America's Newest Anti-Terror Ally: Wal-Mart

A Department of Homeland Security campaign has moved from the subway to the suburbs.

The "If You See Something, Say Something" campaign - designed to get Americans to play a more active role in security - is coming to hundreds of Wal-Marts across the country.

"Homeland security starts with hometown security," said - Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano. "This partnership will help millions of shoppers across the nation identify and report indicators of terrorism, crime and other threats to law enforcement authorities."

The program was first used by the New York City's Metropolitan Transportation Authority and tries to get the general public to report indicators of terrorism and crime to authorities.

More than 230 Wal-Mart stores nationwide launched the "If You See Something, Say Something" campaign this week, with a total of 588 Wal-Mart stores in 27 states joining in the coming weeks. A short video message will play at some checkout locations with video monitors.

The campaign has already been implemented by the Mall of America in Minnesota, Amtrak, the American Hotel & Lodging Association and the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority.

[Tomasgolfer]

Now that there are cameras at most intersections and most places, porno scans at airports, now the gestapo errr dept. of homeland security deems it necessary to have neighbors report their fellow shoppers to the authorities. Growing up in the 60's, this is exactly the behavior we were taught to fear about the USSR/fascism. What the hell kind of country has this become? "Land of the Free, Home of the Brave" I THINK NOT

[brooky22]

Welcome to the country of "If I don't like the way you look, you are going to jail". Great, we just became Hitlers Germany!

[skodillac]

this is complete madness.i grew up in a communist country where they were exercising against american attacks.muslims do not have to exercise american attacks-they have them for real.stubbornes of american people in pursuing this highway robbery relations with the muslims in order to maintain this truman/lbj/nixon way of living-big house,full of all kinds of crap,bought with the blood/sweat/tears of the people around the world,backed with horrible arrogance and selfcenteredness of an average white,christian american,is getting you lose last ties with the reality.and here is the reality:muslims do not have to fight america,they only need to wait you spend yourself into oblivion,maybe even into civil war.saudi arabia,uae,even iran are holding american bonds and will sooner or later use them against you.they also sit on trillions worth of oil.and why this conflict?can muslims choose not to fight?the truth is that americans have always sucked blood to somebody.there is a very strong slavery gene in white,christian americans,they are always on a lookout for someone to work for them.world war two(we need wikileaks about that too,to confirm what europeans know,that franklin d. roosevelt's administration was the one who prevented french and brits to invade germany in 1936)has remedied broken american economy from the 1930-ies.technology,scientists,gold reserves,raw materials,cheap labor from the and in the richest parts of the world,western europe and japan,have injected huge amount of energy into american economy,that started jumping into the orbit,it was on steroids.next goal was oil.so america needed a large millitary base in the middle east-palestine was a logical choice.who will maintain such a large base-50 pounders from concentration camps,who surprisingly managed to make nukes in 16 years out of palestinians stones peppers,figs and olives-if the world is stupid enough to believe such story.c'mon america,we all know that they were shipped from here.together with f-16,18s and everything else.when muslims denied being robbed,you started good ole cold war rhetoric,calling people terrorists-so a person who was born in palestine is a terrorist,because he wants a citizenship of the country where he was born and wants wo work,vote,travel in that same country.and a person who was born in russia or poland is not a terrorist and he gets all that that the native cannot.c'mon america,i know you did that to cherokees,chayennes,sioux,...but,like i said,c'mon.and guys in muslim countries were growing up,their beddouin fathers being butchered by sherman tenks,i know you do not consider beddouins humans,but c'mon america.so they started making some money on oil,information came by the means of tv and internet and i ask:did you expect those guys to forget what you did to their fathers?another question:what will situation be in let's say 2025(do not have anything to do with zager and evans "in the year 2525",ha,ha)?america will be on its back owing everyone-notice how easy it goes from owning to owing-just one letter:N.this letter can be interpreted two ways,like anything else:1.for the smart people-it means NO,do not do bad stuff to the others,do not grow arrogance,do not try to maintain mindset that got you in trouble with the others(vietnam,korea,iraq,...),do not maintain millitary base in palestine,...2.well,the other one is a hard way.so,like i said,c'mon america,shape up and start being a decent country:
-end all wars
-dismantle israel
-move all soldiers back home
-secure borders
-kick people into factories
-cut sitting/talking jobs by 90%
-cut sitting/talking sallaries by 50%
-cut defense budget bu 90%
-stop teaching schoolkids that they are better than other kids
-kick religion into churches
-pay the debts
-change the constitution,so i can be a president,real good and honest one
-kick all congressmen over 50 years of age out of congress
-outlaw lobbying
-there are a lot more,but i am getting tired.c'mon america,you can be rich and pretty in much more decent way.yours sincerelly,skodillac

[morriswise]

It was Mother Nature who first realized the need to protect humans from suspicious activity. She armed women with the ability to shriek loud enough to be heard by neighbors. Men were given powerful legs to run quickly to a hiding place. Luckily with advanced technology a simple call to police at the sight of suspicious activity is enough to keep us safe.

[Elizabeth-Conley]

Goodbye Walmart. This is the creepiest thing I've seen in the U.S.A. in all my 48 years. Don't bother to apologize. Don't bother to drop this perverse collusion with fascism. Just wave goodbye to me and my money.

Words cannot express the degree of revulsion you have invoked in me today.

[wyodutch]

In case anyone remains unconvinced that America has deteriorated into a nation of stinking, yellow-bellied cowards... This should erase all doubts.
.
America... You make me puke with your gutlessness.

[jaykay3141]

Another step on the path to re-creating the DDR. By the time the Wall fell, nearly half of the adult population of East Germany were serving as formal or informal agents reporting "suspicious activities" back to Stasi (State Security) headquarters.

I don't like the neighbors' dog. I'll report them to HQ as being socially disruptive.

A girl in my son's class turned him down for a date. Complain that they're against family values.

See how easy it is?

[Void-Master]

Here's something a bit more specific to Walmart.

Once you've already endured the long checkout line and make your way to the door, the door greeter invariably demands to see your receipt. They already presume that you've stolen from them. So all it will take is pretty much *anything* they do not like and you're now on your way to jail.

By the way, I do not comply with this demand -- ever. If the guy wanted to see my receipt, he should have manned another checkout line and cashed me out so that I didn't have to wait so long. But I do not -- I will not -- stop to show my papers to the door greeter.

[Void-Master]

by rf35 December 8, 2010 2:30 PM EST

How does reporting suspicious activity take away freedoms (other than the purp's)?

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The problem is that this sort of thing generally degenerates into the arrest of innocent people simply because they did not conform to a preconceived collective norm.

It's not about reporting a suspicious looking item that seems out of place. Rather, it becomes a matter of if you act just a little bit differently; someone will turn you in. Worse still is the vindictive neighbor who falsely reports you for suspicious activities because your cat took a dump in her petunias.

Seems a bit on the paranoid side, you say? All it will take is this sort of "policy" being carried out -- even benignly -- for one generation. Afterwards the authorities can use it with impunity to persecute and repress an entire society.

[amerilatino]

Oh great, now Walfart is in the national security business, I'm sure Backwoods Bubba and his fat, handicap-buggy riding wife will now divert their attention from the hunting equipment, cheap cigarette cartons and press-on nail kits to them fancy-shmantzy lookin' suspicious darkies in the ethnic foods aisle with their city-slicker looks and irritating, foreign accents. I'm sure the Sheriffs Department has a dedicated phone line for calls on matters just like this...