The state of New Jersey, home of America's worst city, can now boast of being first in another category. According to the Associated Press, the city of East Orange is to be the first in the nation to bring some of your favorite sci fi closer to life with their planned use of "pre crime" spy cameras. These cameras will bathe someone suspected of intending to commit a crime in a red light, so as to make them more easily identifiable to police. The chief of police in East Orange, William Robinson, offered the following glowing praise of the scarlet letter cameras:
Whereas London has talking cameras, we’re about to deploy light projecting cameras, better known as light-based intervention systems. The message to criminals is, we’re observing you, the police are recording you, and the police are responding.
In reality, of course, the message doesn't just apply to criminals, since the police plan on observing and recording everyone, criminals and non-criminals alike. What leads public servants like William Robinson to consider it part of their job to serve as 24 hour peeping tom to the people of East Orange, rather than to focus their efforts on crimes that actually have happened, isn't completely clear. What is clear, however, is that New Jersey will be used as a testing ground for yet another incremental step in an Orwellian push for increased societal control.
Currently this intrusive measure is defended as a safeguard against the dangers of drug related crimes, such as street corner muggings, and other violence. However concerns have been raised that like indefinite detention and other breaches of constitutional law, this invasive and highly questionable technology will eventually be applicable to everyone, for whatever reasons our government decides. While stopping people from potentially committing a violent crime sounds sensible enough, the reality is that based on previous behavior, one can reasonably expect this technology to gradually be employed for reasons other than those originally stated, such as revenue generation. This is precisely what occurred with the now ubiquitous traffic cameras dotting the tri-state area. We were told that these cameras were only to monitor traffic flow, however it didn't take long for the seemingly innocuous cameras to be used for revenue generation.
Making money isn't the only potential exploitation these cameras make possible, however. During a time when Bradley Manning is apparently going to spend his life in a cage for doing our disgracefully irrelevant corporate media's job for them, and our federal government openly admits to monitoring social media networks for whatever they decide is "extremist" content, our government will likely find it far too tempting to use this new technology for the purpose of singling out and ostricizing those considered to be politically undesirable.
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