Welcome to MA, Big Brother
The city of Chelsea, Massachusetts, has decided to install 34 surveillance cameras in “high-crime” neighborhoods. Apparently only a few folks are concerned that this Big Brother-esque network of cameras is a frightening step down the rabbit hole of privacy loss.
My favorite quote was from a woman being interviewed on a local news network. She gave up the classic, “Well, I’m not a criminal so I don’t have a problem with the cameras.” Guess what honey, I’m not a criminal either and I have a huge problem with these cameras. Why must people be so short-sighted? Don’t they realize that by giving up the privilege of walking the streets unmonitored by the authorities for a false sense of security is yet another step towards giving away our freedoms? As Ben Franklin once said, “The man who trades freedom for security does not deserve nor will he ever receive either.”
Look at Great Britain: this is a city that has been installing more and more surveillance cameras and is now advocating steps to keep tabs on its populace that would easily classify them as a surveillance society. Doesn’t anyone understand how much these steps sound like a totalitarian regime where the “powers that be” can watch and track your every move? Just like most things, it seems the average person on the street doesn’t take the time to think about how a relatively benign-sounding measure, like putting cameras on corners where lots of crimes occur, leads into a society where your privacy is nonexistant, where every step you take in public is scrutinized by a police force.
Think of it this way: they put the cameras up and start monitoring for crimes. Criminal activity goes down in those areas because the criminals realize they’re being watched. The criminals move to new areas. The police put up more cameras. The cycle continues. Soon there are cameras everywhere. Now the police are able to watch anyone doing anything in public from the laptop in their cruisers or via remote access from home. Of course, who is responsible for security of these systems? Who will make sure that this power is not abused? And why must we be under constant surveillance anyway? Doesn’t anyone understand that by allowing this, we’re allowing ourselves to be classified as, at best, cattle that need to be watched and, at worst, potential criminals. We’re allowing ourselves to be judged as potentially guilty and, therefore, surveillance-worthy.
Doesn’t anyone else find the notion of a surveillance society frightening?
