Peace officers come in handy when the neighbors are target practicing at 2 AM. I really don't want to pack my piece over and tell them to stop disturbing the my peace.
The elderly can't take matters into their own hands against 4 twenty year old's stealing their lawnmower. The whole idea of an elected peace officer was to keep the peace.
Now about the cameras going up on all four corners of every overpass and intersection. They can stuff those. Yeah, they may have the technology to use insect size drones, but using them to fleece people's wallets for traffic violations by openly infringing on the right to privacy? It's just like wiretapping. Yes they could always do it, but could they use it in a court to remove a persons freedom without a warrant? I feel the same way about video surveillance.
Private citizens and businesses can place cameras up like decorating a Christmas tree. That's their right, but the government doing it and admitting to it, then using it to harass and jail the people is wrong.
Everything can be faked on voice and video now. They should never have that power in the first place. It belongs in the hands of the people.
LOL I am all too familiar with neighbors target practicing during the wee hours. Since just pointing out, in a friendly way, that I work for a living and need to sleep, has never failed to produce the desired quiet, I've never needed to call military forces in to enforce my will.
You make a profound point regarding the elderly, and those otherwise not physically able to enforce their personal peace. While Peace Officers are indeed intended to serve that need, they have clearly been subverted by parties interested in imposing their will on the community, rather than sticking to their knitting.
I reckon this is the way of government. Family and neighbors are less subvertible, and I recommend good neighbors over mercenary forces.
As to whether gummint has any authority to surveil the public, it doesn't matter anymore. Yes, it's wrong, and they shouldn't do it. Do you expect them to stop?
Me neither.
Technology keeps making cameras cheaper, smaller, and better. Our cell phones are a great equalizer. How many cell phone videos have you watched that alerted you to some crime committed by jackbooted thugs?
25 years ago the number was zero. 25 years from now, I think the ubiquity of cameras hot linked to the net will make corruption either impossible, or extremely difficult, and even more dangerous to the corrupt.
Whether we want it to happen or not, the sun will shine, the Earth will spin, and (if we're lucky) we'll get older. The power to surveill will inevitably get into the hands of the people, because there is no way to stop it from happening.
Maybe we'll get lucky before it just isn't avoidable any more, and some enterprising politicians will make it happen sooner. Couldn't happen soon enough for me.