Vidiot has started up a flickr site where we may participate in the surveillance of surveillance cameras. Watch back, as it were.
I've never really understood the purpose of surveillance cameras. They certainly don't prevent crime, since crimes ranging from convenience store robberies to terror attacks still occur in openly and notoriously surveilled locations (see: London subway bombings). They're not always useful in tracking down a criminal either, as many criminals will take out the camera or disguise themselves knowing they're being taped. And being able to produce a picture of a suicide bomber after the fact is pretty useless, obviously.
So what are they for? I say to provide entertainment for security guards. Because air-headed preoccupied people like me keep forgetting I'm on camera. The fact that I'm being taped in the lobby, on the subway platform, in the changing room, never registers until AFTER I've painstakingly rearranged my underwear, or burst into a spirited Neil Diamond medley, or decided to take advantage of an empty, mirrored elevator to 'figure out' how that woman in the Ludicris video shakes her ass with such mind-numbing velocity.*
*Note to Ahmed, my most beloved and cherished building super/surveillance camera operator friend, you keep my little booty-licious moment on the QT, and I won't tell the big boss about the unusual smelling tobacco you and DJ D smoke in the basement. Alaikum Salaam, my bother.
Posted by Antigeist at August 10, 2005 10:48 AM