Tennessee’s War On Photographers
Now here’s some nonsense.
A man walking through Tom Lee Park pauses to snap a photo of the iconic Hernando DeSoto Bridge. Another man shoots pictures of numerous downtown buildings.
Many would assume the men are tourists taking in the city’s sights, but law enforcement officials say they could be terrorists staking out possible targets.
[...]
“You may think a guy is just shooting pictures, but if you report it to us, we’ll send it on to the FBI and they may have four or five other reports of the same thing,” said Richard Pillsbury with the Tennessee Fusion Center, a collaboration between the Department of Safety and the Department of Homeland Security.
Or… they may just be tourists. Imagine that, people photographing landmarks.
Now, don’t get me wrong — I believe that people should be aware of what’s going on around them, if only for their own safety. And by the same token, a community has a natural feeling for what’s ‘normal’ behaviour and what isn’t. But this is just pushing people to snoop on each other — and worse:
Operation Sudden Impact is an alliance between the sheriff’s office and 54 regional law enforcement agencies to fight terrorism. Public affairs officer Steve Shular said the collaboration will allow better information sharing between agencies in case of a major emergency or terrorist attack.
In the next few weeks, Operation Sudden Impact will bring representatives from all 54 agencies to Memphis for a one-day saturation exercise. Officers will perform traffic stops and gang interdictions and serve arrest warrants.
“Every arrest ticket written in 24 hours by each of those agencies will be reviewed to see if any of those people, even those with minor traffic charges, might have any connection to any possible terrorist activity lurking in the region,” Shular said.
A one-day crash course? Sending officers on an anti-terrorism crusade under the guise of ‘normal’ police work? A traffic stop should be the end, not the means to an end.
SOURCE: Tourist or Terrorist? :: The Memphis Flyer :: City Reporter :: The Fly-By
A Brief Comment on Western Civilization
Western Civilization is so wonderful that we can riot over a silly game played by millionaires while other, poorer countries, have to riot over food shortages and fixed elections.
Go Habs Go!
