I thought the "O" was for "Orwell."
Posted on 04/29/2007 10:33:14 AM PDT by traviskicks
So you’re in favor of banning firearms in the UK, right? And you don’t mind government cameras tracking your every move? This sounds more like French-style collectivist statism than “freedom” to me.
See unlike the paranoid delusions of the Libertines, I have actually seen the system in action and it poses utterly NO threat to Civil Liberties at all. All it does is allow the officers in the video van to patrol a greater swatch of ground. There is no difference at all between the camera and the officer on patrol. NONE.
Areas under camera surveillance are clear marked as such.
Seems to me this is just more of the same old Libertines dogma. They always try to rationalize their own desires to ignore certain inconvenient laws, such as those governing drug use, as being some how matters of principal instead of merely childish self-indulgence.
The recent capture of the 7/7 mastermind should open old wounds. He knew that young moslems in the UK could be used against Britain. So why has the UK imported so many moslems? Why are they free to speak out in favor of dismantling democratic institutions in the west but Brits aren’t free to speak out against them? Why has the UK resorted to Big Brother policing tactics instead of deporting its surplus of moslems and asorted anti-British colonial imports? Why do citizens have to endure loss of their freedoms because of this?
It’s no wonder they need cameras everywhere. They can’t trust the people who live there, and instability is rampant. It takes the crushing power of a state to keep this all in balance.
Drat! I’ll try to be IBTBL next time.
I think not wanting the government to watch every move we make is something most of us can agree on.
No doubt, Julius. Of course the Tories are always there to tell us that the government is always right, even on this thread.
Conservatives wish to restrict government and give back self defense to the people, not this camera BS and a defenseless disarmed populace.
True conservatives, that is. The pretenders want license to tap your phones, take your repeating arms, and silence your speech.
Are you for real?
In philosophical debates, many philosophers like to soften their opponents to a contrary view by taking it in small steps until they reach the other side. Is this what you are trying to do? At what point are your liberties infringed by the government always watching you?
Step 1 (lowest level): license plates and drivers licenses to be able to crudely monitor citizens on the roads. Reason claimed: taxation and certification.
Step 2: video cameras so that we can track people by time and place. Reason claimed: public safety.
Step 3: computer tracking devices in cars to provide high resolution tracking of vehicles. Reason claimed: taxation for road use. This is currently proposed for trucks in much of Europe and possibly might get applied to cars.
Now with these 3 softening steps, it doesn’t seem so illogical to consider whether perhaps we should implement a government computer system that could determine the location of a person 24 hours a day. After all, we already claim to have the right to observe you completely outside your home and in your car for reasons of public safety and taxation. And why can’t we require that citizens carry ID at all times? Furthermore, since we’ve already shown that we have the right to know where our citizens are at, why not have the ID carry RFID chips. It would certainly make it easier for police to round up witness chip-carriers around the scene of a crime. And roving police (and cameras) could hunt down citizens who refused to carry their chip, eliminating non-compliants. With this we could track down all drug use, illegal firearms, people who shoplift, or political enemies. Imagine the power!
Welcome to America, sir. You are a truly fine emmisary of the commonwealth, and your courage to speak out to both Americans and British citizens is noteworthy. Thank you.
Would you classify the general government as a more leftist form of socialism? Those cameras could be put to bad use if a hardcore Stalinist gained power.
That department sounds familiar. I wonder if it's doing anything about Islamic immigration?
Around 2%.
I thought the "O" was for "Orwell."
Even though your've been over there, evidently you haven't kept up with their latest models.
Their new cameras are equiped with loudspeakers, so that the monitor can yell at the subjects if they need yelling at. I'm not making it up, it was reported a few weeks ago that this was the next stepp.
Is there any possibility of even the slightest hint of rationality on this thread or is all we going to be treated to here are absurdly ignorant misreferences to Orwell’s 1984 (which based on some of the comments here most of you have never actually read) and the nonsense stop regurgitation of absurd childish sloganeering?
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