Giving Up Rights for Security in Chicago: A Total Failure

by Gerard Valentino

Chicago is known world-wide for having everything a world class city has to offer. From a great nightlife, to the arts, to ethnic cuisine, championship caliber professional sports teams, great universities and an excellent public transportation network, the city has something to offer just about everyone.

What many don't realize, however, is that Chicago also boasts one of the most intrusive government surveillance systems in the United States.

But, even with the Chicago police using nearly 10,000 cameras to spy on all aspects of life in the city, it is still better known around the world for violence than for being in the same class as New York, London, Tokyo or Paris. Year after year, hundreds of Chicagoans are slaughtered on the city's killing fields, making it one of the most violent places in the United States.

The truth is that bad public policy and anti-gun laws that empower criminals can't be overcome by using cameras to watch every move people make. Anywhere honest citizens are disarmed and criminals can pick a victim at will, there will always be a powerful criminal element. Only by enacting policies that turn the tables in favor of law-abiding citizens can Chicago make headway in the battle against violent crime.

Cameras only serve to give people a false sense of security because many law-abiding citizens think criminals won't commit crimes while under surveillance. Just watching the local news blows that theory out of the water, since there always seems to be a story showing someone robbing a convenience store in full view of the cameras. To be completely honest, there is some evidence that criminals will shift the location of their activity away from electronic surveillance, but there is no evidence that they give up their life of crime when cities employ such networks.

All the cameras in the world can't overcome Mayor Richard Daley's ridiculous decision to cling to the false hope of gun control. Only by returning the right to bear arms to the citizens of Chicago can there be any expectation that the needed culture change will occur, and that Chicagoans will finally realize they have to take back their city from the criminal element.

One tool alone shifts the balance of power in a violent encounter from the criminal to the honest citizen – a firearm.

It's bad enough that the State of Illinois doesn't allow legal concealed carry for law-abiding citizens, but just days after the Supreme Court struck down Chicago's handgun ban, the city enacted strict new gun control laws. For all intents and purposes, the first, last and only line of defense for homeowners is the strength of the locks on their doors and windows.

Once a criminal gets into the home, the situation has only one possible outcome because homeowners lack the means to fight back and the city's cameras are useless. To think criminals in Chicago don't know they have a free pass when committing crimes within the city limits defies logic. But then, thinking criminals will obey gun bans in the first place borders on insanity.

Still, the biggest tangible issue created by the cameras is that citizens believe a city saturated with electronic surveillance is safer than cities that don't employ the same tactics. That simply isn't true, and the Daley administration's assertion that more cameras equal less crime is irresponsible since people might be more willing to take risks in areas under surveillance.

Privacy advocates are quick to point out that widespread use of cameras does irreparable harm to the freedom we enjoy as Americans. But others will argue that it is up to the city inhabitants to decide if they will tolerate the cameras since there is no expectation of privacy while out in public. That issue is always part of the debate over the use of cameras by the government to spy on citizens.

Not surprisingly, most pro-gun advocates see the intrusion as unacceptable and refuse to accept that trading privacy for security is worthwhile. Such an observation is easy to see since most gun advocates view personal safety as a personal responsibility.

In Chicago, giving up privacy by allowing the cameras has no tangible benefit since the murder rate is still among the highest in America. This fact that turns the old saying that 'those willing to trade freedom for security deserve neither' on its head, since Chicagoans are trading freedom away without getting anything in return.

Gerard Valentino is a member of the Buckeye Firearms Foundation Board of Directors and the author of "The Valentino Chronicles – Observations of a Middle Class Conservative," available through the Buckeye Firearms Association store.