On Mon, 02 Jun 2003 08:28:45 -0500, Jim McGuire pointed out: >The concept of video surveillance of public areas is pretty new to us here >in the US, but it's nothing new in Europe.
>I was pickpocketed in Ireland and paid a visit to the Garda (Police) >station. I was amazed to see the number of video monitors they had. It >seemed to show that police in Ireland (and elsewhere, from what I >understand) spend more time watching video screens then walking a beat. I think this is in response to years of terroristic events. England had Irish planting lots of bombs; France had Algerian terrorism; the Basques wanted Spain to shift on issues, and so on. Surveillance cameras don't feel Orwellean to people who have lived for decades with homocide bombers and bomb threats. It makes them feel safer. I was struck by the reactions to 9/11 from people on an international e-list I read. People from Europe, the Middle East and other targeted areas were appalled by the fall of the towers, but not stunned. USers took much longer to comprehend the event. Cameras are now in your life. Remember those parking ramp attacks several years ago? Since then, it's been pretty hard to move around downtown without getting on camera. If cameras are now moving from privately owned structures (where they don't have to be announced) to the street, what's the problem? I only wish they'd spend enough money to get high resolution cameras instead of those muddy pic things banks seem to still be using. BTW, what happened to the idea that we were going to refer to these people as "homocide bombers"? I thought the Minneapolis Tribune agreed it was a better term to use. apparently not? Emilie Quast SE Como TEMPORARY REMINDER: 1. Don't feed the troll! Ignore obvious flame-bait. 2. If you don't like what's being discussed here, don't complain - change the subject (Mpls-specific, of course.) ________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest, and more: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
