Telegraph – Sadiq Khan is joyfully expanding our surveillance state
What’s really going on with Sir Sadiq Khan’s introduction of live facial recognition cameras to Oxford Street? And why are they suddenly being rolled out on the London Underground – despite a trial on the rail network that misidentified an innocent person and failed to flag anyone of interest to police at all?
It’s the dawn of the “virtual prison” in Britain. But don’t just take my word for it.
The Mayor of London has announced that live facial-recognition surveillance will be used with permanent CCTV cameras on London’s Oxford Street, as part of the transformation of the UK’s most famous shopping street into a pedestrianised zone. For the country that produced Orwell, and Huxley, there is a unique eeriness about the shadow of dystopian mass surveillance hanging over such an iconic location. Weren’t we warned about this?
Live facial recognition is pervasive in China, where it’s used for authoritarian law enforcement, public shaming and racial profiling. In the UK, it’s being used for everyday policing and it’s being rolled out very gradually. When recently explaining the plans, Sir Sadiq said “what we do not do is a big bang” with the cameras because “it would be a disaster”.
Quite right. So the frog is being slowly boiled, but the goal is now clear – live facial recognition is becoming a permanent fixture on our gargantuan CCTV network.
The sinister expansion of AI mass surveillance is happening at the same time as the total breakdown of our criminal justice system. That breakdown will soon culminate in the early release of 5,000 prisoners into the community. And so it seems Britain is being turned into an open prison.
That might sound extreme but that’s only because this transformation of our country genuinely is extreme. The Home Secretary, Shabana Mahmood, talks of “virtual prisons”, managing offenders in the community rather than prisons using tech and GPS tagging. She even said her “ultimate dream” was to turn Britain into a “Panopticon” using live facial recognition, alongside other forms of AI and technology – so that “the eyes of the state can be on you at all times”.
The replacement of the law of the land with the eyes of the state encapsulates Britain’s current transformation. The people on facial recognition watchlists are generally well known to the police – that’s how their photos get on there. They may be subject to court orders, civil orders or bail conditions – and “vulnerable people” as well as victims of crime can be added to watchlists too. The majority of people on the watchlists are not wanted for arrest, but people the police want to check on.
It is a horrifying vision of policing for the future – and absolutely galling for politicians and police lazily to cite “tackling violence against women and girls” as a justification for this mass surveillance in the same week as the sentencing of Simon Levy. Levy was so disastrously “managed in the community” that he was able to sexually assault at least 10 women on the London Underground, violently rape several women and murder two women.
Clearly, the problem isn’t that police can’t find offenders – it’s that they don’t know what to do with them. Experts say his case is the tip of the iceberg.
People might feel differently about live facial recognition if police reserved it for the most serious cases – such as hunting for fugitives, or searching for a suspect in the wake of a terror attack. But to integrate it into everyday policing, especially at a place like Oxford Circus where muggings, shoplifting and assaults take place in broad daylight and police rarely do much about it, smacks of a show-pony policy that distracts from the total breakdown of policing in the capital.
Throwing open the prison doors and then hoping people known to police walk past facial recognition cameras is fully automated incompetence. It is the unravelling of the social contract, the collapse of the rule of law and the demise of liberty that citizens of a free country are supposed to be able to enjoy safely.
Live facial recognition cameras will keep us no safer. They discourage police from proactively policing, from putting officers on the streets, or from proactively seeking criminals at their homes and workplaces. Instead, they result in police officers glued to tablets, waiting for an algorithm to flag someone of interest on the street.
And who among us really trusts police with such an extraordinary mass surveillance tool? The Metropolitan Police, we recently learnt, spent four months investigating a journalist for sending questions to former Cambridge professor Jason Arday about allegations of plagiarism. The force tasked five of its armed police officers to arrest a comedian for posts on X about trans issues. It is a force that arrests around 1,500 people a year for speech offences.
This slow replacement of targeted policing with a digital catch net not only makes us less safe. It makes us less free. In a country covered with live facial-recognition cameras, we become a nation of suspects constantly walking through a digital identity parade. The presumption of innocence that underpins British liberty is becoming a forgotten relic.
As the prison walls are coming down, so is the wall between innocent and criminal – the liberties that we’re all supposed to enjoy are being stripped from us under the banner of “safety”. When millions of innocent people start having to pay the price for the criminal few, the fabric of our liberty is lost.
– Silkie Carlo
Telegraph – Sadiq Khan is joyfully expanding our surveillance state
The post Telegraph – Sadiq Khan is joyfully expanding our surveillance state appeared first on Big Brother Watch.
Source: https://bigbrotherwatch.org.uk/blog/opinion-pieces/telegraph-sadiq-khan-is-joyfully-expanding-our-surveillance-state/
Anyone can join.
Anyone can contribute.
Anyone can become informed about their world.
"United We Stand" Click Here To Create Your Personal Citizen Journalist Account Today, Be Sure To Invite Your Friends.
Before It’s News® is a community of individuals who report on what’s going on around them, from all around the world. Anyone can join. Anyone can contribute. Anyone can become informed about their world. "United We Stand" Click Here To Create Your Personal Citizen Journalist Account Today, Be Sure To Invite Your Friends.
LION'S MANE PRODUCT
Try Our Lion’s Mane WHOLE MIND Nootropic Blend 60 Capsules
Mushrooms are having a moment. One fabulous fungus in particular, lion’s mane, may help improve memory, depression and anxiety symptoms. They are also an excellent source of nutrients that show promise as a therapy for dementia, and other neurodegenerative diseases. If you’re living with anxiety or depression, you may be curious about all the therapy options out there — including the natural ones.Our Lion’s Mane WHOLE MIND Nootropic Blend has been formulated to utilize the potency of Lion’s mane but also include the benefits of four other Highly Beneficial Mushrooms. Synergistically, they work together to Build your health through improving cognitive function and immunity regardless of your age. Our Nootropic not only improves your Cognitive Function and Activates your Immune System, but it benefits growth of Essential Gut Flora, further enhancing your Vitality.
Our Formula includes: Lion’s Mane Mushrooms which Increase Brain Power through nerve growth, lessen anxiety, reduce depression, and improve concentration. Its an excellent adaptogen, promotes sleep and improves immunity. Shiitake Mushrooms which Fight cancer cells and infectious disease, boost the immune system, promotes brain function, and serves as a source of B vitamins. Maitake Mushrooms which regulate blood sugar levels of diabetics, reduce hypertension and boosts the immune system. Reishi Mushrooms which Fight inflammation, liver disease, fatigue, tumor growth and cancer. They Improve skin disorders and soothes digestive problems, stomach ulcers and leaky gut syndrome. Chaga Mushrooms which have anti-aging effects, boost immune function, improve stamina and athletic performance, even act as a natural aphrodisiac, fighting diabetes and improving liver function. Try Our Lion’s Mane WHOLE MIND Nootropic Blend 60 Capsules Today. Be 100% Satisfied or Receive a Full Money Back Guarantee. Order Yours Today by Following This Link.
| Visits: | 1,833,686,092 |
| Stories: | 8,713,979 |
Whistler Blowers, Insiders
