Gene Healy on the Futility of Deputizing Everyone To Stop Terrorism

“If you see something, send
something.” That’s the slogan for Ohio Homeland Security officials’
spiffy new “Safer Ohio” smartphone app, whose release coincides
with the one-year anniversary of the Boston Marathon bombings. It’s
“Ohio’s multi-function mobile public safety tool,” the department
brags; concerned citizens can use it to snap and submit camera
phone pics of anything that raises their hackles, thereby
“report[ing] suspicious activity directly to the state’s round the
clock public safety intelligence analysts.” Gene Healy argues that
campaigns like this one for citizen vigilance that began in the
subways and is now migrating to our iPhones seems to have done
little besides generate an atmosphere of perpetual, low-level
anxiety and excuses for official harassment. That’s the sort of
threat we could stand to be more vigilant about.

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