The political establishment in city after city is putting cameras in and the people are told that it is going to make us all safer. Now it’s Rochester’s turn to get cameras and they want us to buy the same lies. I don’t think that we the people are this gullible. The evidence that this is a farce is in London, UK, where not only have the millions of CCTV cameras not been able to stop a rise in crime, but they are also not able to solve crimes that occur under their watch. Here are a few articles for reading:

CCTV boom has failed to slash crime, say police - guardian.co.uk

Massive investment in CCTV cameras to prevent crime in the UK has failed to have a significant impact, despite billions of pounds spent on the new technology, a senior police officer piloting a new database has warned. Only 3% of street robberies in London were solved using CCTV images, despite the fact that Britain has more security cameras than any other country in Europe.

Tens of Thousands of CCTV Cameras, Yet 80% of Crime Unsolved - thisislondon.co.uk

 

London has 10,000 crime-fighting CCTV cameras which cost £200 million, figures show today.

But an analysis of the publicly funded spy network, which is owned and controlled by local authorities and Transport for London, has cast doubt on its ability to help solve crime.

 

Lonon: Panopticon Cracks - defensetech.org

Londoners are seen on the city’s vast amalgam of surveillance cameras an average of 300 times a day. Which means that the terrorists behind yesterday’s bombings almost certainly knew they’d be caught on tape — and went ahead with their attacks anyway.

Cameras ‘fail to reduce crime’ - Independent, The (London)

Researchers at South Bank University have monitored the effect of introducing the cameras in Sutton, south London. Crime fell by 13 per cent in the area where the cameras were installed. However, it decreased by 30 per cent in the borough as a whole.

More articles can be found, but the consensus is the same. The statistics are so overwhelming that the cameras aren’t doing anything to stop crime that it should be obvious what path we need to avoid here. Who really wants to feel like we’re living in a prison?

And yet, only weeks into their operational duty, the Democrat and Chronicle has kissed butt and declared success for the cameras. The headline reads:

Police cameras lead to 7 drug-related arrests in 3 weeks in Rochester

Wow, really? Seven whole arrests? In only 3 weeks?!?! That’s about (52/3*7=121.333) drug arrests a year!

Oh wait a minute….SO WHAT. Think about it. Most drug users and dealers are non-violent and criminalizing drugs and going after them in the so called ‘War on Drugs’ has only given further incentive to the remaining dealers to become more violent by increasing the money to be made in drugs. The scarcity causes the trade to become profitable causing gangs to rise up and territory to be fought after. If you want to see the whole story, then you need to see this movie:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n5am_VXd2ik]

(American Drug War - trailer)

This movie exposes the American Drug War for the scam that it is. The government ships in the drugs, sells the drugs, busts you for drugs, puts you in private prisons owned by the banks and then the banks reinvest their money to do it all over again.

Official website: americandrugwar.com

This brings me to my next point. Even if the cameras around the city did lead to more ‘drug-related’ arrests, is this what we were promised? Weren’t we promised a reduction in violent crimes? How about property crimes? This was a classic bait and switch. Although we were promised that these cameras will reduce violent crime the Democrat and Chronicle is more than willing to sound the victory horn over a few drug arrests.

Underlying all of this is my fundamental believe that a surveillance society cannot be a free society. If you truly want liberty then you must be opposed to police-state surveillance. Not because you’ve done anything wrong or are planning to, but because you have your human dignity. It is ultimately the social fabric of society, the bonds between neighbors in neighborhoods and a respect for life that will reduce crime in our city, not endless surveillance.

I’ll end with a quote from Duffy himself:

“It’s a great deterrent”… Some people have moved down the road, then out of the camera’s range, the mayor said.

So what you’re saying is that it has deterred people from selling drugs on that corner, but now they’ve just moved down the road? Wow I bet a child could have seen that one coming.

Tags: CCTV, Crime, Democrat and Chronicle, Duffy, Freedom, Homeland Security, Liberty, London, Murder, Panopticon, Police, Police State, Politics, Prison, Property Crime, Robberies, Rochester, Security Cameras, Surveillance Cameras, Sutton, Terrorism, UK, Violent Crime, War on Drugs, War on Terror