Wonderful news for the forces of tyranny! In order to protect us from the terrorists, the federal government has instituted a nifty new program where police, firefighters, and even private citizens spy on us, documenting not only illegal but legal activity, such as buying disposable cell phones in bulk.
Colorado is one among of handful of states where hundreds of firefighters, paramedics, police, and even corporate employees are being trained to hunt down and report a broadly defined range of “suspicious activities.” They are called Terrorism Liaison Officers. The federally supported initiative trains them to look out for “observed behavior that may be indicative of intelligence-gathering or pre-operational planning related to terrorism.” The list of suspicious behaviors includes taking photographs or videos of no apparent aesthetic value, making measurements, drawings, or taking notes, and conversing in code.
The program is gaining traction and Terrorism Liaison Officers, or TLO’s, have been deployed in at least 8 states including Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Tennessee, Washington, DC., and Wisconsin. According to the Denver Post, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence is advocating for a nation-wide implementation of the program.
But only evildoers must fear, right?
The idea is to gather as much information as possible about as many people as possible and put this all together, allow it to be accessible to government officials who supposedly can analyze the patterns and determine which of those patterns are indicative of possible terrorist activity. The trouble with that, besides sacrificing so much of our privacy for dubious results, is that there will be thousands and thousands and thousands and thousands of false positives, completely innocent people going about completely innocent and legal activities who are going to be kicked up by whatever computer logarithm they use. And what is going to happen with the people who are somewhat suspicious or very suspicious in these government programs and government databases? We have already seen the Terrorist Watch List and all of the false positives and all of the innocent people who are detained or singled out for extra scrutiny simply because their names are spelled somewhat similar to the name of somebody who might be a terrorist.
Maybe not...I truly fear for our comrades in Denver. Given the historic repression of anarchists in the United States and widespread association of anarchism with terrorism, I wouldn't be surprised if anarchists, along with other radicals and people named Muhammad, are among those given "special treatment". However, I doubt the federal government is very worried about anarchism, so don't be too paranoid. (I remember some mainstream media anchorman remarking to his co-anchor the other day something like, "This isn't the 19th century anymore; we don't have to worry about anarchists!" Actually, anarchism was at its strongest in the early 20th century, buddy, but don't count us out just yet anyway!)
At any rate, it's definitely something to be aware of. Soon coming to a state near you, if you don't reside in one of the eight states or one district which are already known to have programs (Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Tennessee, Washington, D.C., and Wisconsin).
4 comments:
That's not all - Arapahoe County has outlawed poles or sticks of more than 2 feet, the kind a person might use for a protest sign, and the use of gas masks. In other words: don't you dare protest, and if you do, don't you dare take even purely defensive measures to protect yourself. SUBMIT! You little assholes are our property!
This country is somehow becoming even more of a joke than it seemed to me when I was four years old and understood that virtually everyone knew that the president was a criminal.
I really can't see any outcome of the DNC or RNC protests but news footage of "anarchists" destroying property (most likely instigated by cops or collaborators), a bunch of protesters getting the living shit beaten out of them and arrested, and two groups of criminal assholes having their conventions exactly as planned.
http://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/16702464/detail.html
That is absolutely sickening. I hope protesters break the ordinance in spite of the cops and expose them for the control freaks they are. Civil disobedience, it works.
Sadly, I think you're right that we won't see a positive outcome from the DNC/RNC protests. Hopefully there won't be direct sabotage like that, but I wouldn't put it past the police: http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2007/08/23/police-montebello.html
I also really hope that people don't pull the black bloc bullshit. Here's news, folks: black blocs don't work! They make you look like privileged white kids who want to look cool, or terrorists. Both outcomes suck. I feel like many anarchists are really out of touch with the working class...if we want to give our movement mass appeal, we need to look like we're struggling right along with everyone else, and the way to do that is not to dress in all black, wear face masks (now you really look like terrorists), and destroy property.
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http://tinyurl.com/2prexz
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