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Cameras shifting the focus
• I AM concerned about John Reid’s plans to use CCTV cameras with loud speakers to publicly reprimand people committing ‘anti-social behaviour’. I am against this measure as it treats us like prisoners, not like citizens.
Who decides what anti-social behaviour is? Who defines whether a group is threatening? Can we be reassured that those who are employed to watch people come from a variety of backgrounds that reflect gender, race, religion, etc?
John Reid stated that “it’s very public, it’s interactive”. How is it public and interactive?
Michel Foucault, a philosopher, highlighted that the way in which the state exercises its power has a deep impact. This measure will alienate certain inner-city areas further.
However hard you try these things will always be with us. My concern is that by trying to eliminate the unavoidable, we will do ourselves, as individuals and a society, great damage.
TOM GRANGE and ROB SPENDER
Address supplied
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