A civil rights debate is likely to flare at some point.
"Scary," was local defense attorney Bernie Allen's reaction to the coming integrated camera system and the blimp.
"Talk about your Big Brother, it's 'A Brave New World,' " he quipped, referring to two famous novels about futuristic worlds surveilled by oppressive governments.
An inventory of the city's central business district, between 18th and 28th streets, Adams and Wall avenues, has identified 37 businesses with external security cameras, said Dave Weloth, the OPD crime analyst who is overseeing the real time crime center's development and will likely be its manager.
Owners are being asked if they'll integrate their security cameras with OPD's, a slower process than Weloth's inventory
via www.standard.net
I sometimes hear a defense of this kind of intrusion into personal privacy from those whb say, "Well, if you are not a criminal, then why would you worry about it?"
Utah, where the Mormon population is very high, should be more aware than most places that laws can often be twisted and even made in order to persecute individuals or a group of people. In the case of Mormons, there is an ugly history of both state and Federal governments religiously persecuting them.
Problems also lie in the way invasive information is used. Invariably, whether the intent was originally malicious or not, the potential for abuse continues long after those well-intending (if they truely are well-intending), enactors of such invasive laws are long gone. The point is not that individuals being "watched" may be criminals--but those doing the watching may be criminals.
The idea of personal privacy is basic in the United States. So what if it does make enforcing the law easier for police? The purpose of our freedoms is not to make police enforcement easy.the purpose of personal freedoms is to allow the freedom to act, think, and believe as we wish, as long as it does not intrude upon the rights of others. The police are in place to serve the people, not to have the people wserve them.
Law Enforcement is getting the cart before the horse in this case. A system such as this, which will INITIALLY monitor external city cameras, could easily be misused or subverted, once in place, to monitor everything from individuals automobile or personal navigation and GPS sytems, mobile phones, computers, and could even be used to control cars, and determine when people are away from home and exactly where they are at. And worse.
These possibilities are not science fiction. The technical capability is already in place. Google (and other entities) are already cooperating with the US Federal government as well as other governments to spy upon Americans and citizens of other countries. These blimps could also be used as are the drones being used in Florida and other places which are by their users' own admision, "Able to to see what you are having for breafast."
Well, I have oatmeal, every morning, and although I really don't care if anyone knows, maybe my insurance company or even our first lady might have an interestin what I eat. This whole idea has abuse written all over it. If Presidents of the Untited States have kept personal files on their "opponents" (andit is historical fact that some have), and thedirector of the FBI, has kept files upon anyone whom he deamed "of interest" (which is now a well known fact as having happened)--then certainly those less scrupulous officials (or not) can be expected to abuse this power.
To paraphrase a great American philosopher and religionist, which should be meaningful to many residents of Utah, Joseph Smith Jr. said, "It has been our sad experience, that as soon as a man gets a lttle power, as he supposes, that he almsot always begins to excercise unrieteous dominion." This was directed to stalwart members of the church he founded, who were likely far less inclined to abuse than most people. so much more for those with different religious views, or with no moral strictures at all.
In many ways we are furhter down the road to 1984's Big Brother, than most Americans would be comfortable to admit. This kind of governmental intrusion into private lives is not allowed in other venuses. It must not be allowed in this way. Or our freedoms are lost.
"I
would welcome the opportunity to meet personally to introduce you more fully to
the Reform Jewish Movement, to discuss the concerns about this incident and
about the concerns that many of my colleagues (half of them Reform, half
Orthodox, Conservative and Reconstructionist) expressed in the open letter to
you regarding the repeated references to the Holocaust and Nazis, so that you
may better understand the pain and confusion that language evokes," wrote Rabbi
Eric H. Yoffie, president of the Union for Reform Judaism in a letter to Beck.
