Homeland Security expanding to Walmart

[Melissa in NC]

Homeland security is running video at Walmart to encourage people to report suspicious activity.

 

http://www.npr.org/2010/12/11/131991345/wal-mart-shoppers-homeland-security-wants-you&sc=fb&cc=fp

 

So what is suspicious? And why Walmart?

 

This creeps me out.

[KatieH]

Kind of creepy, but there are ads for other things in WalMart, and it's not *just* WalMart, they're expanding to a number of different locations than where they currently run the ads. I'm assuming they chose WalMart because many people shop there.

[Heather in OK]

I could sit at WalMart all day and be on the phone nonstop reporting suspicious behavior. Apparently no one at Homeland Security shops at WalMart. :tongue_smilie:

[jujsky]

I have several problems with this. First, it's very "Big Brother." Second, with a message like this playing everywhere you go, people are going to become completely desensitized to it and tune it out. Third, it's only instilling more terror and paranoia in people. Last of all, if this is played in Wal-Marts, how many innocent people shopping who are in burkas, turbans, or in the case of Indian women, even wearing saris going to be reported for "suspicious activity?" And yes, there are people ignorant enough not to know the difference between a burka and a sari -- especially in Wal-Mart. I feel that a lot of innocent people are going to targeted and needlessly harassed.

[Spy Car]

I suspect that Walmart is the retail distribution arm of the Communist Chinese.

 

Hello Homeland Security....:D

 

Bill

[Margo out of lurking]

I was expecting to read that anyone who wanted to shop at Walmart faced the possibility of a full body patdown.

 

:lol:

 

(Sorry.)

[secular_mom]

I have an anxiety disorder- to hear such messages while I'm picking up craft supplies at Wal-mart will either set me on edge (meaning I'll be experiencing unpleasant symptoms and won't be able to concentrate on my shopping, so I'd probably just leave without buying anything) or I will have to 'turn myself off' to such messages and not pay attention to it. And honestly, *I* don't need to be told by The Man to report suspicious activity.

[bookfiend]

Have they never seen peopleofwalmart.com? It's all suspicious.

[Punchie]

Two things:

 

1. Agreeing w/bookfiend - have they never *seen* peopleofwalmart??

 

2. Yay! Yet another step closer to tossing the principles our nation was founded on in the name of "security", and one step closer to Big Brother.

[Robin M]

I hate shopping at walmart and this is just one more reason not to shop there. I wonder if this is going to affect their business.

[brehon]

I suspect that Walmart is the retail distribution arm of the Communist Chinese.

 

Hello Homeland Security....:D

 

Bill

 

 

*coke flies onto county-owned computer*

 

:smilielol5:

 

Geez, Bill, ya might warn a gal.

[Sahamamama]

I could sit at WalMart all day and be on the phone nonstop reporting suspicious behavior. Apparently no one at Homeland Security shops at WalMart. :tongue_smilie:

 

:lol::lol:

 

:iagree:

 

Good one!

[Guest Katia]

I hate shopping at walmart and this is just one more reason not to shop there. I wonder if this is going to affect their business.

 

I know in my case, it will affect their business. I will not shop there with this video playing and I will let them know why. This has gone way, way too far. I'm feeling like I live in Nazi Germany......do people not study history??

[Sahamamama]

I have an anxiety disorder- to hear such messages while I'm picking up craft supplies at Wal-mart will either set me on edge (meaning I'll be experiencing unpleasant symptoms and won't be able to concentrate on my shopping, so I'd probably just leave without buying anything) or I will have to 'turn myself off' to such messages and not pay attention to it. And honestly, *I* don't need to be told by The Man to report suspicious activity.

 

Exactly! This is such a good point, SecMom. I have a friend who had a full-blown panic attack at Walmart (years ago), just "because." There weren't any doom-and-gloom messages spouting out of TV screens, just the normal ups and downs of dealing with anxiety disorder. She was a mess, and could NOT get herself or her children home. She told security to call me (her neighbor) and I came to collect them all.

 

I can't imagine dealing with this scenario:

 

You pull yourself together, and decide that today's the day to go buy glue

sticks for your wreath project.

 

You arrive at Walmart a little flustered by the person who nearly ran you over in the parking lot, but so far, so good.

 

You find your glue sticks and proceed to check-out.

 

You hear Homeland Security telling you whatever it will tell you, and then... BAM! The anxiety washes over you like a tsunami.

 

:grouphug: To all who fight to hold it all together.

[stripe]

do people not study history??

History? What's that?

 

I just heard a guest on NPR on World AIDS Day speaking about Cuba's roaring success keeping HIV rates low by putting people in confinement. Finally the other guest said that that would be repugnant to most Americans.

