Crime videos are now being uploaded to Internet video services like Youtube as video vigilantes share globally what they see locally.
The print edition of Wired has a short piece on people who form a new class of citizen watchdogs. People like Kathy Kozan (lakestreetlookout), Jimmy Justice (jimmyjustice4753) and Oceanside Gangbuster (osidegangbust) all post to Youtube in an effort to make public the criminal activities that others would keep private.
(Mobile video crime busting)
Are they concerned about blowback from people who don't want to be taped? As Oceanside Gangbuster remarked in a Youtube comment:
"Has anyone ever smashed your camera so that you dont have any evidence? "
Haha, anyone who tries to touch me would be hospitalized and I'd have the video here within an hour. If it ever happens I'll make it my main video.
I think David Brin called this one in his 1990 novel Earth; oldsters wore special goggles with True-Vu lenses:
"Watching, all the time watching... goggle-eye geeks...
What brought on Crat's sudden outburst was the sight of yet another babushka, glaring at them from a bench under one of the force-grown shade trees...
Her True-Vu's burnished lenses didn't really have to be aimed directly at them to get a good record. Still, she jutted out her chin and faced them square on, aggressively making the point that their likenesses, every move they made, were being transmitted to their home unit, blocks from here, in real time.
(Read more about True-Vu lenses)
Thanks to Tim Roberson for the tip on this article.
Scroll down for more stories in the same category. (Story submitted 12/28/2007)
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