Walmart Is Watching You

The Department of Homeland Security has recently announced the creation of a program called “If You See Something, Say Something.” This catchy title comes from an agreement that the DHS has reached with Walmart, in which the store promises full cooperation in the DHS’s campaign to convince Walmart customers and store employees to report any “suspicious” activity to local police or store management, who would then inform local police.

This program, of course, is being defended as necessary to fight the threat of terrorism. The dangers presented by a campaign such as this are obvious. Every dictatorship that has ever existed has enlisted the aid of its citizens to spy on each other and report “suspicious” activity. Programs such as this will inevitably plant seeds of paranoia and fear, the kind of emotions that help keep us divided by animosity at a time when it is more crucial than ever that we stay united in our determination to identify the nature of the real threats that we all face.

It is alarming, but perhaps not surprising, that government attempts to define “suspicious” activity have been vague to the extreme. This is not the DHS’s only foray into this type of undertaking, either; in association with the Department of Justice, they have been working with a laundry list of local, state, federal and even international institutions and organizations to set up an interlocking intelligence network dedicated to information sharing and spying. The scope and scale of this network will dwarf any kind of intelligence operation that has ever been set up in the history of the world.

It is up to us to take responsibility for protecting our own freedoms. If Walmart suffers a loss of sales because of its alliance with Big Brother, they might rethink their position. It must be remembered that a company like Walmart ultimately depends on customer goodwill for its success, and if we make it clear we are not going to stand for this new program they will be forced to respond. We do have the power to protect our own freedom and our own lives – it is up to us to exercise that power every day, in ways both big and small, if we hope to preserve our rights during the times when they are most threatened.

Let Walmart know that you won't shop there if they do this.

My friends, live free or die!

Sources for this post:
http://www.offthegridnews.com/2011/01/10/walmart-shoppers-state-sponsored-spies/