Civil Liberties for Sale

One of the objections to the mayor's congestion pricing scheme is the fact that it would entail the placing of thousands of cameras on the streets. As The NY Sun reports this morning, Assemblyman Richard Brodsky sees this as an unacceptable Big Brother policy that will lead to unwanted surveillance on New Yorkers.

And civil liberties attorney Norman Siegal agrees. He sees the cameras creating a "serious and substantial" civil liberties concern. What does the NYCLU say about all of this? Well, absolutely nothing it seems, because Donna Lieberman was hiding under her desk when the Sun's Annie Karni called her for a comment. Could it be the $10,000 the organization received from the Bloomberg Foundation?

It's hard to see any other explanation since the NYCLU was screaming bloody murder last fall when Speaker Quinn proposed security cameras as part of her comprehensive night life safety bill. Now, however, Lieberman has been stricken with lock jaw, another example of the nefarious influence that Bloomberg's money plays in the city's political process.