Chicago – Nanny State
[From Newsmax.com - Chicago Worst City for Personal Freedoms]
A Reason study ranked Chicago as the worst “nanny-state” based on its regulations in eight areas: “alcohol, tobacco, sex, guns, gambling, drugs, freedom of movement, and a catch-all category of food and “other.” Within each category, we looked at criteria ranging from helmet laws to restrictions on alcohol sales to how aggressively police target recreational activities such as drug use, prostitution, and gambling.”
According to the study, Chicago was the worst:
Chicago finished in the bottom half of all eight categories. The Windy City’s litany of meddlesome laws range from a tax on bottled water to a ban on serving alcohol at all-nude strip clubs. Local gun controls and a public smoking ban are among the most restrictive in the country. (That smoky Chicago blues joint of yore is now just a movie cliché.) There’s a primary seat belt law, meaning motorists can be pulled over for not buckling up, and a ban on using cell phones while driving. The city is second only to New York in the use of surveillance cameras in public spaces and has more red light cameras than any metropolis in the country.
For more on this check out the author of the study has an article in the Tribune, that has led to responses by the Sun-Times and a response by the the author, Radley Balko.
I am bringing this up, because the articles on this topic suggest that the proclivities for camera systems are not entirely about crime, but the type of relationship between government and citizens.
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