Chicago, Houston Consider Cameras in Private Businesses, Homes
George Orwell's classic dystopian novel 1984 opens with a surveillance helicopter chopping its blades
menacingly through
The totalitarian state apparatus of Orwell's bleak vision was patterned after the world's
Communist parties. But many of today's 21st-century Democrat and Republican politicians
see no problem with the kind of permanent police dragnet envisioned in the novel.
While Orwell's homeland of the
That software, paid for with a multimillion dollar grant from the federal Department of
Homeland Security, was set to go online in March 2006 -- next month. At the time, Daley
justified the surveillance net to the New York Times by saying, "We're not inside
your home or your business. The city owns the sidewalks. We own the streets and we own the
alleys."
But now that the system's software is set to go live, Daley says cameras on street corners
and train platforms just aren't enough for him. Yep, just 15 months later, Daley is ready
to admit that he does indeed want eyes inside your private business. He endorsed last week
a bill pending in the City Council to require police surveillance in private buildings.
Under the plan, private businesses that remain open more than 12 hours a day and bars that
remain open until last call would have to install the cameras also. The bill as written
now would not require that businesses hook up their mandatory cameras to city networks,
but Chicago Tribune reports that eventually, "the city does plan to link cameras in
office and apartment buildings and other private properties to its system."
If you thought that was bad, get a load of what's going on in
What exactly are the cameras there for? (Maybe
And here's the kicker: Houston Police Chief Harold Hurtt is also advocating that the local
building code be changed to require that private apartment complexes install surveillance
cameras. Hurtt even said he wants cameras installed, telescreen-style, in private
single-family homes if he decides there have been "too many" calls for police
assistance from the home.
Hurtt invoked the name of Orwell's dictator in defending his radical proposition: "I
know a lot of people are concerned about Big Brother, but my response to that is if you
are not doing anything wrong, why should you worry about it?"
The Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution is supposed to guarantee protection from
unreasonable searches. Hurtt's desire, like Daley's to constantly watch presumably
innocent Americans on private property is both unreasonable and unconstitutional.
Democrat Mayor Bill White, who appointed Hurtt, has been equivocating about Hurtt's
outrageous idea as the public reaction is tested. If enough Houstonians stand up for their
rights to private property, White presumably won't push through the extreme surveillance
program. But if Texans dont stand for the idea that a man's home is his castle, the
plan will almost assuredly move ahead.
And camera fever isn't confined to just those two cities. Voters in