Tom Ridge's latest Orange Alert announcement has inspired the city of Los Angeles to beef up security locally. While Governor Davis put state cops on 12-hour shifts, L.A. Police chief Bratton reminded residents to call in any "suspicious" behavior to the LAPD's terrorism tip line. He cited "taking pictures of a reservoir or other facility" as an example of suspicious behavior that should be reported to the police.(1) Not such a good time to be a tourist in L.A.
Police Chief Bratton is telling ordinary Angelenos to take up a practice that the U.S. Congress shot down in the form of "Operation TIPS." The Justice Department originally proposed this as a "national system for reporting suspicious and potentially terrorist-related activity" by recruiting "millions of American workers who, in the daily course of their work, are in a unique position to see potentially unusual or suspicious activity in public places." When the ACLU and some Congress members protested, the Justice Department tried to save Operation TIPS by excluding mail carriers, utility workers and others with access to people's homes from participating. But Congress explicitly banned "any and all activities" to implement Operation TIPS in the Homeland Security law it passed in 2002.(2)
Now in a two-pronged attack, many Amerikan localities are instituting Operation TIPS on their own and under different names, while the Justice Department tries again with Patriot Act II. A citizen spy program called CAT Eyes is training regular people to spy on their neighbors and report activity to the Feds if it activates their "it-feels-wrong" button.(3) A Boston resident who went to one of that city's CAT Eyes trainings pointed out that Amerikans are too well schooled in chauvinism for their feelings to be trustworthy, asking: "what is likely to activate the it-feels-wrong button in a society that has been conditioned to regard Muslims and people of Middle Eastern appearance as potential terrorists?"(4) Amerikans have answered this question by reporting Arab- and Muslim-looking airplane passengers for suspicious activity like using the toilet too often during a flight.
In spite of the obvious threat of fanning anti-immigrant hysteria and the fact that the Congress has banned this sort of activity, Bedford County, VA and towns near Philadelphia are looking into or setting up CAT Eyes programs. Burlington County, NJ has implemented the program and Bordentown, NJ is investigating it. According to the CAT Eyes website "the NJ Regional Community Police Institute has set up training for over 30 NJ Police Departments and is having the Department of Justice Review the program."(5)
As if John Ashcroft hadn't already demonstrated his incapacity for being in charge of anyone's civil liberties, the Justice Department has its own proposal to make community spying a reality. The draft law is called the Domestic Security Enhancement Act or "Patriot Act II" and among other things it would grant legal immunity to businesses that give tips to the government in terrorism investigations. This means the government can enlist cable companies, internet service providers and banks to violate customers' privacy and even lie about customer activities, and cannot be taken to court for it. The ACLU points out that "false information can ruin a person's reputation, lead to erroneous arrest and even to violence" and the new law would "weaken the incentive for businesses to think twice before using a false tip to law enforcement to settle a private score or indulge in invidious discrimination."(6)
For these reasons and many more, MIM is organizing to stop Patriot Act II from becoming law. Check out the Civil Liberties page of our website,(7) get yourself some more information and help us shut down this column of the march toward fascism.
Notes:
1. KPCC 20 May, 2003.