TIPS

By

Michael P. Tremoglie

The topic of Chris Matthews’ nightly program featured the president’s proposal to enlist certain occupations as auxiliary spies or engage in counterintelligence. Matthews’ immediately condemned the proposal and used the usual canards of secret police, KGB, etc. Of course, what would you expect from a guy who became apoplectic when candidate Bush mentioned that Jesus Christ was his favorite philosopher. Matthews’ implied that Bush would establish a theocracy.

There are two interesting aspects of Matthews’ (and others) hysteria about Bush’ proposal for counterintelligence. One is the comparison to the KGB. With all the communists and socialists in the media and the government, it is ironic that Matthews and his ilk want to compare Bush, an ardent anti-communist, to the KGB. Why doesn’t Matthews make this claim about Major Owens, Ron Dellums, Bernie Sanders and the other socialists in Congress? In December 1998, the Communist Party USA said that they helped elect Chuck Schumer to the Senate. Why doesn’t Matthews examine their records beliefs attitudes and behavior?

The other aspect is the comparison to spying. Spying is not a dirty word. However, to equate TIPS to spying is to equate all detective work with spying, to equate TOWN WATCH to spying. People who engage in these ad prejudicem fallacies routinely obfuscate methods, means, and motive.

For example, I recall being in a philosophy course when the professor asked if killing is wrong. Everyone except me replied yes. The professor then asked if all killing is wrong all the time.

Again, all, except me, replied yes.

At this point even the professor-who was relatively liberal- thought this incredible. He asked if someone were trying to kill you. could you kill him or her. Remarkably, two women in class still replied it would be wrong.

Given the lack of common sense exhibited by some college students two decades ago, and surveys that indicate that present day college students are even more ignorant, is it any wonder that propagandists are able to convince some that there is a conspiratorial aspect to the President’s national town watch program. The idea that some have compared this to Nazi or Soviet secret police activities is absurd.

The idea that some believe it is an indication that common sense is indeed an uncommon virtue.

Spying is not horrible if done for the appropriate reasons. What East German/Nazi/Soviet police did was not spying to prevent innocent people being killed. They conducted spying to kill innocent people for their political beliefs.

So some may say that this could occur in the United States, it could occur if some diabolical, ambitious president is in office. This is true. It could occur. It has occurred. Past presidents have used the IRS and the FBI to conduct illegal investigations. Both Nixon and Clinton did this. However, neither remained in office nor did their political parties become the majority party.

Fortunately, our government is arranged that no one person, or branch, or political party is omnipotent. The concept of checks and balances prevents totalitarianism. That does not mean that abuses cannot occur. They can. When they do, they are investigated, sometimes corrected, sometimes prosecuted and usually the perpetrator(s) are removed from office.

However, none of this seems to be applicable to the program that the President wants to implement. His idea is merely to formalize and make more efficient what citizens will do anyway-which is report suspicious behavior. This trotting out the specter of people maliciously informing authorities about innocent people is preposterous.

The authorities receive false allegations and reports all the time from citizens. This is nothing new. How many dispatchers receive calls each day about “Man with a gun.” Thousands.

Authorities usually can recognize false reports and disregard them. If they do not, they soon learn they are false and do not waste time investigating them. Occasionally some are not discerned and are investigated. The investigation leads nowhere or if prosecuted there is no conviction. Rarely, if ever, is anybody imprisoned because somebody conspired to furnish false information to authorities. It may occur-however the President’s program is not going to make a difference. Such instances will occur whether there is a national town watch or not.

Suppose I work with Chris Matthews and want to cause him legal difficulties. I do not need to tell authorities I saw him with explosive materials in his car and allege he is a terrorist. I could say I saw him with explosive materials in his car because he is mobster. Or I could say he cheats on his income taxes, or any one of a number of things. The likelihood of people making false allegations and those allegations being investigated and prosecuted are minimal compared with the benefits of alerting authorities to potential terrorist activity.

What is amazing to me is that despite the largest loss of life, civilian or military, in the history of the United States by an act of war, despite the terrorism that existed in this country before then, despite the fact that more such terrorist acts will be conducted, we still have these ludicrous pedants, these fanatical members of the media and the intelligentsia, who believe we are more in danger of becoming a totalitarian state then we are becoming a fatality from terrorism.

The contemners of TIPS are paranoid about government. The average citizen who neither wants an intrusive government nor a negligent one needs to voice their opinion. They need to express their beliefs so the politicians listen.

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Michael P. Tremoglie is a former Philadelphia police officer now a freelance writer working on his first novel. He writes for Front Page Magazine: http://frontpagemag.com/columnists/tremoglie/index.htm.