Disturbing to a degree... scan a crowd and know most of the people in it, pick some one out for one reason or another... Police by and far are already overbearing and down right corrupt. (I wanted to say "lately" but in all honesty, I can't think of a period in history where people in power have NOT been corrupt and overbearing.)
The ideas proposed are all reasonable "we just want to capture the criminals" but it seems like the idea of what a criminal is, is ever expanding. I'm sure just about everyone reading this has committed at least one crime this week, if not hundreds. Giving the government the ability to solve and prosecute even the most pathetic annoying misdemeanor seems to turn every citizen in to a wanted criminal.
Just remember how easy it is to commit a "felony" and the fact that if you are a felon... you are no longer a full citizen. You cannot vote, you cannot fight, you cannot own a gun (in most states) you cannot do many things. Also they seem to make becoming a felon even easier every year.
This all just goes to a very very bad place in my mind and the talking head speaking for the FBI doesn't make it any less disturbing. Most of what he said was empty nothings designed to deflect and distract from the questions.
I think this sums it up perfectly: CONAN: It's interesting, Ozzie Nelson, particularly facial recognition seems to have a little bit of a creep factor for most people.
NELSON: Well, it is. I mean - and there's no doubt that this has a big brother aspect to it, you know? But again, the idea that, you know, in 2014 that the FBI is going to flip a switch on and, you know, 40 million cameras are going to start watching people for dropping gum on the sidewalk is a little Orwellian, and I don't think the intent of the program. Again, this is an outgrowth from the (unintelligible) program, which is based on the fingerprint, it's determined - it's meant to find criminals and to bring those people to justice.
And I think we have to stay grounded in this conversation. Again, it's so important that we don't run to our respective corners and then try to have the conversation from there. We have to have the conversation in the middle because we have to solve this. You know, we saw with Congress with the rhetoric floating around there, we can't get the solution. Every day that we don't put policies in place or laws in place to guide how we want to do this, whether it's in the private sector or the public sector, we're putting the nation at risk, not only from a security perspective but also from an economic perspective.
