80 Eyes on 2,400 People (Alaska and Security Cameras)

Los Angeles Times ^ | March 28, 2006 | Tomas Alex Tizon

[af_vet_rr]

From Anchorage it takes 90 minutes on a propeller plane to reach this fishing village on the state's southwestern edge, a place where some people still make raincoats out of walrus intestine.

This is the Alaskan bush at its most remote. Here, tundra meets sea, and sea turns to ice for half the year. Scattered, almost hidden, in the terrain are some of the most isolated communities on American soil. People choose to live in outposts like Dillingham (pop. 2,400) for that reason: to be left alone.

So eyebrows were raised in January when the first surveillance cameras went up on Main Street. Each camera is a shiny white metallic box with two lenses like eyes. The camera's shape and design resemble a robot's head.

By mid-February, more than 60 cameras watched over the town, and the Dillingham Police Department plans to install 20 more — all purchased through a $202,000 Homeland Security grant meant primarily to defend against a terrorist attack.

Now the residents of this far-flung village have become, in one sense, among the most watched people in the land, with — as former Mayor Freeman Roberts puts it — "one camera for every 30 residents."

Mayor Chris Napoli said the city posted the Homeland Security grant as an agenda item in a council meeting last year. He said the meeting "was poorly attended" — a nice way of saying nobody came. The subject of surveillance cameras was not mentioned in the meeting notice. On June 2, 2005, the council adopted a resolution accepting the grant.

Napoli doesn't understand the fuss. "We had an opportunity to enhance security and we took advantage of it," he says. "I thought we were doing what government officials are supposed to do."

[af_vet_rr]

Some of the comments from townsfolk:

The town leaders "assumed they could put up these cameras and nobody would mind," "Know what? We mind."

"I value privacy. It's the birthright of every American," The surveillance cameras represent "a chipping away of that right."

"It's a Catholic thing," The cameras bolster the sense that "we're not trustworthy."

"Who will be watching the watchers?"

[af_vet_rr]

Even though this town's city council wanted to be just like New York City, it's good to see that there are still people who don't want a surveillance society.

[Sax]

I knew that "I always feel like somebody's watching me" feeling would come in handy some day.

I have years of training and a headstart on all the rest of you!!

[BigBobber]

Nice to know the equivalent of my total federal tax bill for several decades was TOTALLY BLEEPING WASTED on crap like this.

This is government run amok and the Bush administration and Republican congress have to look in a mirror and decide if this is the best way to fight a very real War on Terror.

The odds of me voting Republican in the next election are diminishing by the day.

[NaughtiusMaximus]

"Who will watch the watchers?"

They need to apply for the second round of grants for that.

[af_vet_rr]

This is government run amok and the Bush administration and Republican congress have to look in a mirror and decide if this is the best way to fight a very real War on Terror.

If you saw how much various technology companies were lobbying for the government to push all kinds of high-tech solutions to low-tech problems, it would blow your mind (although it would blow your mind even more to know how various members of Congress respond to these lobbyists, let's just say it's with open arms).

The odds of me voting Republican in the next election are diminishing by the day.

You and me both, although it's not just the direction this country is headed, but a lot of other non-Conservative actions that the GOP is embracing.

In the old days, if you told a Republican "we are going to put up cameras all over the place and watch everybody and everything", the response would have been "the hell you are! We just finished a war against a surveillance-oriented country, Nazi Germany, and now we are fighting a Cold War against the ultimate surveillance-oriented country, the Soviet Union".

Now it's like "okay, whatever the government needs to do to protect us".

[vrwc0915]

Waiting for the bootlickers

Nothing to hide then why worry comrade

[quantim]

90 minutes on a propeller plane

Let's just be thankful they didn't build a bridge instead.

[zeugma]

The solution, of course, is to take a 12-guage to every single one.

[af_vet_rr]

The solution, of course, is to take a 12-guage to every single one.

You sound like one of them there Sons of Liberty terrorists who dumped all of that perfectly good Chinese tea into that harbor there in Boston in the 1770s ;-)

The sad/scary thing is, this city government actually thought "we were doing what government officials are supposed to do." How much of our freedom and privacy is going to be pissed away because of government officials doing what they think they are supposed to be doing, and because the subjects, or citizens as they are sometimes still called, also think that's what they are supposed to be doing.

[FreeRadical]

That the cameras have not been shot is only yet another sign Alaska has pretty much been lost to soft headed, FEDGOV thinking.

I read this article in horror. I have witnessed Alaska slipping away. I have been here 10 years. I have watched the culture be overtaken by freedom phobic, utterly helpless, embarassingly whiny, clearly inferior people. They are of the species sheeple americus. They are the huddled masses of dumb asses that yearn for seat belt laws and cold pill laws and bike helmet laws for their precious little utterly f!!cked kids. ....

yikes, sorry.

/rant

My God, I am a stranger in my own land.

So anyway, the cameras are no surprise, but rather scalding validation of all of the above.

[zeugma]

You sound like one of them there Sons of Liberty terrorists who dumped all of that perfectly good Chinese tea into that harbor there in Boston in the 1770s ;-

They wern't terr'st! Them was injuns! 

[Doomonyou]

Now there's a great use of resources...

[ASOC]

ROTFLMAO

Don't worry, if maintenance is up to usuall bush Alaska standards, most of these cameras will be DOA/busted in two months and never fixed - as is the case for most technology in rural Alaska. You can get money to put it in, but nothing for upkeep.

[af_vet_rr]

That the cameras have not been shot is only yet another sign Alaska has pretty much been lost to soft headed, FEDGOV thinking.

I read this article in horror. I have witnessed Alaska slipping away. I have been here 10 years. I have watched the culture be overtaken by freedom phobic, utterly helpless, embarassingly whiny, clearly inferior people. They are of the species sheeple americus. They are the huddled masses of dumb asses that yearn for seat belt laws and cold pill laws and bike helmet laws for their precious little utterly f!!cked kids. ....

My God, I am a stranger in my own land.

The scary thing is, we are into or close to having a second generation of people raised in America, thinking the government will protect and provide, and that things like cameras watching everybody all the time will become the norm.

I can't imagine what this country will be like three or four generations from now. It could cause one to drink.

[af_vet_rr]

Perhaps they should just fly a UAV around the city.

[freepatriot32]

your tax dollars at work

Libertarian ping.To be added or removed from my ping list freepmail me or post a message here

[endthematrix]

I got a giggle from the "Surveillance Camera Players" way back when. They'd perform in front of the cameras doing skits with funny placards...over at www.notbored.com

[flying Elvis]

Homeland security grants is one of the biggest boondoggles to ever come down the pike. I don't suppose they have a website that lists all of the grants they have handed out? If they did I imagine it would make Boss Tweed blush with shame.

[af_vet_rr]

Homeland security grants is one of the biggest boondoggles to ever come down the pike. I don't suppose they have a website that lists all of the grants they have handed out? If they did I imagine it would make Boss Tweed blush with shame.

Some FReepers would jump all over you if you had a site listing all of the pork, I mean grants, that have been handed out by DHS, because, you know, it would be violating all kinds of national security measures. We mustn't know where the money is going or how much is being wasted on piddly little crap like this.