New York City is known as a target for terrorists, but the protection the NYPD is trying to provide is a little ridiculous, over the top and frankly, Orwellian in nature. The NYPD employs more than 35,000 cops to protect approximately 8.3 million citizens and at least in Manhattan, we are treated to "parades" with 5-20 police cars that zip through the city with their lights on, supposedly to drill in the event of the next attack. Although it looks foolish, the parade is ok with me, the program that will photograph every single automobile that goes into the city is a whole other ballgame.
From Fox 5:
Improved terror security in New York City could involve photographing the license plate of every vehicle entering Manhattan and scanning the information.
The NYPD is considering the plan called Operation Sentinel.
The license plate information would reportedly be stored for at least one month in a lower Manhattan facility.
Security cameras already watch wide swaths of the city and this just adds another layer of surveillance to our daily lives. Slowly but surely, we are becoming a real-life version of 1984 or Gattica. It would never happen all at once, but this is how the stripping of civil liberties gets done.
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