Civilians Run City-Wide Surveillance in Pennsylvania Town

People, and I say that very respectfully as we are all human beings, listen to what you are saying...

...you are complaining about losing your privacy. If you are out in public, going shopping, going to a friends home, going only you know where, doing what you are doing, you are in view of of EVERYONE else that is looking. What is private about it? Once you leave the privacy and sanctity of your own home, you are now in what is called THE PUBLIC VIEW. Do you really care that everyone else outside in the public view is looking at you? Do you bash everyone on the street that looks in your direction for fear that they are "invading your privacy"?
For everyone that dresses nice, wears make up, puts on nice jewelery, has to have the latest fashion or at the least is color coordinated when they leave their homes, a question for you. Why do you do that??? It's not so you may look at yourself. It is so that others that see you IN PUBLIC see that you care how you look and so that you may appear as attractive as possible to those that are looking. What is private about it?? Do you complain when you shop at the local grocery store, the local convenience store, the upscale department store or when you make a trip to the bank?? Why not?? You are under constant surveillance there but you don't cry foul.

I agree that camera surveillance COULD, in the wrong hands, be used for heinous reasons but, in todays world and in todays society where people lack care and empathy for their fellow human beings, we live in a world that WE have created. Think about the multi-billion dollar satellite systems that are in orbit for a minute. What power they have to target, track and even assist in the annihilation of a single human being from miles above the earth without so much of a cry of foul all because it is out of sight and out of mind.

Come on. Use your heads and stop whining about what is not fair and what the government or other people are doing to invade your privacy or to deprive you of what you think are your God given rights. Most of you sound intelligent enough so if you would put that energy and thought into providing solutions, we wouldn't have so many problems to start with. The majority of people want someone to do something about the issues and the problems that we are all faced with everyday but no one wants to step forward and collaborate with others to find a solution that is suitable for everyone's liking. Do something. Be proactive and stop watching from the sidelines just waiting for your chance to cry foul. Crying foul and complaining breeds more whiners and complainers. Do something.

Let's hear how YOU would resolve crime. Let's hear how YOU would bring about peace. Let's hear how YOU would fix the nations problems. Let's hear what YOU would do instead of complaining about others trying to do something because YOU didn't. When you become a victim of some "meaningless infraction" or God forbid a more heinous or vicious crime that impacts you and/or your family or a good friend and there are no cameras around and no one saw anything (as is usually the case), you will cry foul then and will attempt to point the finger and the blame at someone else for not doing something. Wake up. You cannot have it both ways. Take responsibility, take action. Use your ideas and thoughts to help those few that are trying to help thousands.

Also, as an added comment here...

...there are quite a few folks here mentioning the fathers of our nation.

Do you forget that people in todays world aren't like those that lived in those times? Do you forget that people today don't care about other people the way they did then? Do you forget that we don't live in the 1700's or the 1800's anymore? Do you forget that you were born into this world and that you have been handed what was created for you and that it is up to YOU and your fellow man to make it what it is? Do you forget that it is YOUR choice to keep it the way it is or to help change it? Do you forget that those great people from that era were human beings just like YOU? Do you forget that those great people from that era were not perfect, just like YOU? Do you forget that the people that lived in that era (our ancestors), wanted to create a lifestyle and a nation that they could gladly and happily leave to their decendants to improve upon? Do you forget that it is in YOUR hands?

Stop quoting the past and say something that will be remembered and worth quoting when you too are gone...
Stop watching what others did and do something yourself...
It is in our hands now to make the world a better place to live, not for those of us that are here, now, but for our decendants to come...

Hey, ready for a really shocking truth? Here it is:

The Founding Fathers were not gods. Again:

The Founding Fathers were not infallible, not omniscient, not omnipotent.

Quoting something that someone said two centuries ago does not constitute a response, does not prove any measure of correctness. Present your own argument, for God's sake! I don't care if you truly believe that everyone alive today is inferior to Ben Franklin (which, by the by, is in my opinion a very terrible way to look at the world) -- you need to argue your own points.

In response to Mr. Franklin, though:

Your statement requires a mutual exclusivity between liberty and security that does not exist, especially in relation to the concept of public and private areas. When in public, one does not retain any expectation of privacy, and thus to give up security would be to allow lawlessness where lawlessness is not permitted, without any measurable adherence to the people's privacy.

Put another way: cameras in public have a measurable use (surveillance allows for an increase in both preventative threat of punishment and post facto punishment for crime), with no measurable infringement upon the rights of law abiding citizens. Any argument to the contrary that uses the example of surveillance empowering a corrupt government is assuming a corrupt government, something against which out Constitution theoretically protects (split power, checks and balances, the power of the people to resist forcefully, et cetera). It's not the cameras to which you are taking offense, but rather the extreme and flawed uses of said cameras. That same objection could apply to anything in the world -- guns can be used for murder, thus should be illegal, forks could stab someone in the eye, thus we can't have forks... et cetera. And none of it is valid. At all. Logical extremes can't be used in a situation like that. And yet, people still insist.

Also, to: Pmhorizons...

Oops. Apparently the second bit of that comment didn't get posted...? Anyways, I meant to thank you for saving me a good deal of typing. Well put.

If you ever walked through downtown Lancaster, you'd want cameras watching the people around you. These aren't Amishmen hanging out on the street corners.