Washington Plans Unprecedented Camera Network

REUTERS ^ | February 13, 2002 08:10 AM ET | Reuters

[nunya bidness]

There's always a way to bring attention to the cameras and have fun while doing it.

Click on the pic to learn how to start a chapter in your home town.

[Travis McGee]

Don't you think that's futile?

[nunya bidness]

Probably. But it's funny as hell.

And it makes me feel better knowing that people are aware of the cameras and drawing attention to them.

[Don Joe]

Do your ducts seem old-fashioned, out of date?

"We do the work, you do the pleasure."

Do all the camera-feeds end up at Information Retrieval?

[Don Joe]

Isn't that something out of Alice's Restaurant?

[Don Joe]

The scary thing is that there is a palpable allure to these cameras. While I am troubled at the realization that they're going up all over the place in the cities, I'd dearly like to have one on the light pole across the road, aimed at my house, covering and recording everything that goes on here.

I have had my fill of "rural crime". I'm fed up with scumbags who come on to my property to steal and destroy my stuff. I can honestly say that if the cops were to put a camera up that recorded everything going on here, I'd be their biggest fan.

So, all the hysteria (and valid 1984 comparisons) aside, how do we address the real concerns that make these things attractive to many people?

[FreeTheHostages]

You write: Washington, D.C. is a different kind of place, all right. And it high time we cut off funding for it. BTW, your crime rate is due to your gun laws.
Actually, agree with all of that. I'd add there's more than just the gun laws at work, but that might be a part of it.

[Resplendent]

Lets seee....congress is signing off on anti-free speech legislation called campaign finance reform, and GW will sign it all of which limits the right of the public to speak out in elections....Next, the federal government is still in freak out mode, so it is planning to spend billions on a camera spy network with face recognition software to scan the faces of everyday Americans going about their daily lives.

Future dictators will really love these new tools. Spying on the general public has become the main focus of federal alphabet agencies.