The eye of the law follows us everywhere we go, we are caught on camera up to 300 times per day in the city. Mobile phones track us from satellites in space.
Our lives are inscribed in documentation, they report to explain what kind of person we are, but how much can they explain what we are? They can only tell when we were born, what job we have, what benefits we receive, if we drive, where we travel, when and why we die. Not our personality, looks, or anything about us as a human.
Also money is all-powerful in our western capitalist society and the more money someone has the more powerful they are. They can get various advantages from the power the money brings. However the rich and powerful are still subject to things that everyone is for example they still age.
An early form of surveillance occurred during the 19th century when scientists studied the faces of ‘criminals’ i.e. pickpockets, prostitutes, thieves, drunks or beggars. They took photographs of all the criminals and then merged their faces together and designed a ‘perfect’ criminal type, which people should look out for. But this is ridiculous, how can there be a criminal type.
Something that I found shocking was the elimination of ‘undesirables’ from Los Angles and California. These areas aim to be perfect and in order to achieve this they have to be one of the most ordered spaces on earth. The LAPD is organised like the army and aim to keep the unwanted out. The park benches are tramp-proof, which means the benches are so uncomfortable they are impossible to sleep on and sprinkler systems are turned on all night so homeless people could not sleep there. Shop doorways also have inbuilt sprinkler systems so people cannot sleep in them. There is no public transport system and unless you can afford a car you can’t travel anywhere. Restaurant dumpsters have locks on them so homeless people cannot eat the food remains from the rubbish, even though it will only go to waste.
I couldn’t believe a society could be this callous to try and get these people to move elsewhere and remove them from their ‘perfect’ society. This seems like a total denial that people like this even exist and will ruin the city for the rich people.
