New Cities/New Soviets

August 11, 2005

surveillance

"For the Police Department operationally, it was a success by any measure," the commissioner says, sitting in the conference room turned command center on the top floor of One Police Plaza, where six wide-screen, high-definition TVs streamed live feeds from the Fuji blimp, from police copters, and from cameras mounted on buildings, including four atop the Garden itself.

Some people like to complain about surveillance.

I think that there are too few public eyes.


People reacted oddly when I asked to take photos of them.

They often refused, or got mad at me when I did it without asking.


This guy yelled at me.

Why do they care? I wondered.

But I guess I know why.

"What are you going to use the picture for?" I asked a guy who was taking pictures of me one night cleaning up the cart with my dad. We all want to be able to control the way we appear to others.

That's why the idea of surveillance is such a big creep-out.

But let's fight the over-seers, not their cardboard cut-outs.

Turn the cameras back, too. Police stations should be the most heavily surveilled places. "Nothing to fear unless you're guilty, boys!"

Now when I take pictures, I just hold the camera in my hand. People associate "taking a picture" with holding the camera up to your face. Don't do this, practice a little distraction, and a new technique is born. New technique=new product.

Posted by Sam at August 11, 2005 02:28 AM

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