POLITICS: George Orwell was a Prophet.
Forum rules
Welcome to the Leverguns.Com General Discussions Forum. This is a high-class place so act respectable. We discuss most anything here other than politics... politely.
Please post political post in the new Politics forum.
Welcome to the Leverguns.Com General Discussions Forum. This is a high-class place so act respectable. We discuss most anything here other than politics... politely.
Please post political post in the new Politics forum.
- Old Ironsights
- Posting leader...
- Posts: 15084
- Joined: Mon Apr 02, 2007 9:27 am
- Location: Waiting for the Collapse
- Contact:
POLITICS: George Orwell was a Prophet.
http://washingtontimes.com/apps/pbcs.dl ... /484869030
D.C. police state
THE WASHINGTON TIMES EDITORIAL
April 10, 2008
Big brother is coming to the District of Columbia. As The Washington Times reported yesterday, city officials are handing D.C. Police unprecedented access to a city network of 5,200 traffic, school and public-housing cameras — now to be used for anticrime and antiterrorism purposes in the D.C. Police closed-circuit surveillance system. Presently, D.C. Police operate only 92 crime cameras in addition to several homeland security cameras. This is quite a staggering "repurposing." To stick with the warranted "Big Brother" theme: It makes Winston Smiths of us all. These 61 square miles of city each bear an average of 85.2 cameras among the new prying eyes. Now that's a crime.
We consulted with the Libertarian National Committee's Andrew Davis to get a read on the reaction. As he told us: "In America, people should not be forced to assume that they're being monitored by law enforcement throughout the day." Perhaps being monitored is an inevitable fact of life in the nation's capital. Perhaps not. We believe that crime monitoring can be done without government proceeding so far beyond the original parameters that we now near the point where no simple action engaged in on the street goes unrecorded. The old saying is, "Give 'em an inch, and they'll take a mile." The District is now taking 61. Soon we'll be mirroring London's infamous "Ring of Steel," Mr. Davis thunders, comparing the District (not unjustifiably) to that "state system of government."
Mayor Adrian Fenty defends the effort as a needed enhancement to surveillance and public-safety capabilities. That it also threatens to make the District perhaps the most thoroughly surveilled, spied-upon city in the nation save perhaps Chicago does not seem to warrant much attention in his view. Can we not combat crime without turning city residents into lieges of the state? There is also the question of whether the network will even do much to combat crime. The crime-camera record is mixed. Any decline in crime in areas surrounding cameras can simply shift into the shadows, where criminal deeds evade police watch. Do we then install cameras inside homes and offices and automobiles?
Of course, toward the end of crime-fighting, we continue to advocate something Mr. Fenty considers anathema. That is an end to the District's repressive and unconstitutional gun ban, now under consideration by the Supreme Court.
Naturally, the District expects that the federal government will subsidize part of the needed $1.7 million for repurposed surveillance. How "nanny-state."
Recall that this system was originally supposed to be "passive." That was the term of art when the first surveillance network was granted through "emergency" legislation. Now, two years later, the emergency is permanent. The system is now "active," creeping ever further into the everyday lives of citizens.
D.C. police state
THE WASHINGTON TIMES EDITORIAL
April 10, 2008
Big brother is coming to the District of Columbia. As The Washington Times reported yesterday, city officials are handing D.C. Police unprecedented access to a city network of 5,200 traffic, school and public-housing cameras — now to be used for anticrime and antiterrorism purposes in the D.C. Police closed-circuit surveillance system. Presently, D.C. Police operate only 92 crime cameras in addition to several homeland security cameras. This is quite a staggering "repurposing." To stick with the warranted "Big Brother" theme: It makes Winston Smiths of us all. These 61 square miles of city each bear an average of 85.2 cameras among the new prying eyes. Now that's a crime.
We consulted with the Libertarian National Committee's Andrew Davis to get a read on the reaction. As he told us: "In America, people should not be forced to assume that they're being monitored by law enforcement throughout the day." Perhaps being monitored is an inevitable fact of life in the nation's capital. Perhaps not. We believe that crime monitoring can be done without government proceeding so far beyond the original parameters that we now near the point where no simple action engaged in on the street goes unrecorded. The old saying is, "Give 'em an inch, and they'll take a mile." The District is now taking 61. Soon we'll be mirroring London's infamous "Ring of Steel," Mr. Davis thunders, comparing the District (not unjustifiably) to that "state system of government."
