Bloomberg: Get Used To Big Brother

The Little Oligarch had a wet willie this morning talking about surveillance and drones and all kinds of other spy equipment and how wonderful that stuff is going to make the world:

Envisioning a future where privacy is a thing of the past, Mayor Bloomberg said Friday it will soon be impossible to escape the eye of Big Brother in the city.

“You wait, in five years, the technology is getting better, they’ll be cameras every place,” Bloomberg said during his weekly radio appearance. “Get used to it — whether you like it or not.”

The Police Department already has a network of its own surveillance cameras throughout the city, including in Times Square. And in Lower Manhattan, an initiative developed after 9/11 known as the “Ring of Steel” integrates the NYPD’s cameras with those of banks and other institutions.

The security measures have drawn scorn from some civil libertarians — but Bloomberg scoffed at privacy concerns on his Friday morning program on WOR-AM.

“The argument against using automation is just this craziness that 'Oh, it’s Big Brother,’” Bloomberg said. “Get used to it!”

In the future, the cameras won't just be limited to buildings and red lights. Some of them will be able to fly, the mayor pointed out.

“It’s scary,” he said. “But what’s the difference whether the drone is up in the air or on the building? I mean intellectually I have trouble making a distinction. And you know you're gonna have face recognition software. People are working on that.”

Bloomberg warned that drones would be able to peep into a home’s windows — adding that Peeping Tom legislation could help maintain some privacy.

“It's just we’re going into a different world, unchartered...,” he said, adding that you “can't keep the tides from coming in.”

 

Gee, what a great world Bloomberg envisions.

 

I bet many in the oligarchy class like that vision.

 

Total control, total surveillance.

 

What's scary is how Bloomberg thinks that's just inevitable and nothing can be done about it.

 

Here's a guy who wants to get guns out of people's hands even as he and his fellow oligarchs use drones to spy on everybody.

 

Total control, total power.