 

I don't really understand why someone wouldn't report something overtly weird that they see. I think some people just report people they don't like (we've seen enough discussions on here about angry neighbors who report WTM members' kids as being truant for retaliation). That being said, personally, I think there needs to be some anti-child abuse campaigns run at stores like Walmart. Holy moly, what people scream at their kids while shopping.

[mcconnellboys]

It's not just in Wal-mart, it's going to be in a bunch of different venues. It seems to me that they're just trying to ramp up public awareness much as Israel does for its citizens.

 

It makes sense to me, since kids have been indoctrinated in public school all their lives not to "tattle." Folks now need to be re-educated to understand that it's a good think to tell on the bad guys....

[stripe]

It makes sense to me, since kids have been indoctrinated in public school all their lives not to "tattle."

Really? I think it's at home that kids are told not to "tattle" by irritated parents. (According to a study quoted in NurtureShock, more parents punish for tattling than for lying.)

 

When I was in school, there were posters with phone numbers to anonymously report students bringing weapons to school.

[Heather in OK]

This was swirling around FB the other day....

 

http://www.naturalnews.tv/v.asp?v=5A4B5D4B84344D5D9CBD262A53D8B071

[grace'smom]

:lol:

This was swirling around FB the other day....

 

http://www.naturalnews.tv/v.asp?v=5A4B5D4B84344D5D9CBD262A53D8B071

 

 

 

:lol::lol::lol:

[cbollin]

This was swirling around FB the other day....

 

http://www.naturalnews.tv/v.asp?v=5A4B5D4B84344D5D9CBD262A53D8B071

 

:lol::lol::lol:

 

 

 

-crystal

[Laurie]

If anyone thinks this is creepy, I dare you to read about RFID "spy chips" that are already on the products.

I read this book recently:

Spychips: How Major Corporations and Government Plan to Track Your Every Move with RFID. (Albrecht and McIntyre)

 

Here's a short description about RFID :

http://www.spychips.com/what-is-rfid.html

 

Personal privacy needs to be added to the "endangered" list. :glare:

[mcconnellboys]

While parents may well punish for children nagging them to try to get a sibling in trouble for no good reason, the sort of "tattling" I'm concerned about is something very different. And it quite frankly surprises me that so many adults can't seem to tell the difference between the two things.

 

It is a very different thing for children to report bullying or various inappropriate and/or dangerous activities, which are appropriately within the domain of adults to handle, just to be ignored or demeaned for it. And I have had both parents and children tell me time and time again over the past couple of decades about instances of teachers in all areas of their lives, from church to daycare, doing just this sort of thing.

 

My older son experienced this in pre-school, kindergarten, and first grade - all in different schools and even different states. We finally decided to homeschool. Then he experienced it later on in his scout troop to an even greater degree than we ever expected.

 

As a very brief example of the many inappropriate things he experienced in scouting, one adult who was a leader in that group told him on one occasion that he "really shouldn't be a tattle-tale" after he repeatedly tried to get adults to intervene because that man's sons and others were making blow torches out of spray aerosol cans at scout camp. This was the same man who was in charge of all the Civics merit badges for the group, by the way....

 

Oh, and as an interesting aside, he received the same punishment as the perpetrators of that trick - for tattling. And had to serve out his sentence alone with them, while they all threatened what they were going to do to him before they broke camp for the week. The adults woke them all up before daylight to use toothbrushes to scrub the wooden slat floors of an empty tent. It was his twelfth birthday.... I had been assured before he left for camp that they would not forget his birthday and would celebrate it with him - needless to say this was not the sort of celebration I had in mind....

 

The torture he experienced from that group went on for a year and was not only permitted by the adults who were present as leaders, but was often even encouraged by them....

 

What I have seen over and over again in these sorts of situations are immature adults who were perhaps picked on themselves growing up and for some reason feel obliged to pass it on to the next generation of children.

 

His senior level swim coach had the same sort of childish mindset. Older teens began tormenting my son on his first day of practice with that age group and the coach not only allowed it (laughing as they said and did things right in front of him), but also often joined in. Now, this was no shy, retiring child. He was never small for his age (he's 6'4" now). He'd been swimming for years with this group, just not this age set. But they considered themselves an elite little club and they determined that they were not going to admit him.

 

Needless to say, my son didn't try very hard to talk to the coach about the problems he was experiencing with some of the others, as it was completely obvious from the first week that the coach was entirely unsympathetic and would be completely unhelpful. And since he was the head coach of the team, his attempts to talk to other coaches served no purpose, either.

 

And lest you think that I have some sort of nerdy kid who just attracts bullies, there have been literally dozens of others who have left that team since we did with precisely the same complaints.

