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on Tuesday, October 20th, 2009 at 2:19 pm by Radley Balko
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According to the website, the first thing I should report is “people drawing or measuring important buildings.”
If I lived in LA, I would be so ready to call SWAT on the county assessor’s ass when he comes to measure any building for property taxes. SWEET!
these are the same idiots who call 911 to report a fire because they see smoke coming from behind a house. of course, they feel great about saving someone’s house, when they’ve actually interrupted a bar-b-que.
That was like a parody of itself. It could be playing in the background in a scene from V for Vendetta.
According to the website, the first thing I should report is “people drawing or measuring important buildings.”
I can just see the terrorist roundtable: “Okay, so we are agreed. We will strike a mighty blow against the infidels by destroying the Washington Monument. Quick Abdul! Get down there and draw us a picture of it!”
“Why don’t we just Google it?”
“Google is not real! It is like the Holocaust! Now go. And don’t forget to measure it!!!!”
There’s a giant compound in my city where thousands of young men train with guns, tanks, helicopters, and fighter jets. Just in the past decade, they’ve invaded two countries, killing hundred of thousands of innocent people, and currently have their eyes on a third. I think I’ll report them.
I’m not sure why, but it made me think about Ray Bradbury’s “Fahrenheit 451.” I had the image of Montag’s wife turning in the anonymous report that he had books which should be burned. In some creepy way, it just made me think of what Millie’s “family” might have told her on her wall-screens.
One point to be reassured on is that in referencing a cutting edge consumer brand to legitimise the creep into police state territory the US is doing things in its own distinctive way.
Watch out for Oprah’s Little Red Book and parades of perfectly synchronised marchers in Levis.
+0
#14 |
Scared Stiff |
October 20th, 2009 at 5:17 pm
I think Greta Ballard (If that is in fact her real name) is kinda hot.
CK and others reporting farts. Be aware when reporting fart smells to LAPD. LAPD is likely to take the “whoever smelt it dealt it” approach, and courts may find that this is admissible.
I set up a webcam in my office because I had about $20 in change stolen out of my desk and I was out for revenge. Shortly after my daughter went to work in Afghanistan in 2006, the camera caught a uniformed city cop snooping around in my office at about 2AM.
I think it might be because I had a picture up on my door that she sent me of her with a few of her male Afghan associates standing around a snowman that they made. I put a caption below it that said “My daughter and a few of her Mujahedin buddies”.
I like pushing the envelope. It’s only a matter of time before someone turns me in as a threat to the free world.
Well, you have to look at it his way. Confidential informants have turned out to be so reliable and effective in the war on drugs, think how useful it would be if the entire country were turned into a population where every citizen is watching everyone else for any suspicious activity. An entire nation of confidential informants. A cop’s wetdream.
The joy of being detained, questioned, humiliated, and inconvenienced is no longer just something to look forward to at the airport. From now on, you’ll have to be careful not to look like a terrorist even in your own neighborhood.
No more unloading bags of fertilizer where your neighbors can see. No more cracking irreverent jokes about the government at a bar where you can be overheard by a watchful concerned citizen. No more bringing home a big rent-a-truck without making it obvious you’re just moving furniture. No more talking about how you load your own ammo in the Walmart sporting goods department.
Seriously, though, with all the new leads, law enforcement would undoubtedly find itself short on manpower and all their new hiring would certainly put the brakes on that skyrocketing unemployment rate. Hell, I might sign up for the police academy myself. High demand means high wages, you know.
+6
#20 |
Judas Peckerwood |
October 20th, 2009 at 7:30 pm
Hello, I’d like to report some terrorist activity. Um, it involves my government and a bunch of bedwetting fascist busybodies who are conspiring to gut my constitutional freedoms and strangle the spirit of freedom. Hello?
+14
#21 |
Andrew Williams |
October 20th, 2009 at 9:51 pm
“I am a tool. I don’t know how to do things for myself, so I let the government and the police do them for me in my name. I crap in my pants every time I hear the word terrorism. I am a good American.”
I got 1/2 way thru that POC and that was almost too much.
I feel dirty now.
+8
#22 |
The Johnny Appleseed Of Crack |
October 20th, 2009 at 10:01 pm
But, these people are so…. earnest and …. caring… and they are making direct eye contact with the video camera, so it feels like they are making eye contact with me.
