Spy on your neighors with new Government Program!!

[Tars Tarkas]

Yes, Operation TIPS (http://www.citizencorps.gov/tips.html) wants you! It will start in August with a pilot program, involving 1 million people! This (http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2002/07/14/1026185141232.html)article explains that 1 in 24 people in the 10 biggest US cities will be domestic spies (although it is written by a journalist who is "fleeing US harrasment" in Sweden, so it may be somewhat biased). So, anyone think this is a good idea or a bad one? To me, it sounds like Bush didn't want to pay for Big Brother, so he will just let some people volunteer into it. Or am i becoming paranoid?

[Daoloth]

All I can say is that this is damn scary...

[Jackmannii]

Maybe it's a bit of a jump taking a program that encourages people to report suspicious activity and labeling it as "recruiting domestic spies"?

I was under the impression that tipster programs including Crimewatch have been in operation in various cities for many years, without gross violations of civil rights (though maybe somewhere, there's a file containing a report of me having U-turned suspiciously in someone's cul-de-sac).

Wonder how many people it will take to sift through all the reams of "information" provided by this amateur brigade of tipsters. I have a feeling there will be followup only on a small proportion of stuff that sounds serious (i.e. suspicious parties photographing the security setup outside the nuke plant).

"TIPS is being pursued as part of the so-called war against terrorism."
Got a wee bit of an agenda here, Mr. Goldstein?