(06-04-2020, 09:43 AM)Bob Butler 54 Wrote:(06-04-2020, 09:02 AM)David Horn Wrote: We may be witnessing a change of heart. Why George Floyd's death has gotten traction, and not the many others that preceded it, is hard to understand, but it appears to be the case.
Cameras are part of it. There are just too many people with cell phones along with a habit of using them when they see something wrong.
But there is also a repetition. It has been a few generations since the civil rights movement. That resulted in a big change. Still, it did not solve the problem in all aspects. Black Lives Matter did not appear with George Floyd's death. Each time clear videos surfaced, the protests got louder. They may finally be getting loud enough.
Back in 1984 I saw one commentator on a news program explain why, despite all the surveillance present then (you really have no privacy in a store, as hidden cameras are everywhere in case you should try to shoplift) suggest that even if Big Brother is watching us, we are watching Big Brother, too. And I do not mean the TV show!
What Orwell missed in his dystopian novel was that a surveillance-driven State would need armies of watchers. Most of what we do isn't interesting. So someone is watching cat videos. Yawn! So someone sends an e-mail giving a recipe for stuffing to go with the Thanksgiving turkey. Yawn! Most of what we do does not merit attention. Note well that a stealthily-hidden 'shower-cam' offends practically everyone and suggests a user in contempt of normal decencies in public life. We have no obligation to tolerate that sort of surveillance.
So I don't consider my trip to the all-in-one store a high point of my existence. I am there to get some groceries and perhaps pick up prescriptions, or an occasional 'sundry' such as a magazine or a video... but I know enough to not try to sneak out with something. I have done so by accident but returned to rectify the situation by returning the item. I have also left stuff behind.
OK. Most of us know that the shoplifter is not our friend. If police radar catches someone going 74 in a 45 zone, then don't ask me for any sympathy.
Obviously, stores and the police are not the only ones to have cameras. Getting caught doing a crime while a news camera rolls is a very bad idea because the news media and law enforcement often work together -- to get stories. Some stories are for the Six O'Clock or Eleven O'Clock News, but it it is of crime... news media and law enforcement have cause to share information about a disgusting crime. There is no privacy if one is caught on a news camera.
We have smart-phones that contain still and video cameras, and they can catch all sorts of crimes. So if someone in front of me on "Neil Armstrong Boulevard" happens to be driving in ways suggesting a drunk or drugged driver, I might pull over and take some video... and turn it over to the local police. Maybe the police might not be able to catch the fellow as an impaired driver, but the police can pay a visit to the owner of a Ford Taurus with licence plates 5XXX9999 and warn that the car has been driven in a suspicious manner.
And note well -- cameras are just the thing to record police brutality, too. Some police forces now have running cameras in all squad cars.
Tough luck, crooks, whatever side you are of the badge... "Little Sister" is watching you, too.
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated Communist but instead the people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists -- Hannah Arendt.