They are very good people, and we should all heed their message.
I hate PSA’s.
+3
#23 |
Andrew Williams |
October 20th, 2009 at 10:14 pm
The direct eye contact creeped me out the most. It reminded me of the ads StopSign used ot run late @ night on Cartoon Network–just creeped me right out, down to the angles and the expressions on the actor’s faces.
A good rule of thumb for me is: Anytime someone tries to scare me in doing something, it’s probably a good idea NOT to do it.
+2
#24 |
Andrew Williams |
October 20th, 2009 at 10:16 pm
This is Big Brother watching you watching YouTube on the Internets.
+0
#25 |
Helmut Hunzstern |
October 21st, 2009 at 3:44 am
“My name is Ceiling Cat and I iwatch you masturbate.”
+3
#26 |
Jeffer Mitchell |
October 21st, 2009 at 8:56 am
Gladys Kravitz Nation!
+1
#27 |
Jeffer Mitchell |
October 21st, 2009 at 9:25 am
Their website should feature a disclaimer that, “Anyone turned into iwatch is subject to an immediate SWAT raid in which they and anyone else present will be restrained with lethal force and possibly killed. Their dogs will be shot and any lack of incriminating evidence will be resolved with incriminating evidence provided by the arresting officers.”
Has anyone not noticed that the only obviously ethnic person is an Indian woman? How obvious doe PSA’s have to be for people to realize the guvment man thinks we are ignorant enough to fall for it.
One encouraging thing I saw was that 206 ratings have put the video at 1 out of 5 stars. Another thing that was discouraging was that comments have been disabled. But that’s kind of encouraging, too, because they reveal themselves that way.
Well, the guvernor of California IS from Austria after all… =P
+1
#32 |
William Calhoun |
October 22nd, 2009 at 9:24 am
I’m of an age where as a kid we were warned constantly about the dangers of “the Communist menace”. One of the dangers we were told about was that in communist societies, citizens spied on each other and reported each other to the government. Every citizen served as the “eyes of the State”, which we were told was a violation of liberty and human rights.
Is this video real? Who is responsible for this stuff? I think this video is far too funny to be in earnest, and is just another hoax from south of the border, just better orchestrated than balloonboy…
Report the farts. I am ex stazi ic
Funny. I was going to post that we should 4-chan style raid iWatch with fart reports. Looks like CK beat me to the punch.
This just makes it that much harder for me to convince myself that the US has a future.
Wait, terrorism is a crime? Since when? Thanks goodness for PSAs like this that give us such vital info and give jobs to unemployed actors.
iBaaaaaaa
According to the website, the first thing I should report is “people drawing or measuring important buildings.”
If I lived in LA, I would be so ready to call SWAT on the county assessor’s ass when he comes to measure any building for property taxes. SWEET!
“Let the experts decide”?!?!? This ad really, really ooged me out. Really.
I’m gonna report that redhead right now for potentially not being human. Althought the proper place to report her might be
http://photoshopdisasters.blogspot.com/
instead of a terrorism website.
these are the same idiots who call 911 to report a fire because they see smoke coming from behind a house. of course, they feel great about saving someone’s house, when they’ve actually interrupted a bar-b-que.
That was like a parody of itself. It could be playing in the background in a scene from V for Vendetta.
According to the website, the first thing I should report is “people drawing or measuring important buildings.”
I can just see the terrorist roundtable: “Okay, so we are agreed. We will strike a mighty blow against the infidels by destroying the Washington Monument. Quick Abdul! Get down there and draw us a picture of it!”
“Why don’t we just Google it?”
“Google is not real! It is like the Holocaust! Now go. And don’t forget to measure it!!!!”
There’s a giant compound in my city where thousands of young men train with guns, tanks, helicopters, and fighter jets. Just in the past decade, they’ve invaded two countries, killing hundred of thousands of innocent people, and currently have their eyes on a third. I think I’ll report them.
I’m not sure why, but it made me think about Ray Bradbury’s “Fahrenheit 451.” I had the image of Montag’s wife turning in the anonymous report that he had books which should be burned. In some creepy way, it just made me think of what Millie’s “family” might have told her on her wall-screens.
One point to be reassured on is that in referencing a cutting edge consumer brand to legitimise the creep into police state territory the US is doing things in its own distinctive way.
