Big Brother coming to a city near you?
New York City’s Mayor Bloomberg was on TV recently, touting the expansion of the Lower Manhattan Security Initiative to include midtown Manhattan. Bloomberg is asking for $24 million in Homeland Security funds to complete this project.
Bloomberg cited London’s “Ring of Steel” that was erected in response to a series of IRA bombings in the early 90’s as an example of how it should be done. The closed circuit tv cameras, radiation detectors and license plate reading cameras are designed to monitor the citizens and protect them against both crime and terrorist attack.
Nevermind that Cambridge criminologistshave concluded that the CCTV setup is only effective at slowing vehicle-related crime and has been ineffective at preventing other types of crime, Mayor Bloomberg has never allowed dissent to sway him from the path he has chosen.
One has to wonder how long it will be before Bloomberg copies the other facets of the “Ring of Steel” and installs the concrete chicanes used to funnel traffic past cameras and police officers. Then he can charge motorists a premium for entering the city similar to the congestion taxes charged in London. 8 British pounds a day, or about $12.80 a day, if you pay on the day you travel into the city, or $16 a day if you wait to get billed.
Bloggers have already said that, in the end, it will simply be a way to generate more revenue through automated ticketing.
They may be correct because it is obvious that it would be a cash cow for the city government while having the cost of the system paid for by the federal government under the guise of anti-terrorism security improvements.
A little taste of Big Brother or another Federal boondoggle? One thing is certain, they are whittling away at our privacy bit by bit and we will all pay for it, one way or another.
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It’s quite scary when you consider how many times we’re caught on film now, between traffic cams, ATM and store cameras, people recording anything that moves; it’ll be so much worse when the “Ring of Steel” finally goes up.
Bloomberg has got to go. http://www.fanboy.com/2009/10/burns-for-mayor.html