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Death and surveillance

· Privacy & Panopticon · Transport

Indeed. A nice (or maybe not) confluence of vehicles, snapped by me this afternoon in Rochester Row, London SW1:

Death+SurveillanceS.jpg

Click on that to get it bigger, and to read the words on the small white vehicle.

June 3rd, 2011 |

13 comments to Death and surveillance

  • Alasdair
    June 3, 2011 at 9:46 pm

    Is that the ClosedCoffinTV Enforcer checking up ?

  • Z
    June 4, 2011 at 12:51 am

    I remember the first time I saw one of those vehicles driving on the streets when I was living in London…at first I could not believe what I had seen was real, it all seemed too incredibly fascist

  • Single Acts of Tyranny
    June 4, 2011 at 2:49 pm

    Just follow them around for a bit, they find it very disconcerting

  • US
    June 4, 2011 at 8:56 pm

    Being a foreigner and all that, I just need to figure out if I’ve gotten this right: You people have government cars with surveillance equipment driving around the streets to monitor the population?

    If I got that one right, so many new questions pop up – don’t even know where to start. That’s just messed up. FUBAR.

  • Perry de Havilland
    June 5, 2011 at 1:24 am

    You people have government cars with surveillance equipment driving around the streets to monitor the population?

    Yes, just like in the USA.

  • MicroBalrog
    June 5, 2011 at 9:07 am

    In the far distance a helicopter skimmed down between the roofs, hovered for an instant like a bluebottle, and darted away again with a curving flight. It was the police patrol, snooping into people’s windows.

  • the Rook
    June 6, 2011 at 2:45 am

    The Prisoner is in the Village.

  • Kim du Toit
    June 6, 2011 at 2:33 pm

    “Yes, just like in the USA.”

    Photographic evidence of your statement needed, please, Perry. (Doesn’t count if from places not in the United States like NYC, Boston or Chicago.)

  • Perry de Havilland
    June 6, 2011 at 4:55 pm

    Kim, do not all police cars in the USA now have cameras recording everything? Also I recall seeing mobile CCTV vehicles in Washington DC back when I worked near there and that was years ago… I find it hard to believe they have since disappeared 🙂

  • Alisa
    June 6, 2011 at 5:25 pm

    Oh, but Perry, DC is not in the US either:-)

  • Jerry
    June 6, 2011 at 5:30 pm

    ‘do not all police cars in the USA now have cameras recording everything?’
    In three words – no they don’t.

    Also, what do they ‘enforce’ ??
    Clean lenses ???
    And exactly HOW to they back up that enforcement ?
    Harsh language ??

  • Kim du Toit
    June 7, 2011 at 3:31 pm

    Perry, there’s a HUGE difference between the police recording their traffic stops — which actually has the effect of keeping the cops honest — and a government vehicle whose sole function is to record the activities of the population. One records an apparent transgression and the actions of a specific state official in addressing it, the other is universal surveillance.

    The only places where such general surveillance gains any traction at all is in places like Chicago — not part of the U.S. — and similar hell-holes. We recently voted down traffic cameras in our neighborhoods, except where the police could prove that the intersection was a constant scene of accidents — but absent such proof, no cameras allowed, thank you.

    We have a kind of commonsense attitude towards this. We understand why banks and such would want to use CCTV cameras — after all, it’s their own property they’re monitoring. But state-owned roaming vehicles recording everything, “just in case”? Nazzo fast, Guido.

  • bloke in spain
    June 10, 2011 at 2:30 pm

    Not sure, but I think this is one of the methods used to enforce the ‘Congestion Zone’. It reads licence plates.

    Also one of the many reasons I left the UK

    Had to go back there last week. Sheesh! £2.50 to park in at shopping centre for 20 minutes. The sign on the motorway “Don’t drive when tired. take a rest” & the £8 the service area charges if that rest lasts longer than 2 hours.
    This isn’t capitalism & the market meeting needs. It’s pure rent seeking.

    Fled to France, smartish.

    You can keep the dump.

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