Abstract

To See or Not to See

The article looks at national security policies in the United States as of June 2004. Boston's Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority announced a policy of stopping people "randomly" to request identification from those whom police believe to be acting "suspiciously". Apparently in response to recent scandals, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has issued a ban on all digital cameras, cellular telephones with digital cameras and camcorders from all military compounds. Police have cameras trained on the public all over New York City. Antiterrorism measures allow law enforcement to "sneak and peek" into private homes and personal computers based on the suspicions of individual officers, without judicial oversight or accountability. Not that oversight will help in a time of panic: As of this writing, an art professor at the University of Buffalo named Stephen Kurtz awaits the outcome of a grand jury investigation into his series of gallery installations protesting the genetic modification of food. Most of us might not mind if guards searched everyone who entered the subway, regardless of race, religion or rank. A random sampling of law-enforcement personnel would no doubt reveal ordinary citizens.