iWon't

The following is an LAPD PSA video for their iWatch program.



Ever read Orwell's 1984? Seen the movie? Danced nekkid in yer bay window, worried the neighbor's think you're doing it on purpose? Fackin' mind readers, ain't they?

The intent of iWatch is ostensibly good: have as many eyes-n-ears tuned in so terrorists (and wannabes) can‘t slip under the radar. If you look at the website, actual suspicious behaviors are listed (For example: “People drawing or measuring important buildings. Strangers asking questions about security or building security procedures.”) and had someone been doing that when Timothy McVeigh was in Oklahoma City…. But let’s face at least this fact: most people are too damned lazy to get beyond the PSA and look at what behaviors might be deemed “suspicious,” so the potential for abuse by even well-intentioned citizens is very real…especially in Post-9/11 America….

It's not the intent of iWatch--it’s the execution that causes me concern….

I’m not going to use Tilting to tell too many war stories or talk much about my job (that’s what memoirs are for, eh?), but I happen to be a cop; yet, the very thought of a program like this (much less its implementation) sends shivers up, down and across my spine such that all the Guinness I can hold won't calm because the cop on the street represents the first line of defense for civil liberties. (The fact some officers don’t live by that is another matter.) But when something like this pops up--something that explicitly asks you to watch your neighbors, look for “suspicious activity“ even though you haven‘t been trained--it gives the kooks, idiots, Chicken Littles, abusive exes, stalkers and even well-intentioned citizens legitimate cover to use the police to bother someone only because something “looks” odd.

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been called out because a breathless caller wanted police to check out someone in the neighborhood, only to find out the suspicious behavior was something not at all suspicious, but based on the caller’s own panic (which I can accept) or bigotry (which I cannot). The worst example, in brief: I was sent to check out someone lingering in a neighborhood one afternoon the caller thought was “suspicious,“ a very common call. I checked the area and found no one, so I spoke to the caller to see what exactly said person was doing that seemed “suspicious.” She said (quoting, here), “He’s black.”

I blinked, and busted out the patented, “WTF?” look on my face. (For those unfamiliar: I arch my right eyebrow, squint my left eye (LEFT ONLY!), and lower my face slightly and fifteen degrees to the left. It’s like a slightly horrified/mildly amused free range Mona Lisa as performance art.)

I asked for clarification as to the actual behavior that made her “suspicious” and she said, “Well, he’s black and he was just standing there.” (An aside: this is where I called in I was going on break, took off the badge, grabbed the nearest red herring and slapped her about the face and shoulders ‘til I gots bored--at least that’s what I did in my mind.) I blinked at her…then, I turned and left. Surely, even a mouth-breathing Twinkie repository like that felt the “ARE YOU FUCKIN’ KIDDING ME!?!” was understood and needed not be spoken….

This country was founded on many principles, but the most basic (and the one from which all the rest flow) is this: each of us has the right to be left alone, unless we’re causing harm to the rights of others. That includes freedom from unsubstantiated suspicion, freedom from being subjected to increased scrutiny for what someone “thinks” another “might” be doing.

For all the panicked talk the Ridic(k)ulous Right throws out about “fer’ners” and “mooslims” and linking Islam directly and inexorably to terrorism, it’s not hard to see how brain-stemmers would translate iWatch to mean iWatch fer Fer’ners. (Didja miss the big-eyed cutie saying “I watch my America.”?) And in this country, we don’t hassle people for something they might do…well, ideally, we don’t do that…there was a time we didn‘t do that. Combine iWatch with panic, toss in a metric shit-ton of Beck-fueled paranoia and jingoism, a dash of bigotry, mix well….

I'm not saying turn a blind eye; I'm saying let's not sacrifice a little liberty for a little security.

I’LlHaveNoneOfIt……..

Now if you’ll excuse me, I have a bay window to install….