“They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.”—Benjamin Franklin
This quote continues to ring in my ears as I consider an item before the
The police department says a nine-block area of Campustown accounts for 35% of the city’s drug and alcohol related arrests, 7% of its property crimes, and 13% of its assaults and other violent crimes. The notion is that the installation of cameras and related signage has the potential to deter some of this crime. There is also the idea that the cameras would give law enforcement a leg-up on stemming crimes that come with large gatherings of people during events like Veishea and home football games. I know there are Campustown business owners who are fed up with break-ins, vandalism, and other acts of misbehavior who welcome the cameras. I guess my views would be different if I was one of those business owners, of had been touched by crime. I haven’t, so my objection is a tad abstract.
This is not who we are. This flies in the face of the very ideals this country was founded upon. Indeed, it was the removal of government shackles that gave this nation its impetus. It is true that we are an increasingly “watched” society, and much of that is of our own choice. Whether it’s using mobile phones with on-board GPS functions, signing ourselves up for Facebook, Twitter, Foursqaure, Linkedin, and every other social media network under the sun, or using debt and credit cards or other “electronic” forms of payment for all of our purchases, we are giving up privacy for the sake of convenience and being “in the moment.” This is not that case. This is government surveillance, plain and simple.
When I talked about this Monday, I was a bit surprised at the number of folks who offered up this: “If you’re not doing something wrong, then what do you have to worry about?” Here’s what I worry about. IT’S. NOT. WHO. WE. ARE. It is not my job to prove to the government, even indirectly, that I’m not doing something wrong. If I commit a crime, I should be arrested, charged, prosecuted, sentenced, and punished. That’s how we do it here.
I’ll leave you with this—I propose that we allow the government to put up cameras on every light pole and traffic signal in the city. We then allow the governmet to point those cameras at your houses.
C’mon—what’s the big deal? I mean, if you’re not doing anything wrong, then what do you have to worry about, right?
