Lieberman goes to the right of RW. National Review says his calls for more surveillance is misquided

Keep The Cameras Away

National Review Online: Lieberman's Support For U.K. Surveillance System Is Misguided

July 6, 2007

(National Review Online) This column was written by Jim Harper.
Senator Joe Lieberman, in the wake of last week's terrorist attack on Glasgow's airport and the foiled plots in London, has proposed expanding the use of surveillance cameras nationwide in the U.S. He cites the effective response of British law enforcement to the attacks, and believes that "we can do it without compromising anybody's real privacy." The senator's intentions are noble, but his proposal is badly flawed.

Surveillance cameras do have forensic value that can help authorities catch suspects after crimes have already been committed. The problem with this is that, for obvious reasons, suicide attackers tend not to worry about being caught afterwards. Antiterrorism strategies should be geared toward prevention; that is how lives are saved. The U.K. contains over 4.2 million surveillance cameras — one for every 14 people — and the Glasgow attackers still eluded detection until it was too late. The only reason there were no fatalities was the attackers' own amateurishness.

In a further blow to the perceived effectiveness of surveillance cameras, Clive Norris of the Sheffield University Centre for Criminological Research testified last year that researchers found that Glasgow crime did not decrease after cameras were installed city-wide. It actually increased by 9 percent.

The senator's proposal for stepping up surveillance has other problems besides ineffectiveness. Corruption could become an issue. This has already happened in a number of U.S. cities that have installed cameras at traffic intersections to deter drivers from running red lights.

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Lieberman has become the most disgraceful and traitorous former national-ticket candidate in Democratic history.