Forget China......

Just yesterday I posted this regarding censorship of internet usage in China:

A kinder, gentler form of tyrrany. Now ain't that cute?

What I can't understand, is that there are those in our own country who would move us closer and closer to that day when we'll be seeing the equivalent of Jingjing and Chacha on our own comptuer screens.

We already have thought crimes on the books.

Jingjing and Chacha can't be far behind.

Little did I know that Jingjing and Chacha, in various forms, are alive and well in Chicago...as well as other cities:

Daley wants security cameras at bars
By Judy Keen, USA TODAY
CHICAGO — Surveillance cameras — aimed at government buildings, train platforms and intersections here — might soon be required at corner taverns and swanky nightclubs.
A police camera, mounted with a microphone, can detect the sound of gunshots within a two-block radius. A police camera, mounted with a microphone, can detect the sound of gunshots within a two-block radius.
File photo/AP

Mayor Richard Daley wants to require bars open until 4 a.m. to install security cameras that can identify people entering and leaving the building. Other businesses open longer than 12 hours a day, including convenience stores, eventually would have to do the same.

Daley's proposed city ordinance adds a dimension to security measures installed after the Sept. 11 attacks.

The proliferation of security cameras — especially if the government requires them in private businesses — troubles some civil liberties advocates.

"There is no reason to mandate all of those cameras unless you one day see them being linked up to the city's 911 system," says Ed Yohnka of the Illinois American Civil Liberties Union. "We have perhaps reached that moment of critical mass when people ... want to have a dialogue about how much of this is appropriate."

Milwaukee is considering requiring cameras at stores that have called police three or more times in a year. The Baltimore County Council in Maryland ordered large malls to put cameras in parking areas after a murder in one garage last year. The measure passed despite objections from business groups.

"We require shopping centers to put railings on stairs and install sprinkler systems for public safety. This is a proper next step," says Baltimore County Councilman Kevin Kamenetz, who sponsored the ordinance.

This move by Emperor Daley does not surprise me in the least... Daley has a long history of unilateral, dictatorial actions. What will be telling is if these plans are actually allowed to stand. How much of a police state are we willing to endure in the name of security? And just how far will this be allowed to progress? Will there come a day, incrementally, when cameras are mandated to be installed within our own homes?

Call me a tinfoil-hat wearer if you want. But it appears that as technology gets bigger, our privacy rights get smaller.

Although a few decades late, it would appear that 1984 may not be all that far away.


(Filed under miscellany)