Everyone has something to hide
When you pull papers to run for elected office, one of the things you receive is a quaint little handbook outlining the process in the most basic terms. Future editions of this book should be rewritten so the first line reads, in giant bold text: “DON’T SAY STUPID SHIT!”
Today’s T&G has a summary of last nights City Council discussion concerning Worcester’s pilot surveillance program for city intersections, which is expected to extend into parks and other ‘high crime areas’. The obvious problem with these systems is that no independent study has shown a decrease in crime due to the installation of video surveillance, just displacement. But the larger issue is one of privacy, so it was nice to see Councilor Perotto stand up for common sense.
City councilors enthusiastically embraced the ideas, though Councilor-at-Large Michael C. Perotto expressed some concern about having “Big Brother” playing such an active role. He asked for a legal opinion on the surveillance plans in regards to the civil rights of the public.
What really stood out in the article, and honestly surprised the hell out of me, was soon to be Lt Governor Murray’s take.
But Mayor Timothy P. Murray said the city should be going “100 miles per hour” in implementing the plan. He said if people are not doing anything wrong, then they have nothing to worry about if cameras are set up at intersections or in parks.
Are you kidding me? That must have been Reed Hillman dressed in a Tim Murray costume for Halloween. The ‘nothing to hide’ bit is one of the oldest logical fallacies our little democracy has known. Everyone from Hoover to Scientologists have used this line of thinking and once you start moving down that path it’s almost impossible to double back, as the UK is now well aware with an estimated 4,000,000 cameras in play. That’s about 1 camera for every 15 people, for those of you keeping score at home. The notion that anyone leads such a perfect existence they would welcome the addition of 24/7 surveillance, is asinine on a level that would have Eric Arthur Blair doing Triple Lindys in his grave. Unfortunately it’s a tough argument to crack. Anything that on the surface appears to be a crime deterrent, appeals to the average person and the average person doesn’t ever think of themselves as being a criminal. So let me run through a few of my favorite ways to counter what will soon be a common phrase in all the Worcester bars and coffee shops, which turned up when this very question was asked on the venerable Metafilter earlier this year.
1. So you won’t mind a law requiring all letters to be written on postcards?
2. Because the government gets to define what’s wrong, and they keep changing the definition.
3. Quis custodiet custodes ipsos? (Who watches the watchers?)
4. If you’ve nothing to hide, why don’t you throw all your credit card statements on the Internet?
5. If you’ve nothing to hide, reveal publicly, along with a photo of your 8-year-old daughter, where she goes to school, and what time she walks home. And what her favorite candy is.
And my personal favorite…
6. Mind if I make a video of you fucking your wife then?
The point is, everyone has boundaries. I understand there is no legal expectation of privacy when in a public place. But unfortunately we also live in a city where even public employees have historically taken to the belief that their secrets are worth sealing. If those charged with being my keepers claim a pass on their conduct being public, as servants of the public, where’s the balance? If I can’t pick my nose, or scratch my ass in Elm Park without being mocked by a room full of public employees, then yes I do have something to hide. When the first local politician who stops in front of an elementary school to ask for directions, ends up being fingered as a pederast for personal reasons, he’s got something to hide. Our legal system is not designed to drop us all to the level of the lowest common denominator and mistakes are made in law enforcement all the time, that’s typically ok since we have a reasonable system of checks in place. But video surveillance takes the human element out of detecting crime in progress, often times distorting reality beyond what the average person can identify as being normal behavior. After over two years in prison Claudia Muro found out how hard it is to interpret the otherwise obvious on video, after she was caught on a ‘nanny cam’ violently shaking a 5 month old in her care. You may remember having seen the child’s father, Brett Schwartz, on Good Morning America” in 2003 stating:
“It’s plainly clear of what’s going on,” “There’s nothing taken out of context in that video.”
But there was something lost to context, nobody took the frame rate of the video into account. Experts demonstrated what was captured was an inadvertent trick of the camera, making otherwise normal movements look like violent shaking and after two and a half years she was released. Now, that’s just one story and you probably never saw she was cleared since Nancy Grace doesn’t cover justice being served. But it has to make you wonder; if the opportunity exists to criminalize or even just demonize normal behavior, what’s the expected long-term benefit to society?
Comments
7 Responses to “Everyone has something to hide”
Leave a Reply
I think this plan is a bad idea. The question: What’s the best way to keep this from happening?
Pellet guns and laser pointers seem to be most effective.
The entire city of Worcester should all wear identical costumes and masks.
That would teach those cameras.
Ohhh what a Brave New World!
” Quis custodiet custodes ipsos? ”
future tatoo???
I was thinking “Mind if I make a video of you fucking your wife?” would be great across my chest.
Lots of good points made here. I don’t like hearing such words coming out of Murray’s mouth.
Chris, given that Tim Murray is an experienced a criminal defense lawyer, defer to his initmate personal knowledge of those prosecuted by the system. Sure, they are and should be presumed innocent, but he knows that a video of the old lady getting smacked for her purse is going to actually help the neighborhood where this guy who “didn”t do it because you cannot prove it beyond a reasonable doubt” roams.