Fascism, the marriage between the state and private entities, is a lucrative business for both parties. Sadly, unlike mutual exchange, fascism involves more than the exchangers, it involves everybody who falls under the tyranny of the state, and those people always suffer from the unholy union. Last year Microsoft and the New York Police Department (NYPD) announced their partnership in expanding the police state. The two collaborated to create the Domain Awareness System, a system that integrates city-wide surveillance technology to assist the state in spying on the general populace. As it turns out this marriage stands to be very profitable for both parties as other cities are looking to implement the system:
A unique public-private partnership that joined gut-level police acumen with advanced computer algorithms is proceeding toward two goals that rarely coincide: The policing system is making New York safer and it will also make money for the city, which is marketing it to other jurisdictions.
In the six months since the Domain Awareness System was unveiled, officials of Microsoft, which designed the system with the New York Police Department, said they have been surprised by the response and are actively negotiating with a number of prospective buyers, whom Microsoft declined to identify.
“The interest from the United States has come from smaller municipalities, from sheriff’s departments, and police chiefs from several major cities,” said Dave Mosher, vice president of Microsoft Services. “Outside the U.S., large sporting events have approached us, and also law enforcement — people who are interested in providing public security.”
Buyers would pay to access the software (at least several million dollars and more depending on the size of the jurisdiction and whether specifications have to be customized). New York City will receive 30 percent of the gross revenues from the sale of the system and access to any innovations developed for new customers. The revenue will be directed to counterterrorism and crime prevention programs.
The state loves surveillance because it offers a method to expropriate wealth from the general populace without having to hire and pay additional enforcers. I’m not even slightly surprised that Microsoft and the NYPD have been met with such high demand. Let’s face it, most municipalities are hurting for money. The only way those books can be shored up is if more wealth can be expropriated from the general populace. In order to increase expropriation the governments of those municipalities must increase taxes, increase the number of issued citations, or both. Technology like the Domain Awareness System assists in increasing the number of issued citations because it allows enforcers to see more taxable vices (speeding, parking violations, etc.) and record evidence for a court case if a citation is challenged.
There is some goods news. Surveillance systems are vulnerable to a type of exploit known as smashing cameras and audio recording devices.