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.
Dang, that's some strong medication you're on there pal.
I think about how much money was wasted on this crap.
Exactly....Bush is bad...Obammy is the way.
Yep...that’s what the Nazis thought in Hitler’s time, too. But then you probably don’t remember that. I do. Getting people to spy on each other is how it begins. In many respects, our similar time has already begun.
Pop! I just had a flash from an old movie (Fahrenheit 451)where a helicopter flies over and broadcasts that everyone is to be on the lookout for a certain “criminal”.
Ever door on the street opens and everyone inside files out and stands on the porch looking around for criminals.
I tried to watch my neighbor but they arrested me for stalking.
Big Brother will be pleased.
What's the difference between the police in the USA and the police in nazi germany? The dedication of the police to protect and serve the people, not the government.
Do you really think the police in the US are comparable to the geheimstatzpolizi?
Not where I live. We don’t tolerate it. Not in LA. The politicians hate the LAPD because they don’t do what the pols demand. Bratton, the soon to be former chief just unloaded on them for trying. He came in as a “reformer” believing what the media said and is leaving as a believer in the good work that organization does. If you don’t believe the political class why would you believe the news media that supports them? There’s a logical disconnect there.
Don’t you want it to be true? If you do, why don’t you try making it happen (assuming you can get out from behind the computer screeen) It’s easy to snipe at something good because you’re a cynic. It’s hard to actually get engaged. Where did you get your opinion that what I averred is not true? From the news media? Don’t believe them, they lie.
Anybody spot a hairy man with a strange looking cup holder and not a drop of cream in the house?
Either buy a cow or get rid of the hat...
Got both. Spent 35 years in the trenches...but I’ve never been a weatherman.
Absolutely not. The police don't dream up this crap...they are ordered to do it by the "big boys" who you never see. But if we let the government intrude too deeply into our personal lives, we soon erode our freedom. It doesn't happen in a blinding flash of light...it happens slowly...insidiously. The founders wrote the Constitution to protect us from the government, but if we don't us it as such, we will all eventually be enslaved. History teaches us it has happened before.
In Florida we have “right-to-carry concealed” permits issued by the State.
Even so, several years ago, a Miami policeman told me that he would confiscate any pistol
not registered in the City of Miami, even if the person carrying it didn’t live in the city
because that was what he had been told to do. Who gave the order? The people?
He had no Second or Fifth Amendment problem with this order.
(Since then, I understand that the city did away with registration of firearms.)
What I said about the police doing whatever the politicians said was agreed to by
a retired NYPD policeman with over twenty years in uniform who was sitting at the table.
Isn’t that what the “Oath Keepers/Takers” all about. How is this movement being
received by the average LA policeman or the LA Police Department.
Apparently neither do you.........
No, but I did stay in a Holiday Inn there once. Well, actually I spent 21 years on the LAPD too. I still have many contacts there as well.
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