In today’s Washington Times, former congressman and current Libertarian National Committee member Bob Barr calls out Mike Bloomberg for trying to turn New York City into the ultimate surveillance society:
Even though officials in other cities are embracing and installing surveillance cameras in huge numbers — Chicago, Detroit and Washington, D.C., to name a few — the latest plan unveiled by Mr. Bloomberg and his equally surveillance-enamored police commissioner, Raymond Kelly, leaves these other American cities in the surveillance dust. Truly what we are witnessing being created here is a 21st-century Panopticon.
The Panopticon, according to Barr, was a theoretical society hypothesized by 18th century philosopher Jeremy Bentham. “Control was exercised not by being surveilled continuously but by each person knowing they might be under surveillance at any time, or all the time.” Sounds about Bloomberg’s speed.