People Want Big Brother To Watch Them
At least that’s what a recent ABC News poll seems to suggest:
Crime-fighting beats privacy in public places: Americans, by nearly a 3-to-1 margin, support the increased use of surveillance cameras — a measure decried by some civil libertarians, but credited in London with helping to catch a variety of perpetrators since the early 1990s.
Given the chief arguments, pro and con — a way to help solve crimes vs. too much of a government intrusion on privacy — it isn’t close: 71 percent of Americans favor the increased use of surveillance cameras, while 25 percent oppose it.
London’s surveillance network, known as the “Ring of Steel,” is said to have aided in the capture of suspects, including those accused of a pair of attempted car bombings in June.
A similar system is coming to New York City, which plans 100 new surveillance cameras in downtown Manhattan by year’s end and 3,000 — public and private — by 2010. Chicago and Baltimore plan expanded surveillance systems as well.
And, apparently, to a city near you soon after that.
