The Rise of Facial Scanning Surveillance

Read this today: Facial scanning surveillance becoming a reality in the U.S., new documents reveal

So, readers, having read that, are any of you even remotely concerned?  I know I am.

What scares me is that the definition of "bad guy" could get very slippery. In a way it already is.

I think the following from Skyfall is a very accurate quote:

"I'm frightened because our enemies are no longer known to us. They do not exist on a map. They're not nations, they're individuals. And look around you. Who do you fear? Can you see a face, a uniform, a flag? No! Our world is not more transparent now, it's more opaque! It's in the shadows."

You could get detained because you "look like" someone. And if its false, will the authorities apologize, and what if such a detention affects your life/career?  What then? 

Yet we are almost blindly accepting these things.  That's even scarier. All this is being done in the name of "security", but ask yourself, what are we potentially giving up? I'm not sure I want to know the answer.

Watch Out Criminals - People In Toronto Want To Ban Your Guns!

I was reading in the paper that a poll was done by Forum and of those polled, 75% in Toronto want a handgun ban.

My question is how do these people honestly expect that to happen and actually work?  At best its going to be a feel good gesture that will accomplish NOTHING.  But it will play well with those who fear guns and think that saying guns are banned will mean its so.  I'd almost guarantee a gun related crime within hours of such a law passing.

Apparently people don't understand that such a law is worth about as much as the paper it would be written on.

Toronto can pass all the laws it wants, but the regulation and licensing of guns is a federal matter, and federal law trumps local law.  They can't honestly expect to take legal guns from their owners - there is no justifiable cause, unless some firearm law has been broken.

The people causing the gun crimes - criminals - aren't going to leave them at the city limits of Toronto and certainly won't be surrending them to the police.

And the police just can't start randomly searching people or their homes either.  Constitutional rights come into play.

Enforcement and other programs are the answer here, not knee jerk pointless laws that will do nothing.