Another nail in the coffin for democracy and civil rights; your local firehouse is now being enrolled to further encroach on your privacy.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Firefighters in major cities are being trained to take on a new role as lookouts for terrorism, raising concerns of eroding their standing as American icons and infringing on people’s privacy.
Unlike police, firefighters and emergency medical personnel don’t need warrants to access hundreds of thousands of homes and buildings each year, putting them in a position to spot behavior that could indicate terrorist activity or planning.
But there are fears that they could lose the faith of a skeptical public by becoming the eyes of the government, looking for suspicious items such as building blueprints or bomb-making manuals or materials.
It goes on:
The American Civil Liberties Union says using firefighters to gather intelligence is another step in that direction. Mike German, a former FBI agent who is now national security policy counsel to the ACLU, said the concept is dangerously close to the Bush administration’s 2002 proposal to have workers with access to private homes – such as postal carriers and telephone repairmen – report suspicious behavior to the FBI.
“Americans universally abhorred that idea,” German said.
The Homeland Security Department is testing a program with the New York City fire department to share intelligence information so firefighters are better prepared when they respond to emergency calls. Homeland Security also trains the New York City fire service in how to identify material or behavior that may indicate terrorist activities. If it’s successful, the government intends to expand the program to other major metropolitan areas.
(my italics)
So now it will be left to the suspicious (or, even malicious) mind of a random firefighter whether you will end up on a list for further investigation.
And it wouldn’t take a warrant to cite you for a ‘fire safety violation’ to gain access to your home and records.
What’s next? Enlisting nursery school teachers to obtain information from your toddlers?
Thirty months ago I wrote an entry called The legacy of East-Germany. We seem to be getting closer by the minute and the Democratic ‘leadership’ barely raises an eyebrow.
I wrote this comment in a moment of frustration a couple of weeks ago:
Re: Humping the terraists over there… (4.00 / 5)
I really, really would like to stop being a total cynic!
But these people (too many Democrats included) make it very clear that there is no reason for optimism for the future.
Has Congress become the biggest congregation of cowards and Scaredy Cats ever observed in a legislative body?
[I’m sorry to say, but I’ve been telling curly lately that even most of the US population is displaying incredible cowardness in so meekly accepting the current national leadership’s march towards the cliff – fucking lemmings.)
by ask on Fri Nov 9th, 2007 at 12:34:05 PM EST
Wake up folks; your democracy is eroding away rapidly!
the personal freedoms enumerated in the constitution are being steadly dismantled right before our eyes, and it’s not just the RATpublicans, the demoRATs are just as equally complicit.
note jane harman’s odious HR1955: Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act of 2007, which passed the house by a whopping 404 – 6 vote. it’s a page right out of the brits Terrorism Act, which has just convicted a 23 year old woman for thought crimes, basically. ref: [BBC.]
not to be left behind by the brits; who are now the most surveilled society in the world, where it is estimated that There are up to 4.2m CCTV cameras in Britian – about one for every 14 people…ref: [BBC.]; your illustrious mayor, m. bloomberg, is leading the charge to match that number in nyc, as are other municipalities across the country…british philosopher jeremy benthams’ Panopticon society is rapidly becoming reality.
see also wm. pentlands’ recent article Insecurity Cameras in the nation.
your cynicism is not misplaced ask. were that more people had just a bit more of it. lemmings are a perfect description, right over the cliff.
l could go on, but suffice it to say, we are rapidly approaching the point of no return, if we haven’t already done so…we are well and truly fucked.
lTMF’sA
I had the rather surreal and disappointing experience of talking about privacy (or lack therof) with some family members while on a visit back home and they looked at me like I was swatting at imaginary flies buzzing around my head. The general feeling among them was that they didn’t have anything to hide so why would it bother them to be so closely monitored almost every step of their day? It’s like being pecked to death by ducks.
I wonder SN when people say this if it came right down to it and they found out they were being monitored very closely if they really would like it…I think a lot of people might say this cause they really don’t think it would happen to them or thinking they had nothing to hide when if the government wants to they could make any of your activities look suspicious without even trying to hard.
Maybe they’d start thinking it truly is a waste of taxpayer money-their money-to have the government spend their time monitoring them and all their friends also.
the fire “pigs” came to my 78 year old mother’s house and told her she and her 84 year old husband with dimentia would have to find another place to live.
They have lived peacefully and productively in their suburban home since 1955. They were complying with all enviornmental regulations by installing a more energy efficient oil burner heating system. The two day old installation failed when the oil nozzle became plugged and started emitting sooty black smoke.
Now did mother get some friendly advice on oil burner servicing? No, the burner was shut down and she was told to leave.
Seig fucking heil.