19 May 2014
Big Brother is Watching!
I have written a number of times about George Orwell grinning in his grave as the spectre of 24-hour surveillance becomes a reality. We have already seen that GCSB and NSA are happily spying on your email metadata, while UK has built a national network of CCTV cameras.
Today, it has been announced that NZ Police will have access to all 2500 CCTV cameras run by Auckland City, with lots more to add.
The part of that article which shows that Big Brother has won the war for freedom is the bit which shows 90% of ordinary citizens supporting CCTV coverage being available to police. The presumption of innocence until guilt is proven no longer seems to be relevant to the apathetic majority.
Yet, the question of whether CCTV cameras reduce crime is still under discussion, with only a miniscule reduction in crime rates seen to date. Despite there being no overwhelming evidence to support this absurd erosion of our human right to not be subject to surveillance, people have swallowed the idea because terrorism.
Am I the only one to see the irony that with terrorists accounting for
about 20 murders in total in the west over the past decade, against tens of
thousands of ordinary murders taking place, the argument that CCTV stops
terrorism is absurdly flawed?
Copyright © Alan Charman