Wharton on the Paranoid Style and the Surveillance State

From Billy Wharton at the Examiner:

If there is a political crisis, there is an opportunity.  Jared Lee Loughner’s attempted assassination of Representative Gabrielle Giffords in Arizona certainly created a crisis.  The New York Police Department (NYPD) is now ready to cash in on the opportunity.  Or so their recent report entitled “Active Shooter: Recommendations and Analysis for Risk Mitigation,” suggests.  However, this will be a bit of an unusual reward for the men in blue – they score the ideological points while the surveillance industry reaps the monetary profits. . . .

it recommends preventative and preparation measures, both done in fine post 9/11 paranoid style.  For prevention, the NYPD recommends the installation of surveillance cameras that cover all angles in the workplace and feed into a centralized location.  This is a good example of advancing a pre-existing ideological agenda into a moment of crisis.  Quite a financial boon to the surveillance camera makers and to those who wish to have every corner of New York City filmed for the purpose of total surveillance of the population . . .