old dog wrote:
MSC:
Those most responsible for this sort of Big Brotherism are the blind, sanctimonious fools who say "If you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear." They are the ones who would accede to random home searches and electronic monitoring, mail covers and police stop-and-interview programs. After all, the government just wants to make the streets safe.
Ben was right: Those who would sacrifice a measure of freedom for a bit of temporary safety deserve neither freedom nor safety.
You are right.
On the project I last worked, the one I mentioned above, the UK was our client - specifically PITA which later became NPIA. In other words, the national police forces; their central and bureau installations.
I was discussing the significant increase in monitored cameras throughout London along with the portable device (Lantern) the police were starting to use in a pilot program with one of my co-coworkers. He was fully in favor of all of this and couldn't see why we didn't do this stuff here in the U.S. He believed we too should implement these programs, and more like them, here if it means we could be safer. There was no way I was going to help him see the incredible danger of doing something like this. His attitude was, "damn the Constitution, just do it anyway". It's really sad that there are Americans who take this mindset.
