This creeps me out.

[Julien Sorel]

And in today's climate of White House-inspired fear, I can easily see it coming.

With more than 4 million CCTV cameras operating around the country, Britain has more video surveillance than anywhere else in the world.

Partially due to its history of attacks by the Irish Republican Army and now the ominous threat of international terrorism since the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, the surveillance network has expanded at a phenomenal rate in recent years.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5942513/

Ask yourself if you want cameras on streetcorners, monitoring your every move. I sure as hell don't. But it starts with a news story, then they say, "They're already doing it in England," and one day Big Brother is here. We're already monitored at work, our electronic communications are not private, cable companies can know what TV shows you watch, your credit card bills are accessible to the government, the government can find out what books you checked out at the library -- our privacy is being stripped away, a little at a time, and few people seem to give a damn.

[sui generis]

1. hey it means jobs

jobs installing the cameras, and millions of jobs monitoring the cameras . . . /sarcasm

[daveskilt]

2. inexplicably I feel safer with it in britain than in the US

and im british. maybe im naive but I fell less like the UK would do the big brother thing and misuse this to spy on citizens than the US who i have no doubt would misuse it.

[Julien Sorel]

You have a different tradition.

The unions are stronger, the corporations are weaker, and people will get out in the streets and fight. There's more of an adversarial relationship between government, corporations, and the people, I think, which means power is more diffuse. Here, the line between corporations and government is blurred, which means there is overlap in power sharing. It creates an entirely different dynamic with regards to how people view their government, and to what degree they trust it.

For some reason, the idea that the rank-and-file military there actually sympathizes with the lower classes would make me feel safer; here the military, if it came down to it, would definitely side with what I will call the "ruling elite," the big institutions that run the country. There's nothing to counter the power of big institutions except their good will, which is an ephemeral thing. Under those circumstances, I want to give those institutions as little of my privacy as I can get away with.

[The Straight Story]

3. I will gladly go for it

When the police, judges, and politicians place cameras in their offices (since we employ them) so that we can insure they are not committing crimes. More people die from political decisions than any other cause...

[calimary]

4. That photo is HILARIOUS!!! And it's TRUE!!!

It's EXACTLY what that vile Pat Peale cretin reminded me of! Great catch!!!

[chiburb]

5. Already have them in Chicago...

Almost every building on LaSalle St. has surveillance cameras pointing not only at the doors, but up and down the sidewalks. Most of them are actively monitored and movable. Plus, the CPD has them installed at intersections in "high crime" areas. That's in addition to the ones installed where drivers ignore traffic lights.

[YellowRubberDuckie]

6. You have no expectation of privacy in public.

Cameras on the streets in England help them nab criminals and criminal activity. I see nothing wrong with it.
Duckie

[Julien Sorel]

7. No, I have no *legal* expection of privacy.

In actual fact, I do have an expecation of privacy. I expect to be able to kiss my girlfriend/boyfriend/mistress and not have it on videotape. I expect to be able to pick my nose or scratch my balls when no one is looking and not have it on tape. With this system, someone is always looking.

[YellowRubberDuckie]

8. Scratching your balls in public...yeah, no one wants to see that.

:evilgrin:
Duckie

[telamachus]

12. You expect privacy in public places?

Why?

[Julien Sorel]

13. To make it perfectly clear,

I do not expect, in public, the kind of near-absolute privacy that I enjoy inside my home. But neither do I expect to have my every movement recorded for posterity and anyone else to see. But that's what would happen with video surveillance. It's a matter of degree: there is now some degree of privacy even in public; stick cameras on streetcorners and it's gone.

[DemExpat]

9. Holland too.....and a large majority of the population support it....

makes them feel that the "bad guys" can't get away with too much with surveillance....

People here have greater trust, perhaps naively, in government, certainly have little negative feeling that the government will horribly abuse the practice.

DemEx

[liontamer]

10. we already have surveillance cameras

We have them in parks and at busy intersections. Look up you probably have them too

[Julien Sorel]

11. Not where I live.

We have a very few at intersections, and those are kind of creepy in themselves.

One of the advantages of living in a right wing state is that people here are too cheap to pay enough taxes for such a system.