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SmartPeopleWhoKnowWhatsBestForYou™ in the New York government are closer to implementing London's Neo-Totalitarian system of Total Citizen Surveillance here in the United States.
well, we all knew this before now but it's official that something which allegedly Stops Terrorism has become as unquestioned as things that are For The Children. Explanation or analysis isn't even part of the picture anymore. My real fear is that (as i see it) we're one or two steps away from a society like those portrayed in fictional works like Brazil or Player Piano or V for Vendetta... where the word "terrorist" (Vonnegut had people say "saboteur" in Player Piano) becomes a catch-all term, a generic boogeyman/BadPerson with no definition or overriding geopolitical significance.
of course, the article wouldn't be complete without this painfully common argument and impotent response...
i'm very pleased to see the Herald-Tribune included this last very important statement... but ironically it appeared as a lone paragraph on a second HTML page for some reason. is that the internet version of "story continued on page B-15" ?
By the end of this year, police officials say, more than 100 cameras will have begun monitoring cars moving through Lower Manhattan, the beginning phase of a London-style surveillance system that would be the first in the United States. The Lower Manhattan Security Initiative, as the plan is called, will resemble London's so-called Ring of Steel, an extensive web of cameras and roadblocks designed to detect, track and deter terrorists. ...
If New York City succeeds in getting the estimated $90 million to build the full network, it will include not only license plate readers but 3,000 public and private security cameras...
If New York City succeeds in getting the estimated $90 million to build the full network, it will include not only license plate readers but 3,000 public and private security cameras...
of course, the article wouldn't be complete without this painfully common argument and impotent response...
"This program marks a whole new level of police monitoring of New Yorkers and is being done without any public input, outside oversight, or privacy protections for the hundreds of thousands of people who will end up in NYPD computers," Christopher Dunn, a lawyer with the New York Civil Liberties Union, wrote in an e-mail message. Dunn said he worried about what would happen to the recordings once they were archived, how they would be used by the Police Department and who else would have access to them.
Already, according to a report released by the civil liberties group late last year, there are nearly 4,200 public and private surveillance cameras below 14th Street, a fivefold increase since 1998, with virtually no oversight over what becomes of the recordings.
Paul Browne, the chief spokesman for the police, said the Police Department would have control over how the material was used. He said that the cameras would be recording in "areas where there's no expectation of privacy" and that the typical law-abiding citizen had nothing to fear. (emphasis mine)
Already, according to a report released by the civil liberties group late last year, there are nearly 4,200 public and private surveillance cameras below 14th Street, a fivefold increase since 1998, with virtually no oversight over what becomes of the recordings.
Paul Browne, the chief spokesman for the police, said the Police Department would have control over how the material was used. He said that the cameras would be recording in "areas where there's no expectation of privacy" and that the typical law-abiding citizen had nothing to fear. (emphasis mine)
For all its comprehensiveness, London's Ring of Steel, which was built in the early 1990s to deter Irish Republican Army attacks, did not prevent the July 7, 2005, subway bombings or the attempted car bombings last month. In the recent car bomb plots, the cameras proved useful in retracing the suspects' paths only after the attacks were attempted.
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