Closed Circuit Television Promotes Social Inequality and Control
748 Words
3 Pages
Closed Circuit Television Promotes Social Inequality and Control In recent years there has been a growing trend involving the use of closed circuit television cameras. Many businesses are using these cameras to monitor shoppers large metropolitan areas have started using these systems to view people in public areas.These cameras can be extremely small and are often hardly noticeable. But few people it seems have stopped to consider the possible impacts these cameras have on our lives. And it is the negative consequences that may very well outweigh any of the potential benefits. Currently there are no adequate laws regulating the use of such cameras, and it is unlikely that without public outcry that there will be any
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Because there are no laws regulating it’s usage, innocent people will continue to be scrutinized and evaluated for no substantial reason.
Such monitoring allows the notions of reasonable cause or search warrants to be completely ignored. The use of these cameras in the private sector allows businesses to try and determine the motives of the people shopping there. People that do not appear to be good consumers are identified and may be asked to leave the premises. Or in the case of public streets, people that look like potential troublemakers can be harassed or detained for no other reason than their appearance. The net effect of labeling people as consumers and non-consumers is that it breeds social inequality. This targeting can be based on nothing more than a person’s appearance.
Certain groups that can be identified only by superficial characteristics, such as the impoverished, are routinely overtargeted by this system. It serves as a method of purifying an establishment by eliminating what the store may consider to be undesirable shoppers.
Such an example of profiling and over-policing goes completely against this country’s notion of equality under the law and is a blatant example of infringement upon our most basic civil liberties. Minorities are often targeted based on appearance. In the status quo, it is permissible to do this even if they have done nothing wrong. Basing judgements on racial or ethnic differences is inherently
Such monitoring allows the notions of reasonable cause or search warrants to be completely ignored. The use of these cameras in the private sector allows businesses to try and determine the motives of the people shopping there. People that do not appear to be good consumers are identified and may be asked to leave the premises. Or in the case of public streets, people that look like potential troublemakers can be harassed or detained for no other reason than their appearance. The net effect of labeling people as consumers and non-consumers is that it breeds social inequality. This targeting can be based on nothing more than a person’s appearance.
Certain groups that can be identified only by superficial characteristics, such as the impoverished, are routinely overtargeted by this system. It serves as a method of purifying an establishment by eliminating what the store may consider to be undesirable shoppers.
Such an example of profiling and over-policing goes completely against this country’s notion of equality under the law and is a blatant example of infringement upon our most basic civil liberties. Minorities are often targeted based on appearance. In the status quo, it is permissible to do this even if they have done nothing wrong. Basing judgements on racial or ethnic differences is inherently