Redcardlibrarian sent us a fascinating story from the Denver Post:
“People curious to know whether a Denver police intelligence unit spied on them can find out for free at the Denver Public Library.“The library on Wednesday began taking requests from people wanting to get copies of documents detailing when and where police spied on them, said Jim Kroll, manager of the library’s Western History/Genealogy Department.
“It will take up to 30 days to make copies of all reports under a person’s name and then send the reports to applicants. People will get a reply whether they were spied on or not.
“Since 1953, the Denver Intelligence Bureau watched political protesters and Klu Klux Klan members while also photographing drug dealers, mobsters, suspected killers and others.
“The process takes so long partly because of the meticulous steps the library will take to ensure privacy of the 51,000 people who were spied on, Kroll said.”
Victims?
If you don’t know if you have been spied upon and have to go to the library to find out are you a victim? If someone gets hit by a bus, or someone steals your car, or you get a horrible disease I’ll certainly let you use the term victim. If someone peeped at you because they though you might be up to no good, and nothing ever became of it, victim….I think not.
I think we apply the term victim too liberally. Should these people have been under surveillance, for the vast majority probably not, but what damage did they suffer? What harm has come to them?
The newspaper used subjects, and I think that is more appropriate than victims.