Happy new year from Big Brother
by Jeremy 'Panda Man' Weidenhof | 12/22/2005 11:31 am | Alert moderatorWell here is some encouraging news for the “free” people of Britain.
Britain is to become the first country in the world where the movements of all vehicles on the roads are recorded. A new national surveillance system will hold the records for at least two years.
Interestingly, the existing network of British traffic monitoring cameras is being converted for use in the new system.
More than 50 local authorities have signed agreements to allow the police to convert thousands of existing traffic cameras so they can read [vehicle] number plates automatically.
Chief constables are also on the verge of brokering agreements with the Highways Agency, supermarkets and petrol station owners to incorporate their own CCTV cameras into the network.
According to the Association of Chief Police Officers,
"This development forms the basis of a 24/7 vehicle movement database that will revolutionise arrest, intelligence and crime investigation opportunities on a national basis," it says.
Welcome to the police state. Perhaps Orwell’s classic should be renamed 2006.
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16 Responses to “Happy new year from Big Brother”
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December 22nd, 2005 at 12:15 pm
Yep, those of us who questioned the use of these cameras as the beginnings of a big brother type arrangement are just a bunch of radical kooks who don’t want to get ticketed for speeding. Oh wait…you mean they ARE going to do that? I somehow doubt we will see any apologies from those who said we were loonies.
December 22nd, 2005 at 12:26 pm
Just so the “children” are safe?
I’m with you Bill…I wont ever get an apology!
Oh, and Britian never was truly free!
We were! Until we gave up our freedoms for safety!
and decided to allow a taxation on our property…no one here owns property…just like before our forefathers created this “once” great nation.
December 22nd, 2005 at 12:29 pm
Loonies? Radical kooks? I certainly wouldn’t go that far. But I do question how “big brother” this really is. In the early 90’s my wife opined that the internet was “big brother”. She couldn’t believe that I would get on the internet because (in her mind) the gubmint would have the ability to watch my every move in cyberspace.
Well, they do to some extent, but after more than ten years of surfing and even conducting financial transactions on line I haven’t really felt the ill effects. Maybe I’m just not that interesting to them. I guess I still don’t really see traffic cameras as the beginnings of “big brother” any more than I saw the internet that way.
December 22nd, 2005 at 12:43 pm
#3
Uh, Mike. What does the internet have to do with a camera system being set up specifically to watch, track, log, and store the movements of “free” people?
December 22nd, 2005 at 12:56 pm
The government undoubtedly could watch the movements of free people through cyberspace, even though the internet was not set up for that purpose. Yes, that is different than a camera system being set up expressly for that purpose. But the ability is there in either case.
The question then is what they do with the information that is gained. I no more care if the government watches me drive than I care if they watch me waste time surfing. Frankly, I think the watchers care less than I do. I’m probably not all that interesting to them. If I am, they’re really biding their time.
I’m sure mistakes will be made along the way of implementing these camera systems just as mistakes/vulnerabilities were and still are made with security in cyberspace. I just personally find it a pretty long leap from weaknesses in technology to saying that either system is “big brother”. Hopefully I’ve explained the parallel better than I did in #3.
December 22nd, 2005 at 1:58 pm
I still think at some point they will put a bar code on newborns asses. Then they can track us all thru life.
December 22nd, 2005 at 5:52 pm
Don’t the police already have the authority to monitor our driving? This will just enhance their ability to do so. As long as they keep their cameras out of my home I don’t care if someone watches me drive around. I’ve got nothing to hide. Neither do most of the self-described “radical kooks” who use a faulty slippery slope argument to support their assertions that traffic cameras equal Big Brother. The two are not even close.
December 22nd, 2005 at 5:57 pm
#6 gregg
I can see it now. Once a year everyone lines up at the copy machine at the city library or post office, drops trau and sits on the glass and makes a copy to verify your existence. (It may require two positions/passes for some individuals)Underground tatoo artists will make a killin’ with the criminal element re-coding behinds so the gubment don’t know who or where they are. Mayor White will charge extra for Houston residents. His position with the media, “It’s for the safety of our citizens!”
December 22nd, 2005 at 7:08 pm
Nice, Maltboy. So nice to know you don’t mind if government agents follow you around all day. Wow. That’s wild, man. I can’t understand a person who doesn’t mind being monitored every moment he is outdoors.
Is this what the RAF fought the Luftwaffe for? Is this what Londoners endured the blitz for? My God, I bet most liberals don’t even know what the Luftwaffe or V2 rockets were.
The uninformed are doomed to tyranny….
Pray for humanity…..
December 22nd, 2005 at 7:18 pm
Britain has more cameras focusing on it’s citizens than any country in the world.
All those sophisticated technology could not detect the bombers few months ago.
One needs to ask what good are those cameras if they don’t blink when they are expected.
December 22nd, 2005 at 8:29 pm
I am stunned at the lack of desire for LIBERTY!
Maybe if some freaking jackass sat outside your house and filmed your families coming and goings would you get it!
This country is doomed to tyranny!
Guess who pays for the cameras?
The people pay for their own demise.
December 22nd, 2005 at 8:51 pm
Seems to me that with all of this personal monitoring activity, employment in the UK will be at an all time high. Question… Whose watching/monitoring the folks doing the monitoring? And whose watching the monitors who watch the original monitors… And according to #11, whose jackdonkey is watching/filming those watchers? Who dicphers the info in the end? Where does it end?
December 22nd, 2005 at 10:49 pm
#9. Somehow, through some extremely, um, creative reasoning, you make the quantum leap from camera surveillance to government agents following me around and monitoring me every second I’m outdoors. Now THAT’S wild. Next time you’re in a department store look up at the ceiling. Those little black globes aren’t fire detectors, they’re cameras and they’re watching you! Gasp! And don’t look now but there are cameras monitoring the freeways! Yikes! And they even take your picture when you get money from the ATM machine! OMG!
Oh no! Here come the black helicopters! Hide!
The delusional are doomed to eternal paranoia…
Pray for Prozac…
December 23rd, 2005 at 12:14 am
The marvel of all history is the patience with which men and women submit to burdens unnecessarily laid upon them by their governments.
William H. Borah
December 23rd, 2005 at 2:42 am
#13
Get off the prozac bud.
There is a difference between public roads and private stores.
#14
Great quote!
December 23rd, 2005 at 10:16 am
#14
key word: “unnecessarily”
In this instance, one’s determination of necessity depends on whether they think the police should be given the best tools available to LEGALLY do their job. I happen to believe they should. I don’t recall that anyone suggested the cameras were in anyway unconstitutional. Rest assured the second I feel my constitutional rights are violated I’ll be raising hell along side you.
#15
Not when it comes to surveillance. Do the police already have legal authority to monitor the roads; yes or no? (Hint: the answer is yes). So why is everyone so upset when technology allows them to do it better? The same paranoid nonsense was spouted when police started using radar guns. Times continued to change. Methods continued to improve. So now the police are going to be able to do a better job because they have the tools and the legal authority to do so. They will still need a warrant to search your home. Your guns will remain untouched. Your rights are still intact. BTW, Prozac is for paranoid loonies, not rational humans with the ability to discern between a traffic camera and government agents.
I’ll save my worrying for the real issues like our trade deficit with China. That could do more damage to this country than a million cameras watching me drive down the road. If we don’t do something to curb our appetite for their cheap goods soon, it could end up ruining us all. On the bright side, at least the government won’t need the cameras if we can’t afford to go anywhere. But, I digress.