Big Brother Starts Watching

New York has installed the first of 500 security cameras around town to curb crime. The cameras will be used to monitor the daily comings and goings of millions of people. The police will be able to watch people scratch themselves, pick their noses, and about any other thing they should not do in public in the first place. The agents will even be able to check out the babes and look down the tops of women. Nah, they would not do that! Oh, and they might stop a little crime along the way. Is this an invasion of privacy?

I have visited England and all over the place there are CCTV cameras that the police use to catch criminals. Notice I did not say stop them. They cameras did not stop the tube from being bombed last year. While I was there, I did get to see some real life crime shows where people were caught on camera committing crimes. But in America, is this too much? Most would say that the streets are open and it is a public place so it is perfectly fine. This would be the same group that tells you listening to phone calls placed on the open airwaves is illegal. “But those people paid for phone service and that is intrusive.” People pay taxes to maintain public streets and sidewalks so they have as much reason to claim intrusion.

I do not necessarily think the cameras are an intrusion so long as they are used appropriately. Officers looking at women’s boobs or filming some guy scratching his butt have no use. They should be focusing on criminals. Another problem I have is that they can use the camera to find anyone who was in an area and question them even if it is obvious they were not involved in anything. Imagine some guy who is meeting his girlfriend and his wife does not know about this. Then a crime occurs near the area and they see him standing on the corner on a camera. They haul him in to ask if he saw anything and the intrusion causes him big problems. I do not condone the man’s acts, but he is entitled to a bit of privacy and he should be able to say he does not want to be questioned. If he is not a suspect, that wish should be honored.

Big Brother is watching in New York. This will not reduce the amount of crime because even if they catch some of the perps, the court system will release them. In addition, the cameras can not prevent crime, they can only record it. It is unlikely that any of these cameras will catch some big time criminal or terrorist but as long as they are used appropriately, they should pose no problem to the general public.

Big Dog

Source: Breitbart

[tags]crime, New York, law enforcement, criminals, cameras, privacy[/tags]

If you enjoy what you read consider signing up to receive email notification of new posts. There are several options in the sidebar and I am sure you can find one that suits you. If you prefer, consider adding this site to your favorite feed reader. If you receive emails and wish to stop them follow the instructions included in the email.

Comments are closed.