London Takes Gold Medal For Creepy
And I’m not talking about the opening ceremonies for the Olympics, although there were multiple moments during that marathon saga of leftist overindulgence that would have qualified. But they pale compared to the creepy reality of the armed fortress of occupation the city has become for the Games.
Let’s start with surface-to-air missiles mounted on top of residential high-rise apartment buildings, and then add the largest military build-up in London since World War II. This from Cracked:
During the games, 13,500 troops will be deployed in London just for the run time of the Olympics — that’s 4,000 more than they had on the ground in Afghanistan in 2011. And these aren’t the across-the-pond versions of the National Guard or anything — Britain’s most badass commandos, the Royal Marines, will be checking tickets at the shot put and waving around those little parking attendant glow sticks. Also, fresh from its last deployment in Libya, the HMS Ocean will be docked in the Thames.
That’s the largest ship in the Royal Navy. Not to mention all the fighter aircraft, helicopter gunships and pilotless drones clouding the skies. On land, sea and air, it will be what the British government calls “maximum” military presence.
Then there are the many and myriad eyeballs that will be tracking virtually every step of the citizenry and every square inch of the city:
The city of London is being wired up with a new range of scanners, biometric ID cards, number-plate and facial-recognition CCTV systems, disease tracking capabilities, new police control centers and checkpoints. All of which will now be under a central control, and yes, that is exactly as sinister as it sounds. This means the cameras are capable of tracking beyond one location — no more frantically checking every screen, trying to pick up somebody who’s walked out of frame. Because the computer does that for you. It can now track individual human beings from camera to camera and plot their progress, location and habits on a live, constantly updating map of Your Business.
The full article includes a few other examples of creepy, and taken together it all seems an enormous scope of security for a city that has received a pile of criticism for supposedly not being up to snuff in it preparations for the Games.
Welcome to the new normal, citizen.
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