{"id":2716,"date":"2009-04-04T11:34:39","date_gmt":"2009-04-04T15:34:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blacknell.net\/dynamic\/?p=2716"},"modified":"2009-04-04T11:34:39","modified_gmt":"2009-04-04T15:34:39","slug":"the-shield-of-incompetence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blacknell.net\/dynamic\/2009\/04\/04\/the-shield-of-incompetence\/","title":{"rendered":"The Shield of Incompetence"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/gadgets.boingboing.net\/2009\/04\/03\/mob-of-britons-block.html\">Rob Beschizza<\/a> on why Britons care about Google Street View, but not the jillion CCTV cameras in the country:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>The thing that amazes me about my homeland isn&#8217;t its willingness to live under state surveillance, but the way we freak out whenever anyone <em>else<\/em> uses cameras in public. &#8220;I was determined to make a stand,&#8221; said one local, who <a href=\"http:\/\/technology.timesonline.co.uk\/tol\/news\/tech_and_web\/article6022902.ece\">helped block a Google Street View car from heading into a Buckinghamshire village<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>My dad, who lives just an hour away from Broughton, suggests that the key to understanding this apparent paradox is in the amused contempt that many Britons have for politics. It&#8217;s not that they&#8217;re sheep: they just think that no matter what powers are given to the police, freedom is guaranteed by the fundamental incompetence of British police. We trust the authorities because the authorities are too stupid and useless to harm us.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>There&#8217;s a certain truth to that, and not just in Britain.\u00c2\u00a0 But surveillance tech is improving, and the delta between its effectiveness and the incompetence of its operators is narrowing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Rob Beschizza on why Britons care about Google Street View, but not the jillion CCTV cameras in the country: The thing that amazes me about my homeland isn&#8217;t its willingness to live under state surveillance, but the way we freak out whenever anyone else uses cameras in public. &#8220;I was determined to make a stand,&#8221; [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"activitypub_content_warning":"","activitypub_content_visibility":"","activitypub_max_image_attachments":4,"activitypub_interaction_policy_quote":"anyone","activitypub_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6,3,14,12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2716","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-policy","category-society","category-tech","category-uk"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t<!-- All in One SEO 5.0.1 - aioseo.com -->\n\t<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Rob Beschizza on why Britons care about Google Street View, but not the jillion CCTV cameras in the country: The thing that amazes me about my homeland isn&#039;t its willingness to live under state surveillance, but the way we freak out whenever anyone else uses cameras in public. &quot;I was determined to make a stand,&quot;\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"max-image-preview:large\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"author\" content=\"MB\"\/>\n\t<meta name=\"keywords\" content=\"policy,society,tech,uk\" \/>\n\t<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blacknell.net\/dynamic\/2009\/04\/04\/the-shield-of-incompetence\/\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"generator\" content=\"All in One SEO (AIOSEO) 5.0.1\" \/>\n\t\t<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n\t\t<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Blacknell.net | Politics, open government, and safe streets.  And the constant incursion of cycling.\" \/>\n\t\t<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n\t\t<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Shield of Incompetence | Blacknell.net\" \/>\n\t\t<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Rob Beschizza on why Britons care about Google Street View, but not the jillion CCTV cameras in the country: The thing that amazes me about my homeland isn&#039;t its willingness to live under state surveillance, but the way we freak out whenever anyone else uses cameras in public. &quot;I was determined to make a stand,&quot;\" \/>\n\t\t<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/blacknell.net\/dynamic\/2009\/04\/04\/the-shield-of-incompetence\/\" \/>\n\t\t<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/blacknell.net\/dynamic\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/IMG_2536.jpg\" \/>\n\t\t<meta property=\"og:image:secure_url\" content=\"https:\/\/blacknell.net\/dynamic\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/IMG_2536.jpg\" \/>\n\t\t<meta 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