Six U.S. Cities Make the List of Most Surveilled Places in the World

Re:Six U.S. Cities Make the List of Most Surveilled Places i... by olivermarks on Thursday September 19, 2019 @12:13PM (#21017625)

'Surveilled' by who is the bigger question, and what public access and rights do we have around the data produced, and is it being fed to some sort of Stasi style panopticon? It's remarkable to me the lack of public surveillance video produced after major events - the Epstein NY 'suicide' is the latest example, the 2017 UK London Bridge event another. (The latter had video from a mile away filmed with 90's technology as the main news story). I feel we are very overdue in the free world for legislation around citizen rights and access to video, and licensing for any entity or people who want to install surveillance, much like the recent drone FAA registration.

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Re:Six U.S. Cities Make the List of Most Surveilled Places i... by hatchershoes on Thursday September 19, 2019 @05:30PM (#21020942)

Surveilled by who: everyone. Have you considered how many corporations "work with the government"? The DMV itself sells your data. Everyone is spying, hacking, and selling your data. They're watching, identifying, tabulating, and tracking. You are not free to move around without your government knowing about it.

What rights do we have? None. 9/11. Terror. How many buildings fell that day?

Panopticon: We've been talking about the NSA, evidence in hand, since 2013, after Clapper lied, under oath, on public television.

Epstein 'suicide': the people who work behind the scenes are beholden to nobody except on paper. "Intelligence" is a free pass to do anything you want.

Overdue for legislation around citizen rights: Of course, in a "free world". Do you expect anything to change? What happens when our cities are covered in drones? One for each person maybe. The CIA had dragonfly drones in the 1970s. In the last five years, we have erected surveillance cameras and tracking sensors absolutely everywhere, in plain sight, and most people somehow simply aren't aware. Others ignore or make excuses. We call politicians "public servants" but government doesn't work "for the people". Government works for government, and it get bigger every day, its budget gets bigger every day, and its power increases because its eyes see farther. Soon there will be no private space left, and people will accept it. It will be suspicious to desire privacy. We still hear a chorus of out-of-touch masses bellowing the programmed refrain "Well, I have nothing to hide". We are reminded that "If you see something, say something". Report anything that does not conform to your idea of normalcy. Get a doorbell cam and connect it with the police. Trust your government. We are entering the end of the road.

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Re:Six U.S. Cities Make the List of Most Surveilled Places i... by mytailorisrich on Thursday September 19, 2019 @12:28PM (#21017796)

There are plenty of surveillance (and other) videos of the London Bridge attack.

The question is rather why would they publicise videos of people being stabbed to death or run over in HD gory details?

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Re:Six U.S. Cities Make the List of Most Surveilled Places i... by anigbrowl on Thursday September 19, 2019 @02:25PM (#21019039)

Because people want to know what happened and how. Otherwise liberty, accountability, and self-determination go out the window.

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Re:Six U.S. Cities Make the List of Most Surveilled Places i... by mytailorisrich on Thursday September 19, 2019 @02:39PM (#21019191)

We are fully informed of what happened and how, including through detailed accounts, not least because, under UK law, a public inquest took place.

But, as said, I don't see the point of publicising videos of people being slaughtered.

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Re:Six U.S. Cities Make the List of Most Surveilled Places i... by anigbrowl on Thursday September 19, 2019 @05:36PM (#21020975)

There are numerous examples of public inquiries failing to provide a full picture of the truth which then came out many years later, eg in Northern Ireland. There's a documentary running on the BBC right now about the Troubles featuring lots of photographs and footage that were suppressed at the time.

I don't care whether you see the point; if I wish to investigate a matter of public or historic interest, why should I be bound by your preferences?

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Re:Six U.S. Cities Make the List of Most Surveilled Places i... by olivermarks on Thursday September 19, 2019 @01:19PM (#21018363)

who is 'they'? There are vey few surveillance videos of that incident publicly available. I was thinking of this one when I wrote the above https://youtu.be/BR1s7az-f-k

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Re:Six U.S. Cities Make the List of Most Surveilled Places i... by mytailorisrich on Thursday September 19, 2019 @01:53PM (#21018703)

> There are vey few surveillance videos of that incident publicly available.

Indeed. That's what I wrote.

I think it's a good thing.

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Re:Six U.S. Cities Make the List of Most Surveilled Places i... by anigbrowl on Thursday September 19, 2019 @02:27PM (#21019063)

Why would you want to be less informed? Such information shouldn't be sensationalized or exploited for profit, but nor should it be suppressed. If you choose to kept in the dark - which is not the same thing as choosing not to look - then you are inviting deception and exploitation.

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Re:Six U.S. Cities Make the List of Most Surveilled Places i... by olivermarks on Thursday September 19, 2019 @03:17PM (#21019617)

The lack of presented evidence feeds theories and ideas about what actually happened, strengthens local anecdotal witness word of mouth stories. Epstein is a good example of this, more questions than answers and a sudden silence from the corporate media

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Re:Six U.S. Cities Make the List of Most Surveilled Places i... by cameronh90 on Thursday September 19, 2019 @04:13PM (#21020244)

There are no remotely mainstream conspiracy theories about the London Bridge attacks. There is enough trust in our police, government, legal and justice systems and journalists to assume they aren't making this up...

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