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Analysis posted Feb 16 2006, 3:28 PM

Category: Big Brother/Orwellian

Source: Prison Planet

Houston Police Chief Wants Surveillance Cameras In Private Homes

Orwellian telescreens will monitor your behavior
Paul Joseph Watson

The age of the telescreen is upon us as surveillance cameras that festoon our streets, shopping malls and airports are now moving into our private homes as the panopticon prison is erected.

The Associated Press reports,

"HOUSTON Houston's police chief is suggesting putting surveillance cameras in apartment complexes, downtown streets and even private homes."

"Chief Harold Hurtt today said it's another way of combatting crime amid a shortage of officers.

Scott Henson with the American Civil Liberties Union calls Hurtt's proposal to require surveillance cameras as part of some building permits -- "radical and extreme."

In the meantime, Homeland Security grants are being used to blanket major cities and even small sleepy communities with arsenals of spy cameras.

All over the United States, Canada and Britain, surveillance camera systems are being installed on street corners, in public bathrooms, in residential neighborhoods, and even in parks and forests. We are asked to trust the government underlings who control them that they are working for our best interests as said underlings are caught using the cameras to spy on naked women in their homes.

In the UK, government programs encourage citizens to spy on their neighbors and report suspicious activity as part of a CCTV channel subscriber package.

Homeland Security funding is being utilized to fund this mass expansion of the surveillance state in the US as city and state officials clamor at the teat of Big Brother to milk the cash cow of the police state and win the contracts for installing more and more sophisticated spy cameras.

The government demands to know everything about our private lives and catalogue, file and index every aspect of our existence, yet government itself becomes more and more secret with each passing day as it engages in escalating criminal activities.

The agenda behind surveillance cameras is not simply to track the movements of certain individuals. There are not enough watchers to catalogue all the information. The cameras are about behavior control and creating an omnipresent atmosphere whereby the citizen consciously regulates his own behavior so as not to seem suspicious. The surveillance cameras are there to make a statement. We are the prison guards, you are the prisoners.

As George Orwell described it in 1984,

"The telescreen received and transmitted simultaneously. Any sound that Winston made, above the level of a very low whisper, would be picked up by it, moreover, so long as he remained within the field of vision which the metal plaque commanded, he could be seen as well as heard."

"There was of course no way of knowing whether you were being watched at any given moment. How often, or on what system, the Thought Police plugged in on any individual wire was guesswork. It was even conceivable that they watched everybody all the time. But at any rate they could plug in your wire whenever they wanted to. You had to live -- did live, from habit that became instinct -- in the assumption that every sound you made was overheard, and, except in darkness, every movement scrutinized."

This is the prison without bars. This is the panopticon, a prison so constructed that the inspector can see each of the prisoners at all times, without being seen. This is a portrait of the accelerating movement by western governments to erect giant, powerful, all-pervading mass surveillance, tracking and control grids that will keep all populations firmly under the baleful and watchful gaze of Big Brother.

Houston eyes cameras at apartment complexes

ASSOCIATED PRESS

HOUSTON -- Houston's police chief on Wednesday proposed placing surveillance cameras in apartment complexes, downtown streets, shopping malls and even private homes to fight crime during a shortage of police officers.

"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?" Chief Harold Hurtt told reporters Wednesday at a regular briefing.

Houston is facing a severe police shortage because of too many retirements and too few recruits, and the city has absorbed 150,000 hurricane evacuees who are filling apartment complexes in crime-ridden neighborhoods. The City Council is considering a public safety tax to pay for more officers.

Continued

Related:

Blair's baby Asbos: Families face being removed from their homes and housed in special 'sin bin' residential units guarded by security officers and monitored by CCTV

Control Grid: The Prison Without Bars: 1984 was a picnic compared to modern day leviathan surveillance cage

The Panopticon: A Mass Surveillance Prison For Humanity

Big Brother/Orwellian Category Archive

FLASHBACK: Strange Orwellian Telescreens Debut At UK Supermarkets

FLASHBACK: Shouting Telescreens Coming to Britain

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TimAng

Posted: Feb 16 2006, 7:03 PM

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You know everytime our trusted officials seek to protect us further by installing cameras in dangerous places like our streets and high school locker rooms, I can't help feeling a greater sense of safety. It's about time they thought of putting cameras in our homes. I can't tell you how many times I've been terrified at the thought of a nasty Al Qaeda on the other side of my front door just waiting to kill me because I'm free. What I wouldn't give to feel the security of knowing Big Brother's watchful eye was making sure there wasn't an evil Al Qaeda hiding behind my shower curtain. I mean, I kind of feel safe knowing my emails and telephone conversations are being monitored but it's just not as comforting as actually knowing someone is physically watching you. It's really getting to the point where I wouldn't mind mounting some kind of camera on my head or better yet, install a tiny camera in my eye. But one can only dream of living in a society where we were totally safe.

dan20

Posted: Feb 16 2006, 7:24 PM

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I couldn't agree more, TimAng!

