waves
04-03-2009, 05:38 PM
Government video cameras are dangerous for two reasons. (1) They change the nature of policing by taking power away from citizens, and (2) they restrict or eliminate the possibility for alone time out of doors.
(1) Video surveillance radically strengthens the power of the state. Without cameras, victims or nearby people who empathize with victims are the ones who report crimes. This is an incredibly important natural safeguard on police power, because people can choose to not report violations of unjust laws. This is why black people could sometimes escape slavery, unions could organize, and people today can do recreational drugs if they so choose. Video cameras destroy this natural safeguard. When the government records all activities outside of the home, the state can pick and choose which crimes it wants to go after, and it can easily prosecute innocent people who normally would have been protected by their fellow citizens.
That shift is incredibly important. Any governmental abuses will be greatly intensified when the police see everything outside homes. The power to turn in criminals should stay with victims and concerned citizens. Otherwise governmental abuses will become much harder to combat.
(2) Video surveillance makes life worse by eliminating privacy. While misinformed people love to say that we have no expectation of privacy in public, this is not correct. We always have had privacy in public. Public property includes every street, every park, every beach, and nearly every place you spend time when you are not at home or working. Almost everywhere, it has been possible to be by yourself without other people watching, or to meet with a group of people without policemen observing you. Even the privacy of the home is in jeopardy, because cameras can record who is entering which dwellings, threatening free association. With widespread video surveillance, that part of life is gone, and being alone out of doors is a thing of the past. Worst of all, there is a doctrine that if signs warning people are in place, then the government can record audio. The public buses where I live in Michigan have audio surveillance in them. We have always been able to have private conversations outside of our homes, and there is no reason we should give that freedom up.
Video surveillance does not come all at once, so it is easy to ignore. Britain has already slipped into a surveillance society with entire cities completely covered by cameras. New York, Chicago, and D.C are threatening to do the same. If you are not ready to give up your privacy and freedom to the state, then fight against surveillance by passing city ordinances where you live and pushing for controls at the state, provincial, or federal level. If you have any other ideas for how to stop this evil, please share them.
(1) Video surveillance radically strengthens the power of the state. Without cameras, victims or nearby people who empathize with victims are the ones who report crimes. This is an incredibly important natural safeguard on police power, because people can choose to not report violations of unjust laws. This is why black people could sometimes escape slavery, unions could organize, and people today can do recreational drugs if they so choose. Video cameras destroy this natural safeguard. When the government records all activities outside of the home, the state can pick and choose which crimes it wants to go after, and it can easily prosecute innocent people who normally would have been protected by their fellow citizens.
That shift is incredibly important. Any governmental abuses will be greatly intensified when the police see everything outside homes. The power to turn in criminals should stay with victims and concerned citizens. Otherwise governmental abuses will become much harder to combat.
(2) Video surveillance makes life worse by eliminating privacy. While misinformed people love to say that we have no expectation of privacy in public, this is not correct. We always have had privacy in public. Public property includes every street, every park, every beach, and nearly every place you spend time when you are not at home or working. Almost everywhere, it has been possible to be by yourself without other people watching, or to meet with a group of people without policemen observing you. Even the privacy of the home is in jeopardy, because cameras can record who is entering which dwellings, threatening free association. With widespread video surveillance, that part of life is gone, and being alone out of doors is a thing of the past. Worst of all, there is a doctrine that if signs warning people are in place, then the government can record audio. The public buses where I live in Michigan have audio surveillance in them. We have always been able to have private conversations outside of our homes, and there is no reason we should give that freedom up.
Video surveillance does not come all at once, so it is easy to ignore. Britain has already slipped into a surveillance society with entire cities completely covered by cameras. New York, Chicago, and D.C are threatening to do the same. If you are not ready to give up your privacy and freedom to the state, then fight against surveillance by passing city ordinances where you live and pushing for controls at the state, provincial, or federal level. If you have any other ideas for how to stop this evil, please share them.