iWatch... Because It's Simpler Than iThink

The following Public Service Announcement comes from the LAPD's citizen surveillance program and promotes the idea that, as responsible and caring citizens, we should report any suspicion of possible terrorist-related activities to the authorities. Even when we are not sure about the veracity of our own suspicions, the recommendation is that we "let the officers decide."

On the surface, the message seems innocent and based on a sense of communal love, but, actually, it carries with it the seeds of divisiveness. If you don't have to worry about whether your tips can be substantiated, you don't have to care, and this opens up the floodgates to the kind of racial profiling and communal spying that can only make people trust each other less and less, and spy on one another more and more. It's the gift that keeps on giving. Instead of iWatch, maybe it should be called iSpy or iParanoid or iDouchebag...

Tired of that weird foreign neighbor you can't quite figure out? Why not report him as a potential terrorist threat? Let the police decide... as they violate his civil rights. Hey, why not send a message to that new young minority couple across the street: that they are not welcome in the neighborhood? You don't have to worry about the consequences because, after all, you can hide behind the pretense of patriotism...

Of course, if anyone thinks you're a jackass, iWatch will allow them to send some Vick Mackey to kick down your door and make you his bitch, all in the name of safety and neighborly love :)

And did they really say "think about that"??? The irony, it hurts!

And unless there really is that much terrorist activity going on, the fact that iWatch was responsible for the submission of 1,500 tips in just a few months should make obvious the need for an upgraded program: iThink...

NPR has a story on iWatch.
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