USA: America the Beautiful…Land of the Free?

America! America!
God shed his grace on thee
And crown thy good with brotherhood
From sea to shining sea!
As Americans we have lived a wonderful existence since our founding. It is the quality of our lives, which has caused people from all over the world to flock to our shores to share in our almost unimaginable freedom and quality of life.
While we might get tired of hearing our Founding Fathers’ warning that we have to remain vigilant or we will lose what we have, it is none the less so very true. So you ask, “OK, Art, where are you going with this?” I am talking to the issue of ever-encroaching Big Brother into our lives, and at this moment, specifically, the installation of cameras by employees of our governments to make sure that we citizens are obeying our laws.
Right now these cameras tend to concentrate on us when we are in our cars going through intersections. Increasingly they are being used real-time to catch speeders. Also, by reading license plates of passing cars, we are being identified for non-traffic-related infractions of the law.
We may ask, “Isn’t that a good thing? Most of us are law-abiding; don’t we as citizens want people who have done something wrong to get nabbed?” Before we attempt to answer that question, let us look at what is going on in China at this very moment.
Cisco Systems is helping to install in the city of Chongqing a citywide network of as many as 500,000 cameras that officials say will prevent crime, but which others say invades privacy and is poorly regulated.
Let’s pause for a moment and just imagine how we would feel if we were being watched by thousands of cameras as we walked down the street? Would we continue to feel this almost giddy freedom, which has always defined what being American is? Or would we feel under a shadow, a cloud, under a “presence” which would gnaw at us?
So you say, just because they are installing those cameras in China doesn’t mean it will happen here. It is already happening; this technology is already being used here, not just for traffic violations. What will stop its ongoing march? Why wouldn’t employees of government, whose mission it is to enforce the law, not use it? It is not their mission to worry about how we might feel about it. Unless we make our feelings known, our representatives will let this new technology proliferate.
We must ask, “Is nabbing those additional law-breakers worth the pall it casts over us, plus the risks to our freedom it would bring?” No, it is not.
July of last year Police Chief Chris Leusner sought community feedback on camera installations in Middle Township, and in June of this year announced intentions to participate in a camera pilot program to increase traffic safety.
The experience elsewhere indicates that the safety argument is not strong. And while the cameras don’t cost the government anything, they tend to anger, even outrage the citizens, who are paying for them through fines for what have been very minor infractions, despite human oversight.
As Middle Township goes, so also will the rest of Cape May County go.
Middle Township should abandon this plan.