Big Brother: "Watch out; here I come!"

[Swimmy]

Lancaster, PA uses nonprofit to spy on itself

So, a city of 55,000 has just over 165 closed-circuit security cameras monitoring the city. This is more cameras than most major cities have.

And the best part is that the government has no oversight on how this nonprofit agency monitors and reacts to the footage collected.

The worst part is that no one from the general public is crying out.

Don't give me that "if you have nothing to hide you have nothing to worry about" garbage! I have a right not to be monitored everywhere I go, quit infringing on it!

[gski]

The word is incrementalism. A little bit at a time.

It's only one area. It's for everyone's protection. Until it's in your area and then the excuse is, "everyone else has it, and they didn't complain".

Don't smoke, can't eat this, can't eat that, can't drink this or that.
Now we'll have you on tape so we can send you a ticket!

They've been doing it with our taxes for years. Only 1% here, 2% there, but it all adds up the same.

[dgriffin]

Things will get worse. As divisions widen in society and the gulf between the haves and have-nots increases, those who have will take more and more drastic steps to protect themselves. More cameras and surveillance will be pedaled to the public as "traffic control devices" or some such.

The Fear Card will be pulled out often and waved before your face. It is always in the interest of those who would control us to point out and highlight the dangers of what can happen without their benevolence. Without my raising the conspiracist hairs on the back of your neck too high, just think about the concerted effort in America today to make you afraid. The movies, the blaring cable news channels, The Center for Disease Control, the PTA, etc., etc. In an earlier time, the only fear mongers were the churches, and they opened only on Sunday. It may be as Howard Zinn (my favorite rebellious liberal) portrays it, a conspiracy not of people, but of dumb circumstances that connected appear as a purposeful plot. Whatever its birth circumstances, it is real and it is ugly.

Crime control used to be preventative in the sense of national policies. The police and their methods were seen as a protection employed after other programs failed.

Employment or other activities for young men aged 18 to 30 was the key method to keep them off the streets and out of trouble. Some say that high school and later college for the masses was a means for those in charge of society to keep young men busy. The draft kept others off the streets. During tough times like the Depression, immigrants were expelled from the United States to allow young men to take their jobs. The Civilian Conservation Corps removed men from the streets in a national effort, and many were forced into the camps. Sorry ladies, but women were kept in the home, thus providing more opportunities for jobs to keep young men busy.
Women worked only until marriage. Many companies would fire a woman who did not marry, or reduce her pay. At the turn of the (last) century, it was common for a single woman to accept lower wages as she grew toward spinsterhood, so as to not prevent a man from getting a full wage to support his family. (Please don't lecture me on the plight of women and domestic violence. I am well aware of it and deal with such in my volunteer work.)

And when a crime was committed, the punishment was swift and heavy. Twenty years in a prison was a common sentence, if not execution. There were fewer second chances and probably only one social worker per state. Life was tough, but for those who avoided the temptation to deal dishonestly or violently with their neighbor, the streets were safer.