Take, for instance, the document titled, “Counter-Terrorism Law Enforcement Officer Roadside/Interdiction Questioning.” (LE Roadside Questioning), indicators that you may be an Al Qaeda terrorist include telling an officer that you are on your way to Walmart or the grocery store, living with other people, or answering a question with a question.

How else can you explain a cops hostilities when they encounter someone recording them not doing anything really inappropriate? Well, aside from the desire to prevent evidence of wrong doing from being made public, they are probably rationalizing it as neutralizing a threat. What threat could a camera possibly be? According to another document (GI08002-Sovereign-Militia Information) that apparently has been emailed to AZ LEO’s, if a person tries to record a police officer, they may be a part of a group of people classified by the FBI as anti-government extremists that “engage in acts of terrorism and violence” or “Sovereign Citizens.” If they call a friend to witness their traffic stop, it is another indicator that they are terrorists.

Your iPhone can be probable cause in the document forwarded to other police, “iphone apps- used against officers.doc” Because anyone with an iPhone can have these apps installed (Trapster, caller id faker, and the parody digital scale), the officer is encouraged to look through every arrestees cell phone for evidence. Trapster in particular seems to be something they are afraid of because they think it can provide criminals with realtime police gps locations (CRIME ALERT 2009-0084.doc) that can be used to ambush or kill police officers (which it can’t). The “Find your iPhone” feature of newer iPhones also causes great concern for the police, because it allows criminals to remotely erase data on their phone if it is confiscated by the police. Because of this, they now carry faraday bags to place iPhones in to prevent a remote wipe signal from reaching the phone (Find my iPhone.pdf). Because of this, anyone with an iPhone is also potentially a criminal, and using the iPhones features for “criminal” purposes.

The Department of Homeland Security and other federal agencies seem to be behind many of these documents, or the ideas behind the documents. The DHS beats into the local cops head that terrorism is every where, and that the world is an incredibly dangerous place where people are just looking to kill police. This may explain the seemingly spontaneous militarization of the police, and the extreme reactions they have to people. I haven’t even gotten into the drug and illegal immigrant documents yet, and there are many of those.