Police state benefits

These guys got caught.  The real question is, “How many don’t get caught?”  Via Bruce Schneier we have this from the BBC News:

Peeping tom CCTV workers jailed

Two council CCTV camera operators have been jailed for spying on a naked woman in her own home.

Mark Summerton and Kevin Judge, from Sefton Council, Merseyside, trained a street camera into the woman’s flat.

The images from the camera, including the woman without her clothes on,
were shown on a large plasma screen in the council’s CCTV control room
in November 2004, Liverpool Crown Court heard.

Over several hours, she was filmed cuddling her boyfriend before
undressing, using the toilet, having a bath and watching television
dressed only in a towel.

The problem is that watching the cameras is very boring work. 
99+% of the time there is nothing worthy of their attention.  It
has long been known that the camera operators start focusing on more
interesting subjects–in particular it is attractive people of the
appropriate gender.  If there is a pretty woman within view with
few or no clothes on is going to get the majority of their
attention.  There have even been cases of people being mugged
within the view of a camera while the operator was watching some
scantly clad women on a different camera.

The state can’t protect you all the time without watching and/or
listening to you all the time.  The alternative is to provide for
your own protection and self-defense.  The U.K. subjects have
chosen to, in essence, outlaw self-defense.  That means they must,
if people are to have any security, rely on government.  The
inevitable result is a panopticon society.  Either get used to it or reject government as your primary security source.

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