REAL LIFE NEWS: SMILE, YOU’RE ON COP CAMERA
by Hazed
The police in Hong Kong are ramping up the surveillance state with an announcement that they are going to attach portable video cameras to their officers’ uniforms in order to film the public. They plan to have the body camera scheme in use by the end of the year.
“We are not targeting anyone at any public rallies but of course it could be a useful device for the police to deal with those who disturb public law and order at these rallies,” said a police spokeswoman in the Special Administrative Region of China.
Human rights groups are not amused. “People are afraid of being filmed...They don’t know how the footage will be used and how it will be preserved,” Hong Kong Alliance vice chair Richard Tsoi claimed.
I think the way to combat this technology is for everyone to start wearing cameras, so any interaction they have with the police gets filmed, too. Of course, that only works if the authorities care about public opinion!
Meanwhile, to those who shrug and claim that “if you’ve one nothing wrong then you’ve nothing to fear” consider that even in enlightened democracies the police can sometimes get it wrong, and that we should still have the right to protest about government policies without being caught on camera. (And listen to this song by one of my favorite bands, The Pet Shop Boys.)
Source: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/08/15/police_hong_kong_body_camera/
