Civil Rights

Watching London hunt for suspects of the bomb attack(s) is amazing. The most shocking piece of the whole story is they have over 1.5 million surveillance cameras! These have made short work of the investigation, yielding solid evidence to procure arrests and bring the culprits to justice.

In the US talk of surveillance cameras make civil liberties groups shudder. For somewhat good reason, all technology can serve humanity greatly when used for good, sadly most technology can also be a plague to humanity when used incorrectly. What kind of protections will be put into place with regards to the Terabytes of data that will be created when millions of live recordings are created across every city in America? Just think of what the Soviet Union could have done with 1.5 million High Definition Closed Circuit surveillance cameras… Yes it’s frightening to consider the possibilities. But, with our new realities maybe having camera’s watch us from every building corner is inevitable. Civil liberties should never been taken for granted though. They should not casually be thrown to the winds of change with the hope that somehow they will remain in tact.

With that being said, I think about the “random searches” being conducted in NYC subways using an “advanced algorithm" so as not to racially profile anyone. This is where I am torn. Racial profiling is somewhat of a swipe at civil liberties. Yet, we have a very clear profile of what the "suspect" looks like. They are male, young (20-30), and Arab. (I am speaking of those recruited for missions not the leadership) This is a very simple fact. It’s ridiculous to search a mother and her baby just because she was the x person through the turnstile. Correct me if I’m wrong, but I have never heard of a suicide mission being completed by a mother and her baby. People around the world are suspicious of America’s foreign policy because there has been a precedent established (this was years ago in fact) that we like to perform regime change with reckless abandon. Likewise, a profile has been established that young Arab men with loaded backpacks like to blow people up. Shouldn’t we be suspicious and search them? The fact is a few ALWAYS spoil it for the rest. For liberal Americans we can thank the neo conservatives for turning the world against us. For Arab Americans they can thank their fellow militant brothers in Saudi Arabia for turning the world against them and causing endless suspicion.

On a side note it’s pathetically hypocritical to listen to Europeans complain they have to have their finger print scanned for entry to the US. Their every move is recorded Live on Reality CC TV when visiting London! Yet you never hear them complain about that!