Re: UK police chase crooks on CCTV (fwd)

[Steve Schear <schear@lvcm.com>]

>>We need a law or court ruling pretty quickly in the US that sets the
>>standard that a group of people have no more or less rights than an
>>individual. This will required LEA's to provide probable cause prior to any
>>actions against groups of people (such as this).
>
>Ain't gonna happen - are you kidding?  If there is a ruling like that,
>it'll be done in some way that restricts citizen rights rather than
>expanding them, or expands police powers rather than restricting them.
>It's already legal for cops to hang around street corners watching for
>suspicious activities or suspicious people, and all video recognition
>technology does is increase their effectiveness and speed at doing things
>they already are allowed to do.
>
>Unfortunately, I'm being increasingly forced to take the David Brin
>position of
>"Cameras are cheap, get used to it, just make sure we have more cameras
>pointing at the cops than they have pointing at us, and make sure
>the cameras the government has are citizen-accessible as well."

An alternative is a new religion, The First Cypherpunk Church, whose
members are admonished to wear identiy hiding (oops, I mean modesty
enhancing) garb, like arab women. Then we can all go around anonymously in
public. Of course, you'll stick out like a sore thumb and may look like a
fool unless enough parishoners join, but....

--Steve