National Citizen Dossier System Being Quietly Set Up That's what the headlines should be saying, anyway. Instead they're saying things like: (_Knoxville Journal_, 3/27/97) Governor's Budget Includes Money to Set Up Gang-Tracking Network [...] [A]s part of the governor's anti-gang proposals, he's proposing to spend $625,000 worth of state and federal money to set up a gang-tracking computer database and network. Four agents of the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation will be assigned to do nothing but gather and maintain information about gangs in the state's four regions. They will analyze and compile the information on computer for dissemination throughout the state, the Southeast, and the nation - but not for public use. Law enforcement agencies will be able to use it and update it. Information on the database could include a picture, a description, the gang affiliation, criminal convictions, crimes that a person is suspected in, and possible nicknames. [...] Other press reports have indicated that the database will include "domestic terrorist groups" and will incorporate a great deal of additional data, such as a roster of vehicles which should be given special attention at the now-innumberable roadblocks and checkpoints. The important thing to note is that - as I understand the description of the program - a person does not have to commit a crime to be included in the database. They just have to have contact with a person or group which is already in it. Didn't somebody named Jospeh McCarthy get himself in trouble over this kind of thing? bd