When I lived in Lancaster, I had on average one car window broken out every 12-18 months. Nothing stolen, just vandalism for the fun of it. insurance never paid. Repair always came out of my pocket. I used to call it the vandalism tax. Drive around town early Sunday morning, and you should be able to easily find ten other cars with similar vandalism. Still, I resist this kind of surveillance. Sure, in a public place, there is no expectation of privacy, but 24-7 surveillance is ok only for God, and Santa Claus. It's a matter of trust, really, trust and politeness. Although I've lived here nearly all my life, I've never taken a picture of one of the Amish. They don't want to be photographed, and I am willing to respect their wishes. To be watching all the citizens 24-7 basically says that all are untrustworthy. Some are untrustworthy, but the ones who are trustworthy can be forgiven for resenting the lack of trust. Of course, the founding fathers felt that only a moral society was able to be a free society, as then individuals restrained themselves. This kind of surveillance is always evidence that a society is lacking the moral underpinnings to self-regulate. It can be as simple as the Hippocratic oath statement, "First, do no harm", or the golden rule. Now, instead of self-restraint, and self-discipline, we see narrcissism. I want something, so I steal it. I don't like you, so you must die. So we all end up as prisoners in a zero tolerance prison that used to be a medium sized town.
