TIPS and the Secret Police
title="The The Sydney Morning Herald :: US planning to recruit one in 24 Americans as citizen spies">The The Sydney Morning Herald reports on Operation TIPS [Terrorism Information and Prevention System] which purports to sign up 1 million ordinary citizens to spy on their fellow citizens. Luckily for us the world media isn't as complacent and under the government heels as American media is, or we wouldn't have these quotes:
As with the Patriot Act, TIPS is being pursued as part of the so-called war against terrorism. It is a Department of Justice project.
Highlighting the scope of the surveillance network, TIPS volunteers are being recruited primarily from among those whose work provides access to homes, businesses or transport systems. Letter carriers, utility employees, truck drivers and train conductors are among those named as targeted recruits.
A pilot program, described on the government Web site www.citizencorps.gov, is scheduled to start next month in 10 cities, with 1 million informants participating in the first stage. Assuming the program is initiated in the 10 largest US cities, that will be 1 million informants for a total population of almost 24 million, or one in 24 people.
From the Washington Post story:
Operation TIPS will, in the pilot stage, involve a million workers, who, "in the daily course of their work, are in a unique position to serve as extra eyes and ears for law enforcement." It will offer them "training . . . in how to look out for suspicious and potentially terrorist-related activity." It will also provide "a formal way to report" that activity "through a single and coordinated toll-free number." This description, which is essentially all we know about the program, poses more questions than it answers.
But having the government recruit informants among letter carriers and utility workers -- people who enter the homes of Americans for reasons unrelated to law enforcement -- is an entirely different matter. 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.
Since when did we all end up in an Orwell novel? So I would have to register for this program, which is not like a neighborhood watch program, so that I can be investigated. Then, like an old lady on a porch, I go about my business and report anything "suspicious". Nice. Well, right now there is a guy who plays electric bass without his shirt on - everyday. That is pretty damn suspicious, maybe he is part of the militant wing of some sort of terrorist organization.
Think that is irrational? Right now anyone with any sort of head wrap is instantly under suspicion. What about in a few years, when our fears are turned on another group? Kids who play video games, kids who wear trench coats, hackers, outcasts, homosexuals. How much is this not analogous to pre World War II Germany? With this program, normal citizens will be able to collect information about citizens, especially in their own home, thus circumventing the Fourth Amendment to the US Constitution and extending the arm of law enforcement where the Constitution and the courts have limited them.
And just to make more analogies, read this from the The Sydney Morning Herald:
Historically, informant systems have been the tools of non-democratic states. According to a 1992 report by Harvard University's Project on Justice, the accuracy of informant reports is problematic, with some informants having embellished the truth, and others suspected of having fabricated their reports.
Present Justice Department procedures mean that informant reports will enter databases for future reference and/or action. The information will then be broadly available within the department, related agencies and local police forces. The targeted individual will remain unaware of the existence of the report and of its contents.
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This is the permanent home of TIPS and the Secret Police. I wrote this post at 21:16 on July 15, 2002. This post is part of grubbykid.com, a weblog. If you liked this entry, why don't you read some other posts such as Yahoo agrees to take money over human lives or Pleasantville? Or you could go to the site archives or return home. All are good choices.
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Some descriptive tags for this entry are: terrorism rights law politics BushCo war.
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Some descriptive tags for this entry are: BushCo, law, politics, rights, terrorism, war.
Mommy... what's a tag?
