Wisconsin: Scott Walker uses federal dollars to snoop on state residents
Coverage thanks to Uppity Wisconsin.
... Last week Walker’s fantasies turned to crime fighting as he launched Wisconsin’s “If You See Something, Say Something™" campaign. Flanked by Attorney General J. B. Van Hollen, Major General Don Dunbar of the Wisconsin National Guard and Betsy Markey, Assistant Secretary of Intergovernmental Affairs, Department of Homeland Security, Walker gave a rambling, folksy talk about the role of citizens in the important work of creating safe communities.
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As The Progressive noted in its article, the fusion centers are prohibited by law "are prohibited from collecting or maintaining information on U.S. persons solely for the purpose of monitoring activities protected by the U.S. Constitution, such as the First Amendment protected freedoms of religion, speech, press, and peaceful assembly and protest.” Yet, The Progressive reported, Senate investigators found that many reports produced by fusion center staff are rendered unusable because they violate those very rights.
Why would states continue to get involved with the fusion centers? Political interest in monitoring suspected political "subversives" aside, it's a pork barrel full of tax dollars, and governors like having that money to spend.
On which point: How telling it is that Walker -- so upset about the federal grant to build a high-speed passenger route through Wisconsin that he rejected it and its thousands of new jobs -- is nevertheless quite happy to accept federal money to encourage state residents to spy on each other.
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