Manhattan takes cue from London’s ‘Ring of Steel’
NEW YORK: By the end of this year, police officials say, more than 100 cameras will have begun monitoring cars moving through Lower Manhattan, the beginning phase of a London-style surveillance system that would be the first in the United States. The Lower Manhattan Security Initiative, as the plan is called, will resemble London’s so-called Ring of Steel, an extensive web of cameras and roadblocks designed to detect, track and deter terrorists. British officials said images captured by the cameras helped track suspects following the London subway bombings in 2005 and after the car bomb plots last month. If New York City succeeds in getting the estimated $90 million to build the full network, it will include not only license plate readers but 3,000 public and private security cameras, a coordination center staffed by the police and private security officers, and movable roadblocks.
This just in from the TPRS New York bureau:
In a surprise announcement today, New York CIty’s police commissioner, Raymond Kelly, announced (though not in so many words) that the terrorists have indeed won. At a press conference in Manhattan, Kelly announced that New York would be attempting to install a video surveillance system throughout Lower Manhattan that would be modeled on the CCTV blanket that currently covers much of London. Heralding this as a good thing, Kelly attempted to play up the heightened safety and security aspect of the plan, while simultaneously soft-pedalling concerns voice by woolly-headed Libruls over the continued erosion of the right to privacy.
Kelly, in pushing aside concerns about civil liberties, said that “No true American patriot could possibly question the need for and efficacy of the surveillance system that New York will be putting into place. Why, if those America-hating, crybaby Liberal whiners had their way, Osama bin-Laden himself would be sitting in Gracie Mansion and watching as unbelievers were brought before him to be beheaded.”
During the Q-and-A that followed Kelly’s announcement, the Commissioner answered every question with a simple, yet forceful “9.11”. As he left the dais, Kelly stated, as he pounded his fist into the podium, “If those whiny Liberal pussies don’t like what we’re doing to keep New Yorkers in line…uh, safe…they can just take their pudgy asses to San Francisco, where I’m sure they’ll be welcomed with open arms in the Castro district.!!”
“This area is very critical to the economic lifeblood of this nation,” New York’s police commissioner, Raymond Kelly, said in an interview last week. “We want to make it less vulnerable.”
Civil liberties advocates say they are worried about the misuse of technology that tracks the movement of thousands of cars and people….
The license plate readers would check the plates’ numbers and send out alerts if suspect vehicles were detected. The city is already seeking state approval to charge drivers a fee to enter Manhattan below 86th Street, which would require the use of license plate readers. If the plan goes through, the police most likely would collect information from those readers too, Kelly said.
But the city’s security plan is much broader than keeping track of license plates. Three thousand additional surveillance cameras would be installed below Canal Street by the end of next year. Pivoting gates would be installed at critical intersections; they would swing out to block traffic or a suspect car at the push of a button.
Unlike the 250 or so cameras the police have already placed in high-crime areas, which capture moving images that have to be downloaded, the security initiative cameras will transmit live information instantly.
So this is where we’re headed? England is a country covered by something like 4 million CCTV cameras. Yes, crimes have been discovered, and in some cases prevented. The 7.7.05 London train bombers were identified on camera- albeit after the fact. There’s certainly an argument to be made that these cameras do work when it comes to preventing crime in certain cases…but at what cost? Even if you don’t necessarily believe in a “right” to privacy, shouldn’t Americans at least have an expectation of privacy, that their every move in public areas not be subject to surveillance?
Once these cameras are installed in Lower Manhattan, they will not easily come down. In fact, it’s quite likely that the fear of terrorism will drive government toward recreating a nation blanketed by CCTV cameras, much as in England. Do Americans know, or even understand, how much of their privacy they’re about to surrender to the watchful eye of Big Brother? Do they even care? In the end, it may not matter, because all government will have to do is to invoke the magic mantra- 9.11- to get what they want.
I may not be smart enough to predict what the long term effects of living in Surveillance Nation will be, but I do know one thing. I love my country…but I fear my government.
