The Erosion of Civil Liberties In Europe
We often assume that because Europe is a continent of democracies, they have the same view of civil liberties as we have in the U.S. It is an erroneous assumption.
Civil liberties in Europe, such as free speech, are as a rule less expansive than those in the U.S. There is nothing “wrong” with this, it is simply the balance Europeans have reached for their societies. It is balance I may not choose, but it works for them and no one can argue that the Europeans do not have free and open societies. However,that may be changing. The U.K.’s growing reliance on government controlled Closed Circuit Television (CCTV) for surveillance is down right scary. Regardless of the good intentions, the use of CCTV for surveillance of citizens is a significant infringement on civil liberties and a very steep slippery slope to further erosion of individual freedoms.
Today there are an estimated 4.2 million CCTV cameras in Britain, that is 1 camera for every 14.43 citizens. On average each person in the U.K. is filmed by CCTV cameras 300 times per day. However, not satisfied with merely conducting surveillance of its citizens, the U.K. has now started adding “interactive” cameras that give orders to “people dropping litter or committing anti-social behavior.” But not to worry because “Competitions would also be held at schools in many of the areas for children to become the voice of the cameras.” Great, lets get children involved in wide spread pervasive government surveillance of a nation’s citizens.
Not content with merely filming and giving orders to citizens via CCTV, the British government is also exploring several other use for this system, such as “a system that recognises aggressive sounds, without actually eavesdropping on conversations” and an “automatic gait recognition. This identifies people by the way they walk and the Government has asked Ministry of Defence scientists to develop it for widespread use.” Sound Orwellian?
The argument that CCTV cameras help prevent crimes is one that ignores the facts. The violent crime rate in the U.K. has gone up dramatically since 1995 – the time the CCTV cameras first started to become prominent in the U.K. Instead, all that seems to have been accomplished is that the U.K. has rolled back civil liberties extensively by implementing a nationwide surveillance system of its citizens – that I find scary.
Perhaps the British would be well advised to listen to a voice from the past -”Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” (Benjamin Franklin, Historical Review of Pennsylvania, 1759).
