 |
| Big Brother Likes to Watch | |
A lunatic is going around shooting people around Washington DC. Only in
America the saying goes, and perhaps they are right - when lunatics in
Australia do this, they choose out-of-the-way places, and shoot people more or
less non-stop until they are caught. But the Washington shooter has a different modus operandi. He is
presumably shooting people with a high-velocity weapon from a distance from his
car, and then quietly driving off. Local police seem to have no leads and the
death count is currently six, including a school-boy. Not significant compared to 2800-odd deaths in the September-11 attacks
maybe, but the political fallout for the US may be just as great. When he is caught, it will probably be because of a stray surveillance
camera which records his car driving to, or away from, the scene of a crime.
Cameras are currently placed in city centers and crowded high-crime areas, but
are uncommon in suburban streets. And so far they have been useful in getting
convictions (like in the case of Timmy (Oklahoma bomber) McVeigh, but haven't
been than useful in actually catching many. The more people who killed before he is caught, the greater the perceived
benefits of randomly placed surveillance cameras will be. The US will become
surveillance central. The civil libertarians will ignored in the push to make
the streets safe for the nation's children. Ultimately a War on Privacy is likely have more effect on the average
American's life than the War on Terrorism. Doubtless the other high profile
psychotic - Ted (Unabomber) Kaczynski would regard this as further
justification for this shooter's actions. Apparently not all psychotics in the US are imports.
| 
