic example of “same shit, different toilet.”
Now, the LAPD appears to be implementing a mini-TIPS program. Hopefully, similar outrage from L.A. citizens will lead to the cancellation of iWatch. It’s the job of law enforcement and the government, and not citizens, to police the streets. Citizens are not trained in information-gathering techniques, and there’s a reason law enforcement must obtain warrants before violating an individual’s privacy. Programs like TIPS, or “Terrorism Liaison Officers,” or iWatch are all different names for the same thing: unconstitutional spying.
In an article opposing the TIPS program, Marjorie Cohn, an associate professor at Thomas Jefferson School of Law in San Diego, quotes, “Watch out for well-meaning men of zeal,” words penned 74 years ago by U.S. Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis. Indeed. Watch out for well-meaning persons of zeal, whether they sit in the Oval Office or in the LAPD headquarters.
ping
I saw a similar commercial recently. I can’t remember it too clearly, but it promoted people watching for and reporting suspicious activity. My first thought was what if this had been put out by the Bush asministration. Racial Profiling for sure. Big Brother for sure.
How wrong is this statement! The police absolutely rely on the public to tell them what's happening. Yes, of course the police are "on the lookout" for criminal activity. But they don't see what is going on behind their backs and around the block from where they happen to be at any given time.
During 2008, just the LAPD handled 2,175,009 911 calls. They responded to 729,971 calls. I wonder who the author of this stupidity thinks made the 911 calls and who summoned the police all those times...could it be citizens? Hmmm.
So-o-o-o, business is so slow at LAPD that they have to advertise for work? Sounds like a good place to start with budget cuts.....
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What people in LA should do ...is report everything. Somebody spits on the sidewalk...call. Somebody sneezes...call. Somebody farts...call. Doggie poops on the grass...call. Somebody litters...call. That kind of $hit would get old really fast and the authorities would be flooded with BS calls...all day...all night...24/7. “Big Brother” would be damn sorry he started this kind of crap. You want calls??? We’ll give you calls. Morons.
LOL!
You’re the moron here. The’re not trying to get more calls, they’re trying to get better information. As soon as the 911 system was put into place the call volume quadrupled. People call about all the things you put in your post. The police need people to do their job. See the morons are those people who don’t understand that the police are the people and the people are the police. You probably don’t live in LA.
I VATCH MEIN NEIGHBORS MEIN FUHRER.
Too bad the LAPD is run by two liberals - hard-ass liberal Bratton and La Raza booster Villaraigosa.
I’m trying to read the article, but all I hear is the sound of whirling chopper blades from the black helicopters landing in the background.
Dig those dildo-missile towers on the Mohammadan compounds. I guess they’re just trying to compensate for the smallness of their members.
I’m very suspicious of my neighbor. He wears black dress socks with his bermuda shorts.
Very suspicious.
Next they will have web cameras on every streetlight, online, with monetary rewards, and it will be a return to East German ways in LA. The East Germans before the wall came down were notorious for having almost half the population spying or informing on the other half. Just think how much easier that will be in the digital age. Here’s an idea in that vein - Let’s have mandatory web cams in every residence to help reduce domestic violence...you know, for the kids. (sarcasm, for those of us who have had a few)
I think it is HARMLESS, as long as people use good judgement, and report only TRULY suspicious, generally also illegal, and not merely unusual behavior. But, it COULD be shades of 1984, if abused.
Every time my roommate takes a dump, I “smell something suspicious.”
Didn't think so.
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