New York Republican Peter King calls for ‘more cameras’ in response to Boston Marathon bombing
While the Boston Marathon bombing has shaken the county, one Republican has raced to the front and center of the debate calling for more surveillance.
Peter King told Andrea Mitchell in an MSNBC interview that privacy involves a private location and he doesn’t have a problem with more cameras.
“…I think privacy involves being in a private location. Being out in the street is not an expectation of privacy. Anyone can look at you, can see you, can watch what you’re doing. A camera just makes it more sophisticated, but it’s no different from your neighbor looking out the window at you or a police officer looking at you walking down the street. ”
King continued “… I do think we need more cameras. We have to stay ahead of the terrorists and I do know in New York, the Lower Manhattan Security Initiative, which is based on cameras, the outstanding work that results from that. So yes, I do favor more cameras. They’re a great law enforcement method and device. And again, it keeps us ahead of the terrorists, who are constantly trying to kill us.”
Privacy concerns and civil liberties supporters are already critical of King’s remarks.
“They want to watch you at all times. In addition, they already read your emails and texts’, track your web activity, look at your facebook, understand all your financial transactions, spy on you from all possible angles and then feed all this information into their humongous data centers so they can have a living record of who you are. We should just remove the word “privacy” from the dictionary, because we have none anymore.” – one poster wrote on the Daily Paul.
photo Charles Fettinger via Flickr
TRANSCRIPT:
ANDREA MITCHELL, MSNBC: Congressman, briefly, do you think that this will lead to more cameras? I know it’s controversial, there are privacy issues. Boston does have a lot of cameras. European cities, led by London, have the most. Are Americans going to have to get used to more surveillance on a daily basis?
REP. PETER KING (R-NY): I think we do because I think privacy involves being in a private location. Being out in the street is not an expectation of privacy. Anyone can look at you, can see you, can watch what you’re doing. A camera just makes it more sophisticated, but it’s no different from your neighbor looking out the window at you or a police officer looking at you walking down the street.
So, I do think we need more cameras. We have to stay ahead of the terrorists and I do know in New York, the Lower Manhattan Security Initiative, which is based on cameras, the outstanding work that results from that. So yes, I do favor more cameras. They’re a great law enforcement method and device. And again, it keeps us ahead of the terrorists, who are constantly trying to kill us.
I hope also that members of Congress, both parties, including my own, will realize that the war against terror is not over. And it’s foolhardy to be making cuts in Homeland Security, especially to cities, whose police departments need this to train and to be ready to take on terrorism. (Andrea Mitchell Reports, April 16, 2013)
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