We need to support such measures, them alqaeda hate our freedoms, we need to make sure they don't succede. Some of those extremists say that putting cameras in our homes would actually help alqaeda take our freedom, I just can't see whats wrong with them. Don't they know they're aiding the enemy? You say you don't mind having a camera on your head? Heck, how bout a chip in your hand to make life more convenient? Oh, by the way, Ive heard rumors around the camp that we once had a piece of paper called the constitution, something that guarenteed rights, I really didn't understand it, i mean, we get everything we need from our overlords now, they love us. Needless to say i reported the guy who was spreading those dangerous thoughts to the Homeland in exchange for some extra credits. Well, I gotta go! the alarm has been raised for the lockdown, i gotta get my papers in order.

jplusj

Posted: Feb 17 2006, 6:42 PM

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There is a basic flaw in the Police Chief Harold Hurtt's line of reasoning when the says "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 flaw is this - how do you define "wrong". eg. Big Brother may consider it "wrong" for you to read atheist material. He might consider it "wrong" for you to have tantra sex. He might consider it wrong for you to have a threesome. He might consider it wrong for you to read Harry Potter books.

Harold Hurtt must be truly naieve.

eylene77

Posted: Feb 18 2006, 8:47 AM

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This guy obviously has not read Atlas Shrugged, Brave New World, or 1984!

bobaymon

Posted: Feb 18 2006, 11:24 AM

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It is the same problem with Communism; we cannot give anyone (the police department in this case) too much power and expect they to keep their integrity - look at Communist countries with their corruption problem and we'll see what awaits this kind of attack on civil liberty.

dumbo

Posted: Feb 18 2006, 5:33 PM

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ok bobay 1) there has never been a Communist goernment in the world why?
when has it been 1 class they have all been ruler and then everyone else there for thats not Communism thats a dictatorship...

and on this topic ...

id like to know how this officer would like a camera in his house in every room of every angle

i for one dont need big brother or a HAL 9000 in my house ....

all we need is some Cracker going around and watching private feeds of anyone he wants >_>

thought yeah if i got a video from him of some hot chick er nvm you get hte point >_>

this is wrong and bad on so many levels

drivedude

Posted: Feb 19 2006, 8:52 PM

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My problem is the idea that surveillance cameras are a preventitive to crime. To travel a little further down the path introduced by TimAng; let's say there are cameras in his bathroom. And let's say that an Al-Queda terrorist, after repeated viewings of Alfred Hitchcock's film "Psycho" decided that the best way to deal with western infidels was to follow Norman Bate's example. And let's say that he happened to choose TimAng's heavily camera equipped bathroom in which to demonstrate his religious convictions, and he ulimately causes the untimely and completely unlawful demise of said bathroom owner (Heaven forbid). Well? Even if there did happen to be somebody somewhere witnessing the terrible act on closed circuit, how would he be able to prevent it? Even if he called the still understaffed police force, how could they prevent it? All the cameras would be good for is providing fodder for the 6 o'clock news.

Anonymous

Posted: Sep 01 2006, 11:31 PM

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6922

Can you imagine the Cheif is proposing cameras in Apts
they just don't want to do there job.
I was in my own sanuary went to my apt complex and there sat Jeff Thomas a so called curtisy officer (gets a free apt0 and when he listens into a conversation thats private he thinks he leans of my not having a drivers licence. proceeds to stalk me until he catches inside my private apt gates and tows my bran new 2007 Camry
all because he had to much access to my private info.
Sure Im going to get him fired if its the last thing I do.
I think he is a criminal because he knew something and so should not of pursued. He conspired to catch me with info that he received illiegally!!! can you imaging givin this guy access to cameras!
Do I make a point!

