Olympics Bring Thought Police, KGB Tactics

No Games opposes the bid for the 2016 Olympics for three major reasons. The first two are financial and environmental. The third set of reasons are moral and civil. We see the games causing displacement and gentrification. But there are also serious civil liberties abuses that accompany the coming of the games. Here is a report from Vancouver that documents the operations of the Vancouver Police Department and the Vancouver 2010 Integrated Security Unity.

It appears that Olympic host cities, Whistler and Vancouver are full of creepy crawlies these days, but it has nothing to do with bedbugs or rats.

Over the past few months, law abiding citizens along with dissenters of the 2010 Olympic Games have been visited in some form or another at home, at work, or by phone by the Vancouver 2010 Integrated Security Unit (ISU).

When you have a billion dollars security budget to play with, the sky’s the limit.

In Vancouver, members of the Olympic Resistance Network (ORN) have been pulled over by the VPD and asked to comply with a “random” identity check. Chris Shaw explains being pulled over by the VPD.

In another case, a 73-year old Surrey man wrote an unflattering letter to VANOC and received a visit by the Olympic police to try to discover his true intentions about the Games. In mid-January members of the RCMP’s 2010 Integrated Security Unit attempted to meet with and gather information from members of the Lil’wat at Mt. Currie.

Not only are Whistler residents being monitored by radar satellites and military aircraft, and on the ground by Google’s Street View, Olympic police are asking pre-selected residents to spy on neighbours and to report back on anyone who speaks out against the Games – like something out of a B-grade sci-fi movie.

In the past weeks, several Whistler residents have been approached by undercover ISU police officers and interrogated about their views on the Olympics. Given the level of discontent with current Whistler mayor and bureaucrats, and VANOC’s lack of transparency, the entire town could be under surveillance.

This is just a preview of things to come if we get the 2016 games. We say “NO!” to thought police,  police spies, surveilling citizens and other trappings of  dictatorship being considered for Chicago.