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They're coming so be prepared, the New York incident used as justification. On May 5, New York Times writer Scott Shane headlined, "Government Tightens No-Fly Rules," saying:
"Homeland Security officials on Wednesday ordered airlines to speed up checks of names added to the no-fly list," and to check for updates every 24 hours. Look for an expanded list ahead, and stepped up airport security, making travel even tougher, perhaps to include interrogations, body searches, and other repressive measures against anyone officials target.
Pervasive Use of Surveillance Cameras
Post-9/11, cities began installing networks of surveillance cameras in public areas downtown, at airports, in shopping areas and elsewhere. Though experts doubt their effectiveness and studies bear this out, significant privacy and civil liberties concerns are raised, including stereotyping and racial discrimination by those in charge of monitoring.
Among global cities, London by far is the most camera-surveilled with as many as 1.4 million in place, no one saying for security reasons. They're everywhere - on streets; in business, shopping, and government areas; in parks; schools; in hallways; on elevators, in cabs and police cars; even in public rest rooms, so there's no place to hide.
American cities have theirs and are adding more, a 2006 ACLU report titled, "Who's Watching?" saying post-9/11, their numbers in New York City alone "skyrocketed. And our lawmakers have failed to keep up: video surveillance cameras can be operated with almost no legal constraint or consequence," despite scant evidence they deter crime on a cost-per-crime solved basis.
For example, for every 1,000 London cameras, less than one crime per year is solved for an average cost of $30,000. At best, other cities report mixed results, but in all cases too poor to justify installation, monitoring and other associated costs.
According to AP, Chicago is the most video-surveilled city in America, former Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff saying, "I don't think there is another city in the US that has as an extensive and integrated camera network...."
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