Governor kills funding for one spying program but will keep using the iWATCH spying program
(iWATCH U.S. Army)
Florida taxpayers won't be paying for a controversial $3.2 million plan to stem violence in Palm Beach County.
Gov. Rick Scott vetoed $1 million from the state budget that was part of funding for the county's "Violence Prevention Program," designed to encourage communities to report suspicious behavior. Now the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office says it will "re-evaluate the feasibility of going forward."
Apparently it wasn't the deluge of complaints comparing the program to Soviet spy tactics that convinced Scott to nix the budget item. Instead, he said it was too local; the whole state shouldn't pay for one county's safety.
The Palm Beach Post quoted Bradshaw saying, "We want people to call us if the guy down the street says he hates the government, hates the mayor and he's gonna shoot him." He meant that such a person might need mental-health services and should be put on a law-enforcement "radar" for threatening a public figure, a Sheriff's Office lobbyist later clarified.
But many saw this as an attempt by Bradshaw, a Democrat, to stifle government dissent.
Conservatives across the state dashed off hundreds of emails to Scott, a Republican. They compared it to Big Brother and the KGB.
One Tea Party elder in Ocala told Scott: "Kill this thing before it grows like a cancer."
On Monday, the Sheriff's Office, which had previously said it would start the program with or without state funding, said it was reconsidering.
"The sheriff appreciates the fact that the Legislature saw fit to fund the program and the governor considered the program and its value before making the tough budget decision," a spokeswoman said in a statement. "Given the lack for funding, the Sheriff's Office will re-evaluate the feasibility of going forward, and continue with existing programs to combat violence in the community."
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/palm-beach/fl-big-brother-veto-20130520,0,4543873.story
The U.S. Army's iWATCH spy on your neighbor program is still being used across the nation:
http://massprivatei.blogspot.com/2013/05/the-us-armys-iwatch-spy-on-your.html