What this really all about: SURVEILLANCE CAMERAS coming to the US!

[Atman]

It's already been mentioned on CNN, despite the fact that those pervasive cameras in London haven't done anything to catch the guy yet, and didn't do anything to stop him from smoking in his car on the way home from the hardware store.

Still, CNN had some "expert" on earlier saying how this shows how great the British system is and that we need similar surveillance cameras all over US cities.

Here it comes!

.

[EstimatedProphet]

1. What guy? Why were they filming him smoking in a car?

Huh? What?

[unhappycamper]

2. It's been going on for a long time up here in Boston.

Most, if not all of the traffic lights (in my area of Beantown) have cameras.

[Atman]

5. They'd tried it in Hartford several years ago until we found out they were fake.

Yup. Turned out the actual system was too expensive to implement, so they put up fake boxes pointed at key spots. Until one day an official with a conscience leaked it to the local paper. :rofl:

Might as well put up those blue ADT signs on all the posts.

.

[C_U_L8R]

3. How convenient they have all these "stories" tee'd up

coincidence? ha.

[originalpckelly]

4. They put them up, I say we take them down. Mail them back to their owners...

so as to avoid any theft, but keep taking the cameras down until they stop putting them up.

I think I'll dress as a Native American, just for the symbolism.

Denver Camera Party anyone?

[originalpckelly]

8. We might also consider putting them in a nice bag of some type...

and leaving them where they were put up.

[EnviroBat]

12. Here here! Camera Party!

I've got a slingshot which fires ball-bearings, and a ski mask. Am I missing anything? FUCK YOU BIG BROTHER! WE'VE GOT OUR EYES ON YOU!

[MADem]

6. What do you mean, coming? They're already here.

They might not have the fancy fellow in the control room zooming in on people, but in most major cities, you spend most of your time on camera.

Classic case--NYC: http://www.mediaeater.com/cameras/

[demnan]

7. If you go up to a peace rally across from the White House

they have cameras all over Layfayette Square Park taking your picture.

[Warpy]

9. They're already here

although it's not a formal network, yet. Businesses in this town have security cameras inside and sometimes outside. There are traffic light cameras. Government offices all have cameras, as do hospitals. Some clothing stores have cameras in the changing rooms, something that makes me glad I learned how to shop in Filene's Basement in Boston. The new system will just allow them to follow a specific person just before and after a crime, a more reliable eyewitness.

Don't worry that people are going to be watching your every move (except in dressing rooms). You can still discreetly pick your nose and scratch your ass. The footage won't be examined unless there has been a crime.

For a true Big Brother system to work, nearly half of us would need to be employed full time to watch the other half and they're not willing to cut into the Pentagon's welfare program for military contractors to do that.

I admit I'm no more concerned about these things than I am about real eyewitnesses. Should I turn to crime, there is always the chance that someone would clearly remember the grandmotherly type reaching into her bag for the Molotov cocktail. In the case of civil uprising, the whole thing would be overwhelmed pretty quickly, just the way it is with human witnesses.

However, should they insist on a series of webcams in and around my home, they will find them draped. I am no thing of beauty and I have compassion for the eyes of any observer, even Big Brother.

By the way, WHAT guy?

[Buns_of_Fire]

10. Thankfully, we in the boonies don't have the budget for it (yet)

The town council DID find enough to hire some guy to sit at the corner of the local intersection with an old Kodak and snap pictures of people who ran the town's stop light. So far, though, all he's caught is the town perv exposing himself 12 times, which pretty much blew the film budget for the year.

[shain from kane]

13. There is a little town south of here that had a part-time patrolman as whatever police force it

had. His brilliant idea was to buy a piece of equipment known as The Big Ear. It was some kind of portable listening device to be set up wherever his patrol car was parked. His stated reason for its purchase was to overhear drug transactions taking place and swoop down on the participants and catch them red-handed. He was accused of listening in on domestic and bedroom conversations for gossip, and was canned a short time later.

[shain from kane]

11. Ever see the movie "The Anderson Tapes" adapted from a book that was

first published in the 1960s.

From IMDB.com ---
A thief (Duke Anderson) just released from ten years in jail, takes up with his old girlfriend (Ingrid) in her posh apartment. He makes plans to rob the entire building. What he doesn't know is that his every move is recorded on audio and video tape, although he is not the subject of any surveillance.