It's Fine, I'm Just Taking a Video.

[XLFD]

If You're Not Doing Anything Wrong, What's the Matter?

 

Some of the people that believe having cameras in certain public restrooms in Ludington, some pointed inside the toilet stall area, is rather obnoxious of our City government.  When you have one pointed at the side of you while you're relieving yourself at the urinal in the men's room at the waterfront park, have a hidden camera inside the vent that can record activities in the stall, or have a camera trained on you so that you can stare eye to lens when you're sitting on the toilet, you can easily believe that the City has gone too far in the security of a rest room that hasn't apparently even been vandalized since its inception over 12 years ago.

 

 

But some people defend the violation of your privacy in the rest room.  When City Manager Jim Miller had these placed in two different public bathrooms (at least), he defended their installation even when the ACLU thought it was too intrusive.  Over the years, they have been either forgotten, unnoticed, or ignored by our citizens and our guests when they use these restrooms, but such cameras, covertly placed in an area where privacy is reasonably expected is too much.  Even if our current city manager, police chief and others who know the capabilities of these cameras don't think so. 

City Official Wallace Cain famously said that there is no expectation of privacy in a public bathroom.  One can only wonder if he would be so apathetic if there was a man wielding the camera shooting videos while he carried on his business inside one of these bathroom stalls? 

 

Enter Surveillance Camera Man

 

A rather intrepid cameraman conducted a variety of social experiments where he did just that.  He went around shooting videos of people, mostly in public, but some at private businesses, and compiled them in several short videos.  He called himself Surveillance Camera Man (SCM), and would only comment in the briefest way possible when people would ask why they are being filmed. 

 

 

His main point seems to be illustrating how people don't really notice how much of their life is being filmed until they actually see a person behind the camera filming them.Oddly enough, people that work in jobs where they are under the watchful eye of a security camera all day, along with just about everyone else were very offended by being filmed directly by SCM, most resorting to threats of calling the police or direct violence. 

 

Only one of the subjects filmed seem to be OK with it, and she had an ulterior motive.   Otherwise, all of these people, whether they were in a public street, sidewalk or park (many likely covered by fixed surveillance cameras) or in a private business or vehicle considered it an intrusive act that they sought to avoid.

 

So, would those who think surveillance cameras are okay in Ludington public bathrooms-- pointed at them while they defecate or urinate or do whatever they needed to do in an area they may have thought was private-- tolerate having Surveillance Camera Man following them around there or anywhere else?  I surely don't think so.

 

In the first video, Surveillance Camera Man goes to a college campus to take videos, to show the point that there's cameras, cameras everywhere...

 

In the second video, and perhaps his best, SCM hangs around some parking lots and sidewalks catching what frequently is caught by unmanned security cameras.  He even captures an arrest in progress about halfway through:

 

In the thrid video, he trains it into a building which probably has a good share of private surveillance cameras.  He gets in his share of scraps, including some with the Scientology people, chinese Mah Jongg players, and plenty of security guards.

 

In the fourth video, Surveillance Camera Man, keeps doing his thing, and he runs into a lot of people who want to prevent him from invading their space.  Calm down.  What should they be worrying about if they are doing nothing wrong?  He revisits the Mah Jongg players with the same result.

 

[Willy]

This is a great study in human psychology. If there is noone behind the camera people are not offended but if there is someone attached to and visible behind the camera folks get perturbed. Out of side out of mind so to speak.

[XLFD]

That's why I shared it, and made the connection with our bathroom toilet situation.  Can you imagine someone following and filming (like SCM) one of our City leaders who believe that bathroom stall cameras are not an invasion of your privacy?  I bet they would have a reaction involving them invoking their reasonable expectation of privacy.

Maybe someone should try it as an experiment, and post the product of their work here.