BURLINGTON: SURVEILLANCE CITY

VIA BurlingtonPol, there's a new blog in town, which tells us

On top of the 4 large poles at the intersections of Church Street and each of its cross-streets are 4-8 security cameras. Many people love this, I'm sure, as it probably makes them feel safe. It is seen only as more eyes for the cops.

It's really worse than that. At a recent Neighborhood Planning Assembly in my ward, the local Burlington Police officer assigned to our area gave a run down of the usual summer house and car break ins ("keep your doors and windows locked") and encouraged the law abiding citizenry to report to BPD any questionable activity on our streets and in our neighborhood parks. Even if it turns out harmless, he told the Assembly, the police would find out what's up. It's the same old shitty fear mongering argument in this post 9/11 Amerika. If the person is not doing anything wrong, he continued (I'm paraphrasing), a good citizen won't mind being asked a few questions by the officer. What's next? Block Wardens? And I ain't talking about the Civil Defense block leaders from WWII; as you walk around the corner, could your activites soon be reported by your Blockleiter? Let's be real, the cop was encouraging the same sort of importunate and dangerous snooping prevalent in Nazi-occupied countries during the same WWII era. In 2008-Burlington, this kind of behaviour can be called an expanded Neighborhood Watch.