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Comment by kbenson | Hacker News Reader

As he spoke, the screens shifted and a new message appeared: "If You See Something, Say Something. Be Suspicious of Anything Unattended."

Okay, that's kind of creepy.

[Google] actually went so far last year as to shit-can its own "Don't be evil" admonition to its employees in favor of "Obey the law"

No, they didn't[1]. Alphabet has a slightly more formal code of conduct[2], and it's not simply "Obey the law", it's "follow the law, act honorably, and treat each other with respect." Sloppy. Reporting using another news article as a source rather than just looking it up.

1: https://abc.xyz/investor/other/google-code-of-conduct.html

2: https://abc.xyz/investor/other/code-of-conduct.html

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"If you see something, say something" (spanish "Si ves algo, di algo") is NYC's campaign in the aftermath of terrorism, and has been going on for over a decade. Its origins are not creepy and at this point most of the city's population is used to it. You can see it especially on any MTA properties such as subways, where they worry unattended luggage may contain a bomb, so they ask people to report such.

> Its origins are not creepy

Well, no, the origins are not creepy. I'm a little troubled that it's apparently still so pervasive though.

> and at this point most of the city's population is used to it.

That part is what's creepy to me. That it's still there 15 years later and people are so blasé regarding its existence. It represents something, and puts people in a specific state of mind.

> You can see it especially on any MTA properties such as subways

That's a more appropriate place for it, as a potential target location. Similar to airports. Kiosks at random street locations? I have a slightly different opinion.

Yes the crazy thing is I remember going to London back in 90, and at that time in the US, most major stores would request that you checked backpacks in before going into the store, to prevent theft. I walked in to Tower records in Piccadilly Circus and handed my bag, expecting they would give me a claim check, and they were freaking out. As they had been sending out the same message at that time due to the IRA bombings. So they gave me the full instruction about unattended bags and how they were more worried over terrorism than theft. Crazy how it is common here 20 years later.

Following that campaign, I remember seeing subway ads for years saying things like "Last year, 1,944 New Yorkers saw something and said something". But none of those calls had anything to do with terrorism. I'd say the campaign is both dangerous (in a "report the scary muslims!" sort of way), and useless:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/07/nyregion/07see.html

"If You See Something, Say Something. Be Suspicious of Anything Unattended."

How is it creepy? Have you ever visited New York, its announced every 15 minutes or so on subways. This might even be something that city officials explicitly required.

The slogan and program are a Department of Homeland Security thing, so you see it in a lot more places than just NYC. My guess is it's a string attached to some sort of DHS funding.

My understanding is the slogan was originally from NYC, and they didn't want DHS to use it.

> Have you ever visited New York, its announced every 15 minutes or so on subways.

My point is more that it's creepy in general, not specifically because of these devices (but the relation to 1984's telescreens is obvious), and that if it's prevalent in NYC (which I assumed), then I definitely don't want to live there. To me that feels like living with a sensationalist newscast about past terrorism always playing in the background, and I don't think that's a good state of mind to keep your citizens in for a decade and a half without good, and recent cause.

> How is it creepy?

I think there's a trade-off to be made between security and how you prime your population with fear. Having frequent messages about being suspicious of any random items in the city in general, not a specific high value target such as an airport, falls too far on one side of the spectrum for me. That it's on a large screen capable of recording video and audio, well that doesn't help[1].

1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telescreen

I infer you've never been to the US?

NYC is the most emo about it, but the same basic terrorist religion is present in all state media - both government and "private".

As always, cui bono.

Born and raised in California. I haven't been to New York, but I have driven across the country before (but not for quite some time).

> the same basic tragedy religion is present in all state media

Yes, but it's less pronounced where I live at least. I think New York has possibly had some it's cultural identity subsumed by this, but that's is not entirely new. There are portions of the country where historical occurrences from much further in the past inform the mindset of the population (at least a little) to this day. Such as the civil war.

I still think it's worth point out though, as urging people to be aware of suspicious activity everywhere is at best pointless, and possibly counter-productive. Either you can't relax, or you get a false sense of security about situations where heightened awareness is actually useful (such as large gatherings of people). In that respect, it's security theater.

Yes, it is more pronounced in NYC. Other places lack an implicit pretext, so their "normal" is fewer allusions to that particular event.

The entire meme of "terrorism" is counterproductive, unless your goal is to scare the population into helplessness. The people that create explosions and the ones who endlessly harp on the possibility of future destruction are essentially working for the same team.

It being prevalent in NYC doesn't make it any less creepy.

Honestly, the constant terrorism fear-mongering is one of my least favorite things about the city. A few horrible tragedies are apparently enough to turn a city into being fearful of strangers and "anything unattended" for years.

In 99.999999% of cases, that unattended lunch box is just a lunch box that someone forgot. All this fear-mongering does is further aggravate human's inability to reason about low probability events.

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