Let’s look at evidence:
Not as bad as China yet, but getting there. That’s the influence of a concerted global authoritarian campaign for you.
Don’t see what this has to do with police. CVS put that up to scare people away, just like they put up that sign that clearly didn’t work.
Policing is not just limited to police. Unfortunately, this is an example of quite literal corporate overlording. Soon they will be one in the same, a manifestation of the military-industrial complex, where corporations happily surveil in support of and in tandem with law enforcement.
As a reformed loiterer, I welcome our new Police, Inc. overlords. (/s)
Anyone have any evidence of the security cameras doing this? I can’t find any, but I don’t have much time to dig.
There’s security cameras where have speakers to state “Hi, you’re being recorded.” due to the fact that if a private property wishes to record the public who enter, they must be given notice for consent in my state, as it’s a two party consent system. Being on the property with the notice is considered consent.
I don’t see why they couldn’t make systems that state “You’re being watched, do not loiter.”
It was a disingenuous post. They compared a CVS security camera to mainland China. This is a leading question and shouldn’t be posted by a journalist. She is leading the reader into thinking this is a question of US surveillance vs CCP surveillance, but it isn’t. It’s just some shitty corporate choice.
I agree that corporate v. state actions are definitely important to distinguish, but in the US, corporate malfeasance is left untouched and unpunished by the state so often that the line between the two is pretty damn blurry.
*Also, thinking on it a bit more, it’s not like the surveillance is inaccessible to the state, either. If cops subpoena the footage, or even just ask for it, they’ll almost certainly get it from a corporation. So this is more so just a layer of obfuscation from direct state surveillance, with the added nuisance of harassing people for standing on the sidewalk for “too long”.
It’s not like that corporations have historically been bedfellows with the American Government. Never heard of PRISM myself. It’s also not like local and state officials can ask for the recordings to be handed over to them.
Corporations watching the public is not better than when governments do it. Personally I like my right to exist without people constantly watching me, and I don’t act like it’s better if the people watching me wave a country’s flag or a corprate logo.
This particular CVS has had aggressive panhandlers in front of it for years. There’s also one of those high pitched squeal sound devices nearby. Not saying it’s right, but I’m not surprised they installed this.
All countries are occupied countries. We’re all under the occupation of the oligarchy.