White Rose is a protest blog collective focusing on civil liberties in the UK.
It was set up to point a finger at the erosion of personal freedom in the UK.
Government's active measures introduce new means of control such as identity cards and surveillance cameras, the passive measures such as weakening of double jeopardy and presumption of innocence.


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Gabriel Syme and Perry de Havilland of Samizdata.net to rally the Anglosphere behind the UK.
White Rose contributors are those bloggers and non-bloggers who oppose restrictions on personal liberties.

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Friday, September 10, 2004
Big Brother in Chicago
Gabriel Syme (London)
(0)   Surveillance

Mayor of the City of Chicago has outlined elaborate camera network. The plan is to monitor the city a vast security network from a hi-tech command center. Thousands of surveillance cameras will be linked - and authorities will be alerted to crimes and terrorist acts.

Some people are concerned about "Big Brother" invading their privacy but Mayor Daley says the cameras will be located in public areas. The city's plan is to route the live images provided by those cameras on the public way into a unified network piped into the 911 Center. There are well over 2,000 cameras that the city and its sister agencies - like the school system - monitor everyday. The city is adding another 250 cameras to potential high risk areas, most of them downtown.

That includes every city department. That includes the Chicago public schools, the CTA, city colleges. That includes the park district, any other sister agencies that have cameras out there.

Remind me exactly, how that is not Big Brother...

The Mayor retors:

You could photograph me walking down the street. They do it every day. I don't object. You do it every day. You have that right. Why do you have that right?

Hm, I never thought that someone in his position would equate the rights of the individual (to take pictures in public places) to the 'rights' of the state (to monitor its citizens in public).

chicago_bigbrother_wr.jpg

Comments

I was wondering if you have a source for this, since there is none in the article?

Posted by: TonyP on September 14, 2004 02:52 AM

The original citation is here:

http://abclocal.go.com/wls/news/090904_ap_ns_camera.html

and another good one is here:

http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/cst-nws-cameras10.html

I particularly like this quote from Daley:

"The city owns the sidewalk. We own the street and we own the alley." (Is that so?)

I understand the ACLU can do nothing because privacy isn't protected by the Constitution.

Posted by: aglaia on September 16, 2004 05:09 PM
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