Mayor Adrian Fenty defends the effort as a needed enhancement to surveillance and public-safety capabilities. That it also threatens to make the District perhaps the most thoroughly surveilled, spied-upon city in the nation save perhaps Chicago does not seem to warrant much attention in his view. Can we not combat crime without turning city residents into lieges of the state? There is also the question of whether the network will even do much to combat crime. The crime-camera record is mixed. Any decline in crime in areas surrounding cameras can simply shift into the shadows, where criminal deeds evade police watch. Do we then install cameras inside homes and offices and automobiles?
Of course, toward the end of crime-fighting, we continue to advocate something Mr. Fenty considers anathema. That is an end to the District's repressive and unconstitutional gun ban, now under consideration by the Supreme Court.
Naturally, the District expects that the federal government will subsidize part of the needed $1.7 million for repurposed surveillance. How "nanny-state."
Recall that this system was originally supposed to be "passive." That was the term of art when the first surveillance network was granted through "emergency" legislation. Now, two years later, the emergency is permanent. The system is now "active," creeping ever further into the everyday lives of citizens.
C2N14... because life is not energetic enough.
מנא, מנא, תקל, ופרסין Daniel 5:25-28... Got 7.62?
Not Depressed enough yet? Go read National Geographic, July 1976
Gott und Gewehr mit uns!
מנא, מנא, תקל, ופרסין Daniel 5:25-28... Got 7.62?
Not Depressed enough yet? Go read National Geographic, July 1976
Gott und Gewehr mit uns!
- Ysabel Kid
- Moderator
- Posts: 27873
- Joined: Mon Sep 17, 2007 7:10 pm
- Location: South Carolina, USA
- Contact:
-
- Senior Levergunner
- Posts: 1804
- Joined: Tue Feb 19, 2008 3:27 am
- Location: Wiregrass Area,Alabama
-
- Levergunner 2.0
- Posts: 118
- Joined: Fri Feb 15, 2008 11:02 pm
- Location: NC
- Old Ironsights
- Posting leader...
- Posts: 15084
- Joined: Mon Apr 02, 2007 9:27 am
- Location: Waiting for the Collapse
- Contact:
Forget the "wall" on the mehican border.
I want walls around all of these idiot Urban Centers.
Then they can ban all the guns/freedom/common sense they want. But then we can prevent the contageon from leaving too.
I want walls around all of these idiot Urban Centers.
Then they can ban all the guns/freedom/common sense they want. But then we can prevent the contageon from leaving too.
C2N14... because life is not energetic enough.
מנא, מנא, תקל, ופרסין Daniel 5:25-28... Got 7.62?
Not Depressed enough yet? Go read National Geographic, July 1976
Gott und Gewehr mit uns!
מנא, מנא, תקל, ופרסין Daniel 5:25-28... Got 7.62?
Not Depressed enough yet? Go read National Geographic, July 1976
Gott und Gewehr mit uns!
- J Miller
- Member Emeritus
- Posts: 14884
- Joined: Sat Mar 31, 2007 7:46 pm
- Location: Not in IL no more ... :)
Naw, Remember Raccoon City? The T-Virus got loose and no mater what they did it still got out. They closed the gates to the big wall, and eventually nuked the city, but it didn't stop the contagion.Old Ironsights wrote:Forget the "wall" on the mehican border.
I want walls around all of these idiot Urban Centers.
Then they can ban all the guns/freedom/common sense they want. But then we can prevent the contageon from leaving too.
The only thing that will get rid of that kind of mentality is a total collapse of all government. Those who think right will survive. Those who are sheeple will die. As long as there is a government to "take care" of the sheep, they will never think for themselves.
Joe
***Be sneaky, get closer, bust the cap on him when you can put the ball where it counts .***
I consider Ben Stein to be the same.Pisgah wrote:Orwell was not a prophet. He was just a keen observer of human nature, a student of history, and an intellectual -- something that's even rarer than a prophet!
It's like looking both ways before you cross the street, look into the past and
consider whats going on now and you can pretty much surmise the future.
Jeeps
Semper Fidelis
Pay attention to YOUR Bill of Rights, in this day and age it is all we have.
Semper Fidelis
Pay attention to YOUR Bill of Rights, in this day and age it is all we have.