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# Big Brother must be stopped
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/big-brother-must-be-stopped-editor/
- Published: 2007-10-04T15:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-24T03:10:09.000Z
- Author: Guest Author
- Tags: Opinion, Santa Monica, #archive-import

*By Miriam Jaffe Santa Monica*

So the city of Santa Monica has decided to join the list of cities that photograph their residents with those creepy Big Brother cameras installed at intersections (“Drivers to pay for pushing it,” Sept. 27) I don’t see how this can be viewed as anything but an enormous threat to our liberty. In Chicago and London, for example, public cameras have proliferated out of control, and now spy on citizens virtually every step of their day. This is how it starts, folks.

Sure, as Mayor Bloom says, (red-light cameras) might make some intersections safer. But couldn’t this argument be used to justify cameras at every intersection? Why not cameras along all streets to catch jaywalkers? Isn’t saving one life worth sacrificing all our privacy and liberty? Once the city gets hooked on this as a source of revenue, the possibilities are endless. And isn’t just about every totalitarian measure initially justified “for the good of the people?”

Government cameras spying on citizens are, in my opinion, simply incompatible with a free society, and should not be passively accepted by Santa Monica residents. In the long run, they will almost assuredly proliferate, and be used for even more intrusive, nefarious purposes.

Personally, I feel much more threatened by government cameras spreading into all areas of public life than I do by a few less-than-careful drivers. If an intersection is particularly troublesome, why not post a traffic officer for a few days per week to improve driving behavior? Why can’t we simply accept that an occasional accident is an unfortunate part of life, and not try to fix every risk we face by sacrificing more and more of our freedom?

If Santa Monica is so concerned about our well-being and safety, why does it continue to allow jet fuel exhaust to be spewed on its residents from the SM Airport? Oh, I forgot, jets produce revenue, as do drivers who get fined as a result of these cameras. Follow the money, as they say.

Judging the relative dangers between the public cameras versus other drivers is, at least for me, easy: Big Brother is, hands down, the greater threat. The price of freedom is eternal vigilance.

I urge every Santa Monica resident to call their mayor and councilperson to voice their opposition and, hopefully, outrage against this obnoxious intrusion into our daily life.

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on October 4, 2007.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/100407.pdf?ref=smdp.com)