Groups Object to Firefighters As Spies

[DoYouEverWonder]

ORLANDO, Fla. July 9, 2004 ? Civil rights advocates criticized a plan to teach firefighters and other workers who regularly go into homes to report terrorist activity they see on the job.

The plan, proposed by a local domestic security task force, could invade privacy and add to a culture of suspicion and paranoia created after the Sept. 11 attacks, said members of the American Civil Liberties Union and a defense lawyers association.

"We think it is misguided," said Scott Rost of the ACLU's Orlando office. "We think it's an attempt to turn neighbor against neighbor, intrude on privacy and encourage racial profiling with little reason to believe it will make us safer."

A brochure for the Citizen Awareness Program warns that a potential sign of international terrorism could be "multiple adult males living together, usually of Middle Eastern appearance and between the ages of 18 and 45, with little or no furnishings."

The warning worries members of Orlando's Arab-American community.


http://abcnews.go.com/wire/US/ap20040709_200.html

[Voice_of_Europe]

1. Don't let him in...

I wonder..
I suppose Fire Fighters "visit homes regularly" because they need to inspect fire savety and such.

How about many people confront them next time and don't let them in anymore without a search warrant... hehe... that would congest the courts.
^_^

Same goes for the library surveillance...
EVERYBODY go to the library and check out an Arab book.

Use the spam effect!
Data Mining can only be defeated by way too much data! Use their weapons against them.

[jukes]

4. firefighters

in many communities also serve as EMTs & ambulance service; hence, are often invited into homes for accidental injuries &/or illness. that vastly increases the scope of the 4th amendment violations this suggestion proposes. it's a simple extroplalation to have them reporting other suspicious activities, such as spotting 1 of those legless roaches.

this type of training/mission will sow distrust for f'fighters, plus crowd their memories w/training that conflicts w/their original mission.

this is pure gestapo crap.

[HFishbine]

7. Why the "Training" aspect is CRUCIAL

Generally, the testimony of a non-law enforcement officer who observed something that appeared to be illegal, like drugs, would not be sufficient to get a search warrant specifically because they lack proper training. (Some illegal activities, such as having a baby chained to a pipe, would be apparent to a layman, and therefore qualify as probable cause.) This is probably why they want to train these firefighters, so that their testimony would have greater credibility and therefore result in more search warrants.

[Dont_Bogart_the_Pretzel]

2. Just let the house burn..

Sooo.. If a brave fire-fighter suspects "terrorist activity" and report it then in that time it burns down.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

3. I remember once

when my late Sufi brother Hassan was called a "devil worshipper" because he wore a belt buckle with a star and crescent. He was a school teacher and some of the more 'enlightened' (read that drunk) members of the community broke into his house to 'prove' he was a heathen. Luckily, Hassan had a photo of one of our Sufi masters on the wall that looked a lot like Jesus-the drunks decided he was a 'good Christian' and let him alone. Hassan did not press charges against these goons-he knew better than to stir them up. These folks are known to burn down houses of people they don't like. Luckily they are in a minority around here.

[gatlingforme]

5. an appendage of the TIPS program Ashcroft touted to the

chagrin of many people. UPS was one of their puppies designated to "asked" to spy. Bunch of BS.

[DoYouEverWonder]

6. Nice way to plant the seeds

of civil war.

Start turning brother against brother, neighbor against neighbor. Make everyone suspicious of everyone else. Typical Bu$hCo strategy. Turn everyone against each other, then they will be too busy to pay attention to the real criminals that are terrorizing our country.

[izzie]

8. Dark haired, college males with no furnishing watch out.

Those people who like Shaker stuff better watch out also. Fun and games under the Cromwell people, oh I mean the Bush/ Ashcroft people.

[DoYouEverWonder]

10. Don't you just love

racial profiling?

Just another way Bu$hCo like to drive a wedge between people.

[missile_bender]

9. Here's how to fight back!

A longer version of the story can be found at the Orlando Sentinel
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/orange/orl-aseccap08070804jul08,1,152972.story?coll=orl-home-headlines.

"'Anyone who doesn't like it, I feel sorry for,' Lamar said. 'It is a program that can save American lives. It can save kids from being degraded. It's a great program.'"

To him I say, I can't trust you, so I want to put cameras in every rooom in your house. It may save a child.

Thank, Mr. Bush. Now I cannot trust anyone coming into my house. He may see something innocent and report me to the FBI. He may mistake a bag of oregano for pot. He may mistake an open Playboy for child porno. Anything.

So here's how we fight back:

If you require the phone company, cable, water, power, etc. to come to your home, when you call to make an appointment ask if they participate in the Citizen Awareness Program or any similar program in which their employees are trained or tasked to spy on customers. Tell them if they are not to bother to come and that they will be reported to the utility commission. If they say they do not, tell them you will fax them a form to sign in which they agree their employees may not spy on you, and that anything they see or hear is proprietary and confidential. And anybody who comes to your house has to sign it also.

<P>I've made a sample form below. I hope a smart lawyer makes a better one.

------------------------------------

I, _______________________________, hereby certify that myself, my company _______________________, and employees do not participate in the Citizen Awareness Program or any similar program in which employees spy on and report on activities of clients whose homes they have been invited to enter, and that the company and employee will not reveal any information about anything he/she sees or hears inside the home of _____________________(name and address), as such information is proprietary and confidential and that it may be considered slander. I understand that any violation of this promise will be prosecuted under the full extent of the law, and that both myself and my company are liable for legal damages and punitive action.

Unembedded.com