Anonymous

Posted: Nov 13 2006, 4:32 PM

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86128

just look at that guy in the pic and those two scrawny pricks behind him. look at their eyes. you can tell all three of them are pure evil. they're the real criminals for helping the government to perpetuate this BS terrorist fantasy.

in the UK there is currently an anti-terrorist police campaign which is urging the public to basically spy on their neighbors and report any "suspicious" behavior. i have brown skin and since this whole terrorism BS, i have noticed that my neighbors (who incidentally, could BARELY even say hello to me before 9/11 � dispite my efforts) have very cagey body language towards me. they divert their eyes, flee to the other side of the elevator like stunned cock-roaches when I enter our lift and generally have an evil-sinister aura about them. do i have a case to report these "suspicious" individuals? because I honestly feel that they'd like to kill me or at least do some kind of harm to my persons.

maybe I'm being paranoid, perhaps they're just typical racists who now have an ideal excuse handed to them from the government to be OVERTLY racist towards me. in fact, I can't help to think that half the nation in the UK have been waiting _many_ years for this kind of situation whereby they can finally breath a sigh of relief and just "call a spade a spade"...as that old (Freudian slip) British saying goes.

In this new campaign, the Metropolitan Police have posters which say: "You can make the UK a hostile place for terrorists". this to me simply translates to: "You are now granted official government permission to make the UK a hostile place for people with black/brown skin" - because that is the ultimate result of this whole rubbish. I know not ONE single terrorist, never have and never will but I do know the English now view anyone with brown skin as a potential target. very sad lie we have been told by the government and very damaging to innocent people caught in the wars it has created in the middle east but also to those just wanting to live their lives in peace elsewhere.

Anonymous

Posted: Apr 03 2007, 9:44 AM

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19862

I completely disagree!!! I mean with people already fighting for privacy now, how do you expect them to feel with a TOTAL LOSS OF PRIVACY. People might as well go lay out in the street and put all of their business out for everyone to see, then you wouldn't have to worry about a telescreen being in your home.

lexwall

Posted: Jun 21 2007, 2:14 PM

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70252

... and who will be "supervising" chief Hurtt at his home? Houston's Mayor White? Texas Governor Rick Perry? President (whoever)?

You who think this is a good idea, please move to Cuba or Venezuela where the government would like to consider itself omnipotent and you have no rights whatsoever. You want security? Who protects you from the guys you are giving all the power to? Has your aquiescense to their prower-grab somehow injected them with perfect righteousness so that they are now no longer fallible humans? Ever heard of corrupt government officials? Ever heard of government abuse fo power?

Who do you think will be watching the video screens at police headquarters? Chief Hurtt himself? No. It will be some power-hungry goofball who gets his rocks of by spying on people in their showers and bedrooms. No respectable human being would even consider accepting such a job - and you want to give them free reign over your home?

If you don;t trust yourself to protect yourself, you have no right to security. If total government control leads to security, why are prisons the most dangerous places in the world?

People who think like you don't deserve to live in freedom - and guess what? You don't! That's fine with me, but don't mess it up for the rest of us, you whussies.

Real Talk

Posted: Nov 14 2007, 11:17 PM

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6845

Big Brother has no life at all. They rather watch us live our live than them living their own.

Houstonian

Posted: Oct 26 2008, 3:31 PM

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70244

I am being blitzed by both the Houston police and the CIA in a joint effort to entrap me since I have nothing illegal going on. Is there some way to sue these organizations who are starting to resemble Nazi's? I am gathering sufficient proof of there illegal activities against me; I am obviously just one of hundreds of citizens being targeted to fulfill their quotas in order to justify their paychecks and further their project "big Brother" I won't go into detail here but their tactics are bluntly stupid to a trained eye or someone with above average commonsense.

Winston

Posted: Nov 19 2008, 9:33 PM

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7588

I'm totally using this for my 1984 Power Point!

Anko Beev

Posted: Jun 01 2009, 6:39 PM

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20295

This is absolutely crazy!
What happened to the privacy of an individual?
If they know people will not agree, why install it anyway?
The world has gone crazy and evryone seems to be losing their minds.

You wanna see couples in their bedrooms; the surveillance geek getting a kick out of it. . . . . .

Anonymous

Posted: Jun 22 2009, 3:51 PM

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24117

I say we start this off another way. The police should pull their badges from a chargerdock before every shift. This would charge the micro camera and download the footage of their last shift and their actions.
As Chief Harold Hurtt himself said
"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?"
Let's see that happen.............

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