 

No, I think there's been a definite skew in thinking over time. What perhaps started out as a good idea to let kids work out their differences so that they would learn negotiation skills, etc. has come to be a completely hands-off practice by many adults who just don't care and don't want to be bothered to sort out kids' problems.

 

The term "tattling" has become a catch-all phrase that encompasses any sort of nuisance that adults do not want to be bothered with. And the child who attempts to solicit adult help - even in situations that are clearly potentially dangerous and certainly within the adult domain - is labeled a cry baby, trouble maker, etc. and demeaned for seeking help.

 

In the aftermath of many of the school shootings in past years, I've found it interesting in listening to interviews of witnesses to note that many teens have come forward to say that those who perpetrated the shootings were talking about doing something - sometimes for months - before the event occurred.

 

Why didn't they talk to adults about this? Because they'd been conditioned from early on not to bother, that the adults didn't want to hear it and wouldn't do anything about it. All it would bring them was trouble, so they didn't bother....

[NoPlaceLikeHome]

Have they never seen peopleofwalmart.com? It's all suspicious.

 

:lol:

[Mommy22alyns]

Oh shoot, bookfiend took the words right out of my mouth! :tongue_smilie:

[Punchie]

If anyone thinks this is creepy, I dare you to read about RFID "spy chips" that are already on the products.

I read this book recently:

Spychips: How Major Corporations and Government Plan to Track Your Every Move with RFID. (Albrecht and McIntyre)

 

Here's a short description about RFID :

http://www.spychips.com/what-is-rfid.html

 

Personal privacy needs to be added to the "endangered" list. :glare:

 

You can also add OnStar and the GPS tracking systems in cell phones to the list that is endangering personal privacy. Oh...and the club cards for grocery stores that track what you purchase, and your credit/debit cards that also track what, when, and where you purchase items.

[stripe]

While parents may well punish for children nagging them to try to get a sibling in trouble for no good reason, the sort of "tattling" I'm concerned about is something very different. And it quite frankly surprises me that so many adults can't seem to tell the difference between the two things.

It surprises me that adults are surprised that, after a life time of children being told not to "tattle," teenagers don't come forward when they get pregnant, a classmate threatens an attack, or whatever.

 

It is a very different thing for children to report bullying or various inappropriate and/or dangerous activities, which are appropriately within the domain of adults to handle, just to be ignored or demeaned for it. And I have had both parents and children tell me time and time again over the past couple of decades about instances of teachers in all areas of their lives, from church to daycare, doing just this sort of thing.

I guess I was saying that I see plenty of parents doing it, even MORE so than teachers. I find the idea of punishing for "tattling" to be beyond ridiculous as a concept. What's to punish? Even if someone is "telling" that their brother took a cookie... why does that need punishment? If you don't care, then just don't react -- the "tattle tale" will get the idea, especially if you explain what sorts of things are worth "telling."

 

I hope you didn't get the impression I was condoning parental or teacher disinterest in children's lives. Rather, I saw it as much a home thing as a school thing.

 

I think it's sad that anyone would see something bizarre and scary and do nothing. My issue is that I wonder how much is really telling, and how much is "I don't like you so I'm going to tell the police on you!"

[tex-mex]

I suspect that Walmart is the retail distribution arm of the Communist Chinese.

 

Hello Homeland Security....:D

 

Bill

 

Bill, did you see the recent episode of The Office where CHINA is the enemy? LOL :lol::lol:

[Spy Car]

Bill, did you see the recent episode of The Office where CHINA is the enemy? LOL :lol::lol:

 

No. But do I remember when they were called "Red China."

 

And it was "better to be dead than Red."

 

 

If anyone thinks this is creepy, I dare you to read about RFID "spy chips" that are already on the products.

I read this book recently:

Spychips: How Major Corporations and Government Plan to Track Your Every Move with RFID.

 

 

Something I find kind of catchy about the name "Spy Chips" :D

 

Bill

[Garga]

No. But do I remember when they were called "Red China."

 

 

I remember when all the bad guys in spy movies were Russians.

 

I was just wondering yesterday what the James Bond movies will do, now that they can't have those sexy Russian-accented bad girls?

[Spy Car]

 

I was just wondering yesterday what the James Bond movies will do, now that they can't have those sexy Russian-accented bad girls?

 

I'm just hoping they don't move to bad girls clad in Burkinis ;) :D

 

Bill

[Farrar]

I've been to a Wal-Mart IN China and I'm here to tell you that it was full of all kinds of suspicious foods.

[Sahamamama]

I've been to a Wal-Mart IN China and I'm here to tell you that it was full of all kinds of suspicious foods.

 

I am trying to imagine this. Is there a photo? :D

[Sahamamama]

.

[Sahamamama]

.

[Farrar]

That looks about right. But where are the big jars of snakes?