Watch out for Oprah’s Little Red Book and parades of perfectly synchronised marchers in Levis.
I think Greta Ballard (If that is in fact her real name) is kinda hot.
CK and others reporting farts. Be aware when reporting fart smells to LAPD. LAPD is likely to take the “whoever smelt it dealt it” approach, and courts may find that this is admissible.
#14
She has crazy eyes.
So, if you smell something bad in LA you should call the cops?
I set up a webcam in my office because I had about $20 in change stolen out of my desk and I was out for revenge. Shortly after my daughter went to work in Afghanistan in 2006, the camera caught a uniformed city cop snooping around in my office at about 2AM.
I think it might be because I had a picture up on my door that she sent me of her with a few of her male Afghan associates standing around a snowman that they made. I put a caption below it that said “My daughter and a few of her Mujahedin buddies”.
I like pushing the envelope. It’s only a matter of time before someone turns me in as a threat to the free world.
“The capitalists will sell us the rope that we will hang them with.” ~ Lenin
No, no, no – we’ll give it away!
Well, you have to look at it his way. Confidential informants have turned out to be so reliable and effective in the war on drugs, think how useful it would be if the entire country were turned into a population where every citizen is watching everyone else for any suspicious activity. An entire nation of confidential informants. A cop’s wetdream.
The joy of being detained, questioned, humiliated, and inconvenienced is no longer just something to look forward to at the airport. From now on, you’ll have to be careful not to look like a terrorist even in your own neighborhood.
No more unloading bags of fertilizer where your neighbors can see. No more cracking irreverent jokes about the government at a bar where you can be overheard by a watchful concerned citizen. No more bringing home a big rent-a-truck without making it obvious you’re just moving furniture. No more talking about how you load your own ammo in the Walmart sporting goods department.
Seriously, though, with all the new leads, law enforcement would undoubtedly find itself short on manpower and all their new hiring would certainly put the brakes on that skyrocketing unemployment rate. Hell, I might sign up for the police academy myself. High demand means high wages, you know.
Hello, I’d like to report some terrorist activity. Um, it involves my government and a bunch of bedwetting fascist busybodies who are conspiring to gut my constitutional freedoms and strangle the spirit of freedom. Hello?
“I am a tool. I don’t know how to do things for myself, so I let the government and the police do them for me in my name. I crap in my pants every time I hear the word terrorism. I am a good American.”
I got 1/2 way thru that POC and that was almost too much.
I feel dirty now.
But, these people are so…. earnest and …. caring… and they are making direct eye contact with the video camera, so it feels like they are making eye contact with me.
They are very good people, and we should all heed their message.
I hate PSA’s.
The direct eye contact creeped me out the most. It reminded me of the ads StopSign used ot run late @ night on Cartoon Network–just creeped me right out, down to the angles and the expressions on the actor’s faces.
A good rule of thumb for me is: Anytime someone tries to scare me in doing something, it’s probably a good idea NOT to do it.
This is Big Brother watching you watching YouTube on the Internets.
“My name is Ceiling Cat and I iwatch you masturbate.”
Gladys Kravitz Nation!
Their website should feature a disclaimer that, “Anyone turned into iwatch is subject to an immediate SWAT raid in which they and anyone else present will be restrained with lethal force and possibly killed. Their dogs will be shot and any lack of incriminating evidence will be resolved with incriminating evidence provided by the arresting officers.”
iWatch my neighbor swim in her pool. You can never be too sure of people after 9/11.
Has anyone not noticed that the only obviously ethnic person is an Indian woman? How obvious doe PSA’s have to be for people to realize the guvment man thinks we are ignorant enough to fall for it.
One encouraging thing I saw was that 206 ratings have put the video at 1 out of 5 stars. Another thing that was discouraging was that comments have been disabled. But that’s kind of encouraging, too, because they reveal themselves that way.
Well, the guvernor of California IS from Austria after all… =P
I’m of an age where as a kid we were warned constantly about the dangers of “the Communist menace”. One of the dangers we were told about was that in communist societies, citizens spied on each other and reported each other to the government. Every citizen served as the “eyes of the State”, which we were told was a violation of liberty and human rights.
Were they wrong ?
Is this video real? Who is responsible for this stuff? I think this video is far too funny to be in earnest, and is just another hoax from south of the border, just better orchestrated than balloonboy…