Dan's Papers - August 24, 2007 - Walk Tall and Smile Out on the Beaches of Southampton

It was announced last week that Southampton Village is going to install live Internet cameras at Coopers Beach and at Agawam Park and that they have intentions of putting in more cameras in the future. The reason is so that police officers and village officials can keep an eye out for illegal activities that go on down at the beach. The cameras will provide live feeds to the village police department all of the time. This means that police will be able to monitor everything that goes on, including criminal acts such as vandalism or underage partying at the beach.

These cameras will also provide a live feed to anyone with a computer. This means that if you are not careful, you could become an online Internet porn star, if you do something you might only do in private. Be warned.

In all seriousness though, Mayor Mark Epley is truly taking some initiative and the program will be an excellent source of information and also an excellent deterrent for criminals. Last summer a rash of robberies started happening at beaches because people would walk on the beach and leave their purses or handbags in their cars and criminals would steal them. It took constant police surveillance in unmarked police vehicles and cooperation with both East Hampton police and Southampton police to bring the thieves to justice, but the process took a month. Having cameras there would have made such a case a lot easier and give police more manpower and more resources to focus on other crime in the area.

Everybody is talking about the advantages of having such cameras in Southampton, mainly for law enforcement purposes, but also, according to Epley, as a promotional tool for the village that will allow people to check the waves at the beach from their computers. They are also looking to have cameras setup where frequent ongoing vandalism happens.

And so, you can all breathe a sigh of relief in Southampton because Big Brother is watching (insert scary music here) you.

With everything that is going on in the world, the news has sparked gossip in Southampton about privacy, especially in the wake of the new federal laws that allow the government to wiretap your telephone without a warrant. This can be scary stuff if you are talking about Sake Bombs at Mt. Fuji in Southampton on your cell phone and the next thing you know you are whipped up in a CIA helicopter for your first, or if you are a high roller, your ten thousandth helicopter ride out of the Hamptons. Only this time you are gagged and blindfolded.

But the program should do the village some good. After all, lots of places have cameras for security purposes. Nearly every business on Main Street keeps a security camera handy, as well as a lot of private homes in Southampton. So why not let the government do the same? As long as they are not putting cameras in the bathroom, I'm all for it. The real question is, will Southampton go too far?

Could these cameras be the start of a bigger, broader scheme of public control by Big Brother, I mean Southampton Village? You never know, it could be happening already. If you haven't noticed, it would appear that Southampton is already identifying who people are and where they are from. For example, if a Southamptonite is walking around town wearing Armani, Chanel, Gucci, Prada, Versace, or Ralph Lauren and are driving a Mercedes, BMW, Maserati, Ferrari, Audi or Lexus they are immediately labeled and identified by the local authorities and are ticketed. Oh sure, they say it is because they don't have a beach sticker or are parked in front of a fire hydrant, or are parked in one spot for too long but we all know the real reason.

Big Brother has gotten so bad in Southampton, that if your name isn't on a list at any sort of function or event in, you can't even get into it unless "they know who you are." If that's not Big Brother, I don't know what is.