Camera worries second to security fears

By Rong Xiaoqing Source:Global Times Published: 2013-4-25 18:33:01

Illustration: Liu Rui/GT
Illustration: Liu Rui/GT

Four days after the marathon bombings in Boston, my husband and I were walking on the streets of Manhattan and trying to find a place for dinner. It was a district of narrow streets and many restaurants jammed with traffic, both pedestrians and drivers. Black garbage bags containing restaurant waste were piled up along the curb, waiting for their scheduled pickup. A normal picture of the hustle-bustle city.

     We looked at each other anxiously. As journalists, we probably have thought too much about the bombings in the past few days. But really, how do you protect streets like these from someone who could so easily place a homemade bomb wrapped in a garbage bag?

But what if this is only a beginning? What if the seemingly innocuous manholes, newspaper boxes, trash cans and garbage bags in any busy street cannot be trusted any more? How can we hang around on a balmy Friday night without worrying about being part of a bloody scene?

We do need to watch the streets all the time, but it has to be done with the least intrusion into normal life. The most realistic solution I can think of is surveillance cameras. They are no armed police, but they can act as a big deterrent. And at least, they can help to catch the bad guys quickly afterward, as demonstrated during the investigation of the Boston bombings.  

But governments installing surveillance cameras in public areas have been under fire in recent years. Civil rights advocates, doggedly protecting the privacy of citizens, have been working hard on shooting down such plans. And some of the cameras, although eventually installed, have their usage limited under pressure, making them more symbolic than useful.

The rights advocates may have gotten one thing right: Lives of individuals can be messed up with more cameras around. For example, recently in New York a landlord quietly installed a camera in the hallway to find out whether a tenant really lived in his rent-regulated apartment. But the effort garnered a surprising bonus. The tenant, worried about the video evidence, was forced to confess to his wife that he had been taking home a lover when she was not there.

Theoretically, an extramarital relationship is one's own business. And the only person interested in stalking an unfaithful man might be his wife or the private detectives she hires. But in an era where everyone is equipped with a cellphone camera, and everything from a wandering homeless man to a napping cat can be snapped and put online in real time, does anyone still expect to hide an affair behind anything more than a transparent bubble?

Even without the involvement of Big Brother, we've already been under surveillance. What really messes things up is our unrealistic hopes of it being otherwise.

Of course, the governments, with more resources and power, can possibly abuse the amount of camera footage they can gather, and easily take it out on innocent people if they head in an authoritarian direction. But it shouldn't be a reason to stop the cameras. The cameras are not for or against anyone. They are only a tool.

Now the argument may sound familiar. Isn't that the insane excuse the gun promoters try to use to talk down gun control? Yes, but the difference is video footage, though it could be used as a weapon, is not a fatal one. It may be used in lengthy court trials to tell right from wrong, but it won't kill people instantly before anyone realizes what's happened. And it can be used by both the defendant and the attacker for their own interests rather than leaving one side like a stunned deer in front of a speeding car.

All in all, let's be honest, the governments are not talking about installing cameras in your bedroom. You can still do whatever you like in front of the mirror and freak out only yourself in your own territory. But in public, when lives are at stake, please allow me the opportunity of trading my privacy with the reassurance of safety, and a friendly smile for the camera. 


The author is a New York-based journalist. rong_xiaoqing@hotmail.com



Posted in: Columnists, Viewpoint

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